The Dog That Weeps

This is taken from my virtual garden on Obsidian and refined slightly. But it largely remains imperfect and is a reflection of my views and headspace at that time and, when I have the time, I would like to return to it and form a more in depth and structured piece around it (specifically mentioning the idea of "purification" as I feel I only indirectly touched upon it). It's fairly raw and not something I have ever really shared until now. 

The first section is my initial notes on the source material, whilst the second section is my application of the quote into a real world context.

Thank you for reading :)

The Dog That Weeps

> "The dog that weeps after it kills is no better than the dog that doesn't. My guilt will not purify me"

I often see this quote at the centre of dispute around its "anti-growth" message. I personally think that it is only anti-growth if taken at face value and that, when properly considered, is actually more encouraging of growth if anything.

The quote states that neither dog is better, but it never states that they are the same. The dog which weeps is different to that which does not as it experiences guilt, showing its capacity for change.

The guilt that the dog experiences encourages it to follow a new path, one of growth. The dog can ignore this and continue down its path of destruction/ violence and pointless guilt, or it can choose to embrace it and begin to change.

If the dog decides to follow this path, its past will not change and should be remembered separately, but its present is to be celebrated and accepted.

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The Path Of Personal Growth (in the context of hateful behaviour)

Everybody is imperfect to some degree, and all in different aspects. Imperfection is perfectly normal in the vast majority of cases. However, there are, of course, scenarios in which this imperfection is harmful for the imperfect person and/ or those around them.

An all too common example is seen through bigotry and hatred, in which some people are hateful toward others for any number of self-justified reasons. This is inherently harmful and leads directly to the suffering of others.

Some people who are guilty of these actions come to the realisation that they are immoral and harmful, and desire change.

It is important to be compassionate in this phase. It is easy to attack them for their actions the way they have attacked others, but if we truly want for these behaviours to end we need to treat these people compassionately in order to show them the alternative.

It is important for the person to remember their past, though nobody should use their past in order to put them down or attack them. It should instead be used as a tool to encourage others to grow, and to celebrate the growth of that person. The person should be proud of their present and how it is different to their past.

It is vital that hatred is not used to attack those that themselves perpetuate it if the cycle is to truly be broken. Compassion and empathy prevail over hatred and demonstrate the positive that we are all capable of.