No matter what other people do, you have to have goodwill (mettā) for them.

"The Buddha often puts endurance together with another quality, which is goodwill [mettā]. No matter what other people do, you have to have goodwill for them. He talks about having goodwill as large as the Earth, as cool and as wide as the River Ganges. No one can make the Earth be without earth; no one can set the River Ganges on fire. Make it like space. People can try to write things in space, but it doesn’t stick. You can take a pen and wave it around in space, and the ink doesn’t hang there in the air because there’s nothing there for it to stick to. You want to have a mind like that. When people say things, it doesn’t reverberate, it doesn’t stick.

Most of us have a mind like a big sheet of paper. If anybody has a pen anywhere nearby, it’s like a magnetic sheet of paper. It pulls the ink out of the pen and becomes an indelible stain.

So when that happens, you have to remind yourself: Who are you going to blame? You’re the one who made your mind like magnetic paper. Try to make your mind like space, where things don’t stick. In that way, it’s a lot easier to have goodwill, even when other people are misbehaving or behaving in ways you don’t like. It helps you keep a larger perspective."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Harmony"

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