In 100 years, will it matter?
I believe it will. Even if only on a micro-nano-level, every action we take in this life will create ripples of consequences in other lives, now and/or in the future. And conversely, every such action is essentially a consequence of an action taking previously, by ourselves or by others.
Call someone an idiot, and you reveal something about yourself: you deserve sympathy. Someone or something made you feel hostile, and you felt the need to vent. Who knows what led to the action that led to that hostility? But by the same token, who can say what consequences will spring therefrom? Who knows where it started? How many lives ago? Who knows where it will end.
The Sutras tell us that suffering yet to come may be averted (Chapter II, Verse 16: Hayam Dukham Anagatam). But this can only happen through the avoidance of contact with pain. We can't keep bad things from happening to us. But we can learn to view those things with equanimity. Suffering is merely our perception of aversion to experiences that don't meet our expectations, or our attachment to experiences that give us pleasure. We can practice non-attachment and non-aversion. We can recognize that a well-placed insult can have far-reaching consequences. And then we can take it a step further and view others with equanimity and compassion and an understanding that we all have one basic thing in common: to feel okay. And then maybe the well-placed insult doesn't ever reach our fingertips or our lips.
YC
6 comments:
Hi,
you are letting peoples comments on your blog play uneccessary head trips with you.I agree with one of your previous commentators: Why even give what they write anymore space?
And By the way calling someone an idiot does not always mean that there is something wrong with the person who vents the comment. George Bush most certainly is an Idiot no?
Remember you are writing for you and just because someone disagrees with you in a negative way doesnt mean that you must acknowledge that. Just ignore those folks, delete their comments if you'd like and get on with your own thing. There will always always be detractors.
good luck,
Laura
id have 2 agree with the previous poster. surely you have used harsh words in describing others, I have seen it on your blog. It doesnt mean much, it's just your or someone's opinion.Whether it says something about your character is subjective. People can't really know you from reading an edited web-site.
Re-positioning a persons comments in a new essay seems soooooooooooooooo silly. If you believe you are doing good work, then don't let people's picking on you get to you so much.
You have better things to do!
It is one thing to note that George Bush an idiot - it is another to tell a person that she is an idiot. I see a difference there in the potential for harm to the person being called an idiot, whether it's George Bush, me or anyone else.
I don't mind that you may not see it that way - I enjoy the dialogue here, even when it is scornful of me. I mean that sincerely. It gives me food for though. It wakes me up. I use the comments as fodder for future postings that interest me - constantly talking about my dog, my kids, my Mari C bores me to tears. This stuff gets my blood circulating.
Remember - I was a lawyer from 1990 to 2002. I LOVE dialogue, especially written dialogue.
And I am sure there are those who just won't believe a word of what I am saying. That's fine. It will just be more for me to address in the future.
YC
With all due respect Lauren, but we have some mutual friends/coworkers/former bosses in common and you have certainly been one to say some pretty mean and gossipy things about others.You certainly don't practice what you are trying preach to others so stop trying to pretend. It's no ephiphany, we are all human and we all mess up and say things that are not nice. So lighten up and stop trying to lay judgement or write some deep psychological analysis about someone who writes you a very simple insulting comment.
Anyone that is calling you names on this thing is probably someone you've said nasty things about already so I am sure the hostilty you read is well directed. No need to play self righteous victim. Just let it pass.
Concern yourself with the positive people that enjoy what you write.The more you focus on the non positive people the more it looks like you just want the attention.You, and probably everyone that reads this board are all too old for that kind of behavior.
sorry to sound so preachy myself!
L
Yes, Laura, you are right about things I have said (AND done) in the past. Of course I don't always practice what I am "preaching" here because I am only human, and I mess up BAD sometimes.
But I do think that it is okay for me to try to sort out what I think is the ideal for myself to live up to, and for me to do that here (of course I think it's okay, or else I wouldn't do it).
No one likes to be insulted. I am just trying to turn it into something useful, something I can learn from. That doesn't make me a self-righteous victim. Of course, you are entitled to see me as playing that. And one of us will eventually let this pass. Or maybe we will keep talking about this until we're old and gray.
One thing is for sure - I don't take it all that seriously. I'm having a good time. If I wasn't, I would be doing something else.
YC
Once a lawyer, always a lawyer.
Write THE book and then go back and try another speciality in THE law.
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