S3raphita , I feel you are being quite saintly in taking notice of the
circumstance. Yep, it is just another sign of bad upbringing and the failure of
our schools and society. Including fault of all those collectively standing
around smirking who without initiative themselves or had the opportunity in
their own lives to pursue the proper upbringing of virtue of spiritual life
themselves and all those who who may know better will themselves not going out
even on a limb to help anyone other than themselves in their own material world
of widget worth.
I sense saintly virtue in you that you would even notice the collective
failure in this incident in this poor unlucky youth. The shoplifter is just
another index showing the lack in our meissner-like collective transmission of
collective consciousness of virtue in life. You are a teacher of the absolute
wisdom in life are you not? A transmitter of spiritual virtue? It makes sense
that you are sensitive to what was in that public scene. It is now the age of
science and it is neigh time they put quiet-time meditation in to the training
of all our children in their schools, if their families can not provide it for
their own children if not just to save us all. To save us all from this
vileness otherwise there is a place for public education in these sound values
of life. All it takes is some quiet-time. It pisses me off too to watch the
smirking jerks as you point to, like some even here who would actually stand in
the way and fight what is such evident science and get in the way of the larger
transmission of virtue in life. Yep, all those smirking jerks all watching the
theatre of this youth being taken off should all be sending checks of donation
as a matter of character to the David Lynch Foundation to help in the trenches
in the fight against all that is vile in life. The teaching of and learning of
the transcendental meditative state is the inalienable right to be guaranteed
of every human being born in to this life. That is the first right that needs
to be first guaranteed to every child growing up. Teaching of effective
transcending meditation in all our schools is now the scientific standard of a
proper education and should be all our public's policy regardless. I commend
you for bringing this sad story to our attention here at FFL. You are a saint
in reaching for the transformation that awareness can bring. It would be
cruelty to know the great virtue of life and not say anything or do anything
about this situation. Thanks for bringing this to our attention here. It will
likelymake us all better for it in pursuing our spiritual practices as we go
about our daily lives. Thanks, you are a saint.
-Buck
s3raphita writes:
Today I was walking past a department store when a sudden commotion caught my
attention. A young man was being frogmarched to a waiting police car by two
constables - obviously he was a shoplifter who hadn't been as careful as he
should have been. But what appalled me was that everyone around me - fellow
pedestrians, people in coffee shops, those waiting at the bus stop - were
almost universally smiling and exchanging knowing glances. I've noticed that
reaction countless times in similar situations. But me: I just felt depressed.
Here was a youth, perhaps on his way to prison. His mum and dad and sisters,
his other relatives and his friends would be shocked and saddened by the news
of his arrest. What is there to smile about for God's sake? It's a reaction
I've noticed about other misfortunes. People see drug addicts in the final
stages of degradation and judge these unfortunates as being "losers". I see the
same people and wonder what sexual or physical abuse they suffered as children
- or maybe as adults they encountered some other misfortune, perhaps having to
see a loved one die slowly and painfully of cancer - and think to myself how
lucky I am that I have never had to cope with such trauma. So is Seraphita a
saint? Not bloody likely. I am as selfish, as self-centred, as narrowly
concerned with my own well-being as anyone. The difference seems to be an
ability to enter imaginatively into the suffering of others and appreciate what
a raw deal they had. Of course, some shop-lifters and drug addicts are complete
saddos and probably need a kick up the arse and told to get a grip. But many
will have just been unlucky - and luck plays a dominant role in all our lives.
Imagination is often dismissed as idle fancy but really it is a faculty in
which we grasp real aspects of the world - just like perception and reason. But
perhaps another cause for people to enjoy the misfortunes of others - complete
strangers at that - is that they are unhappy ("The mass of men lead lives of
quiet desperation." - Thoreau) and seeing someone worse off than themselves
gives them a boost. They suddenly see that their own lives could be even more
miserable so for a brief moment they can feel complacently self-satisfied.
Alas - according to Nietzsche - pity is just cruelty disguised. There's a lot
to be said for that view - just observe carefully how your friends and
colleagues savour reports of disasters on the latest news bulletins while
convincing themselves how compassionate they are. So what can we conclude? That
Seraphita is a hypocrite! Heads you win; tails I lose.
