--- In [email protected], "Paul Mason" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > TurqB, mine's a capuccino. > What you are going on about people trying to avoid personal > criticism by deflecting it on to others, it reminds me of > something that > happened a while back, something that still galls me... > I was walking along a pavement (the stip of pathway running down the > side of a road & reserved solely for pedestrians) and I was shocked > to find a car backing down towards me at speed. Though I hardly had > time for evasive manoevures I jst managed to dodge out of the way in > time. I then whacked my hand on the car to gain the driver's > attention and pointed out to him that he had come that close to > mowing me down. > And do you know what he does? Does he apologise? Does he try to > explain his actions? Does he heck? Instead he shouts and gestures > angrilly denying everything. And do you know what seems to get to > him most is the fact that I touched his vehicle! > Now, as this incident happened a while back, I have had time to > reflect on this ^!*?*$'s behaviour. I think what happened is that he > chose denial because he feared any confession might be used against > him.
Or, more simply, he is so self-obsessed that he cannot conceive of his actions being inappropriate. That seems to me to be closer to the phenomenon as we see it on "spiritual" Internet chat groups. If you'll notice, the people who do this rarely, if ever, admit to making mistakes, except for minor ones regarding misreported facts. It really never occurs to them that they *could* possibly be wrong, so obviously it's someone else's fault. > Clearly, this car driver's behaviour stems from a misplaced self- > interest, as does Rama's, with his brushing off personal criticism > as 'Anti-Buddhist'. > But, I'd like to know what, if anything, is actually achieved by > such > twisty behaviour? Personally I think that in spite of deflecting > attention from their own misbehaviour they eventually pay the price. > Even the mighty fall - for surely none can dodge the karma? Well, in his case I'd say he paid the price for some of his less-than-thought-through behavior. :-) To his credit, he did many things well. He was one of the most brilliant teachers I've ever met, able to not only talk about spiritual concepts, but to give you the direct experience of what he was talking about as he talked. And he did a lot of nice things for a lot of people. But this was balanced in my opinion by buying into his own PR and starting to believe that he was "special," and "deserved" things that less special people didn't deserve. I think that the circum- stances of his death speak more eloquently of the karma of such a notion than anything I could say would. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Check out the new improvements in Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/6pRQfA/fOaOAA/yQLSAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
