Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Matthew 5:7
In a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, called “The White Snake,” a man acquires the ability to understand the speech of animals. In this, he hears about their predicaments and distress. He helps fish, ants and ravens when they’re in trouble. Then later in the story, they rescue him when he’s in various dire situations.
I remember years ago reading in Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search For Meaning” (1984) an account of a doctor who had the opportunity to go with a group escaping a Nazi concentration camp, but he went back to help sick people instead. This saved his life, as the group actually went to their death.
On a personal note, I can tell a story of the result of having a lack of mercy in which I was trampled by a horse. My friend and I, as teens, were trying to put a bridle on the horse so we could go riding. This tricky mare didn’t want to participate. We’d coaxed her into the barn. My friend had the bridle. The horse faced her, and I went around the horse’s back end and stood in the doorway to block her from going back to the pasture.
What was I thinking?! This horse was more than three times my size. The horse just turned around, knocked me down, ran over me and out the door. Fortunately, I wasn’t injured more than bruising, and that seemed lucky.
I was having no mercy for the horse, and she didn’t show much for me. Hopefully I have more horse sense now.
Mercy, if considered from a Taoist orientation, can be a fierce weapon of inner warfare. It requires humility and flexibility. To deny the ego its desires for power is a way to gain victory for the soul’s deeper purposes. When the ego harmonizes with the soul’s desire, everything goes better.
Works Cited
Frankl, Victor. Man’s Search For Meaning. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1984.