this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
450 points (97.3% liked)

Greentext

4437 readers
874 users here now

This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

Be warned:

If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works
450
Anon seeks enlightenment (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 6 months ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
44 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] papalonian@lemmy.world 195 points 6 months ago (13 children)

I'll posit a (very poorly and drunkenly abridged) story from the Buddha that I actually think of on a somewhat daily basis, in contrast of all the Buddha-bad comments:

A man approaches the Buddha in the city. He says to him, "I hate you Buddha, you are always telling people how to live their lives and what they need to do to be happy, how can you have all the answers?"

The Buddha says, "I will ask you a question. If I give you a gift, would you accept it?"

The man says of course he would not.

The Buddha asks, "If you do not accept my gift, then to whom does my gift belong?"

The man says, "The gift belongs to you, because I did not accept it."

The Buddha replies, "Then I treat your hatred as a gift. You offer me anger, and I do not accept it; therefore, your hatred and anger belongs only to you, and only you may suffer it's consequences."

So when people get angry at me over things that are beyond my control, I reject their anger, let them yell at what they think is the problem, and move on.

Then the Buddha punches me in the face and I am enlightened.

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 10 points 6 months ago (5 children)

As heartening and insightful as this story might be, I find it difficult to imagine that someone with this much hate would at the same possess enough composure to state his problem clearly, take part in the Buddha’s spiel about it, and then not punch him in the face at the end.

And I’m not suggesting that this would be a better outcome by any means, rather, that stories like this are sadly sometimes woefully inadequate to deal with the amount of anger and rage that continues to pervade modern society.

[–] 0xD@infosec.pub 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You're missing the point. This is about the Buddha not accepting the hate and thus not being frustrated over it.

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today -3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No I get that. I’m just saying in a real life situation, the other guy might not give a damn about whether you accept his hate and let you have it anyways.

[–] DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That doesn't matter, Buddha DGAF

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I mean, there IS the story of Angulimala, a vicious murderer who had already slain 999 victims and was looking to make it a round thousand when he ran into the Buddha, but try as he might, he could not catch up to him, even though the Buddha was walking calmly.

So clearly, he does indeed NGAF because he is in possession of some mysterious force powers likely reserved only for the enlightened, but what is an average person to do in such a situation?

[–] DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 months ago

Laugh at their stupid anger? Fuck em dude, I do this shit regularly, it's not worth getting upset over. I work in IT, dealing with ignorant angry people daily.

You can win them over sometimes, but sometimes they're just an inconsolable asshole and that's really more of a them problem than a you problem.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)