True beauty conforms to mankind’s deep nature. Love and altruism are beautiful, while hatred and jealousy are ugly. Just look at the way the former beautifies a face, while the latter disfigures it.  True beauty is in harmony with wisdom and compassion. When we meet a remarkable, radiant human being, we intuitively know that we are in the presence of a beautiful person, whose genuine goodness radiates from his or her face. True beauty is the face of a good heart.

The closer we come to our ultimate nature, the more we discover the inner beauty we all have. Ignorance is simply being unaware of that fact. We are like the beggar who does not know that a crock of gold is buried under his hut. To thread the a genuine spiritual path is to retake possession of that forgotten treasure.

“Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others.”

Denis Diderot

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”
Gandhi

“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money”
Cree Indian Chief

By asking forgiveness, the criminal cannot hope to escape the consequences of his deeds, the gravity of his actions or the atrocity of his crime. Perhaps a truly repentant criminal should not even ask for forgiveness: having realized the depth of his crime, his main efforts should be to try, humbly but to the full extent of his abilities, to create a counteracting goodness for the wrong he has done.
When speaking of forgiveness, one also should distinguish between punishment and vengeance. Society has a duty to protect people from being harmed, but has no right to exact revenge. Whether it is murder or legal execution, any killing is simply wrong. Neutralizing and preventing harm does not require vengeance and retaliation.
To react instantly with anger and violence when harm has been inflicted is sometimes considered brave and courageous. But in truth those who remain free from hatred display much greater courage. An American couple went to South Africa to attend the trial of five teenagers who had savagely and gratuitously killed their daughter in the street. They looked the murderers in the eyes and told them: “We do not want to do to you what you did to our daughter.” Similarly, the father of one of the Oklahoma bombing victims said on the eve of the verdict: “I don’t need one more death.” These were not insensitive parents. They simply saw the pointlessness of perpetuating hatred. In that sense, forgiveness is not excusing the wrong that has been done: it is completely giving up the idea of taking revenge.
Forgiveness does not
mean “absolution,” for one cannot fool the law of cause and effect. Someone who has perpetrated hateful acts will suffer accordingly over many lifetimes, until he has exhausted the negative potential of his deeds. Considering such a person, a Buddhist will have clearly in mind that the one who did harm is bound to undergo suffering to a degree determined by the measure of his actions. This will arouse not just a cheap pity for the murderer but compassion for all sentient beings, knowing how, until they become free from hatred and ignorance, they perpetuate an endless cycle of suffering. In short, contemplating the horror of other’s crimes should enhance in one’s own mind a boundless love and compassion for all beings, rather than hatred of a few.
Altruistic love is the ultimate weapon against hatred. A human being is not basically bad, but can easily become so. Our real enemy is therefore not someone else but hatred itself. There cannot be outer disarmament without inner disarmament. Each and everyone must change, and this process begins with oneself.

From a Buddhist perspective, at a personal level forgiveness is always possible and one should always forgive. Although many claim that one has no right to forgive harm that has been done to others, one must consider forgiving in terms of the well-being of society. Society does not need the kind of forgiving that goes with lack of concern, leniency, or even worse, that is an endorsement of the evil that has been done to others. That would leave the door open for the same horrors to happen again. Society needs forgiveness so that grudges, venom and hatred that will inevitably mature into new sufferings are not perpetuated. Hate devastates our minds and causes us to devastate others’ lives. Forgiving means breaking the cycle of hatred.
As an individual can fall prey to hatred, so can a whole society. Yet hatred can disappear from people’s minds. A stream can become polluted and poisonous, yet it can be purified again. Without the possibility of inner change, humankind would be caught in an inescapable whirlpool of evil, a self-defeating despair. A Buddhist saying goes, “the only good thing about evil is that it can be purified.” Human beings can change, and if someone has truly changed, forgiveness is not indulgence toward his past deeds, but an acknowledgment of what he has become. Thus, forgiveness is intimately linked with the possibility of human transformation.
From a Buddhist point of view, the basic goodness of a human being remains deep within, even if he or she deviates into a very malevolent person. The simile given is that of a piece of gold, which remains unchanged even when buried in filth. There is always a possibility of cleansing the filth. This does not amount to ignoring the base quality of the filth, but to knowing that it can be removed and that the gold within it can shine again.
(to be continued)