Rachel Bitecofer offered the “Pivot and Attack” strategy When there’s a Trumper at Thanksgiving. Then an enlightened friend of mine pointed out that this combative approach would “humiliate him and make him even more entrenched in his anger, resentment and general assholery. A food fight accomplishes nothing — just bad karma all around.”
That made me stop and re-think.
I asked myself, “What if instead, the Buddha came to Thanksgiving where a braying Trumper was spewing his anti-abortion, election-denying, anti-science venom? What would that be like? How could I be like the Buddha?”
Patience
The Buddha is an enlightened and happy being. He would contemplate the bombastic Trumper with selflessness, detachment, and thoughts of love and nonviolence. The Buddha can see that the Trumper shrieking about C.R.T. and trans kids has a delusional mind, a mind of ignorance. The Trumper will suffer from bad karma.
Clearly, the malevolent Trumper is engaging in non-virtuous actions:
- Lying. Leave no one with a mistaken impression about what you know to be true. Until we communicate clearly in this manner, no one will believe what we say, even if it’s true.
- Divisive Speech. Never speak in a way that contributes to separateness between individuals or groups, including on social media. Until we end this behavior, it will seem like everyone around us is constantly in conflict.
- Harsh Speech. Avoid swearing, being crass or using sarcasm. Until we refrain from speaking this way, unpleasant noise will disturb our environment.
The Buddha would exercise one of his most potent weapons: patience. Buddhism teaches that true patience is an active engagement with the present moment, a willingness to accept things as they are, and a compassionate response to the suffering of others.
It is true that:
- “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” —Leo Tolstoy
- “To lose patience is to lose the battle.” —Mahatma Gandhi.
- Patience is when you’re supposed to get mad, but you choose to understand.
- Patience and determination alone are omnipotent.
The Buddha would not want to retaliate because anger causes bad karma. Anger brings more suffering. Anger is having a bow and arrow and shooting your foot.
Instead, the Buddha would respond with compassion. He would view the Trumper as a person who is sick, harming himself, and bleeding from his mind. The toxic Trumper is angry, bitter and depressed.
The Buddha would respond with a virtuous action. “Would you like another delicious slice of dinner?” the Buddha would ask.
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Well who invited him/her to dinner??
I would say Jim/Sally you have your opinions and I have mine. We see the world differently. How about we discuss this after dinner in the living room if you wish.
I think I would prefer if we focused on good thoughts. Do you agree??
Peace!
Buzz Davis
I think we have a lot of “lost” people in the US. We probably always have – lost in religion that sees anyone else who does not believe as I do as an enemy. Or lost in a rigid political party which sees any who do not believe as we do, enemies. Or lost in thinking one type of car versus another is a sin, etc.
These people are always with us and clever devils are always trying to wind up such true believers. Right now we have a batch of men and women on the right, funded by very rich persons who hide their donations, who are very good at winding up millions of people with untruths and magic thinking.
One group of men (and maybe a few women) who were excellent at does this was Hitler and his band of the weird.
And now we have Mr. Trump who gets positive vibes from reading and watching films of Hitler some say.
These are just humans and we come with all different types of thinking and emotional systems. Societies have tried to use religions to control and calm people. This does not work real well. Democratic societies try to use education or public education to help people learn how to think and act. Education works a bit better.
But boy of boy some men and few women really end up as political or social weirdos.
The Buddha is a smart guy. He understands that obnoxious behavior is not the way to solve a problem. Buddha as a companion to Trump is quite a contrast.
I would probably have to do the pivot before i became a buddha…..
I couldn’t agree more. This is why no war and no amount of violence will ever bring sustained peace.