What do you do, when those who are supposed to stand for law and order go against them, by harming you and others? Do you simply give in to their warped ‘law and order’ silently? If so, is this not being complicit, in going against actual law and order, while letting the lawless and disorderly proliferate?
Save yourself, so that you can report the lawless to the lawful, to save others later. The challenge is to do so lawfully… lest conditions are such that ‘bending the law’ is needed to uphold it. The difficulty is in bending without breaking it, in terms of the precepts too. That crucial is to not become the lawless and disorderly too.
As Nietzsche warned, ‘He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.’ To not become a monster, even when dealing with the hateful, never be hateful like them. As the Buddha warned, ‘Hatred never ceases through hatred.‘
Even when force is needed to defend and apprehend, never use it hatefully. There should only be monsters on the other side; not on your side too. And if the abyss of darkness is seen, it is so as to not fall into it, to not become one with it. Stay in the light by staying upright. Never lose your humanity to those who have lost theirs.
