Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00239)

(Second try with more Mindfulness. . .)

Paul, my prediction is that you will never find a method--thick
skin, thin skin, or whatever--to deal with UNEXPECTED hostility
after it has come your way.  If we could somehow easily dissolve
the consequences of imperfect Mindfulness, there would be no need
to perfect Mindfulness, would there?

Here are a couple of possibilities to consider:

1.  Perhaps you were not fully Mindful of how threatening the
writing of a book like THE MASTERS REVEALED could be to certain
individuals.

2.  Perhaps you were not fully Mindful of how easily some of
these individuals could give themselves permission to be unkind.

If you had been fully Mindful of these things--but nevertheless
chose to write the book and intereact with these individuals
afterwards--you might have EXPECTED everything which has been
coming in your direction.  You might have even been satisfied in
a perverse sort of way--since you would just be receiving
something you had EXPECTED, after all.

Now, of course, you have some "karma" to deal with.  You can
choose to fight back and forth, trying to think of good responses
to ever-evermore snideness following evermore snideness, or you
can just quit.  If I were you, I think I would just quit.  If
people want to talk to you about your book, let them first
qualify themselves as meditation-developed thesophists by being
able to maintain at least a minimal standard of courtesy and
kindness.

EXPECT that the majority of on-lookers will understand and
commend your silence.  .  .  .

Best wishes,

Richard Ihle