I am so annoyed by stupid, superficial, arrogant and godless people on the Internet who pose as \u201ccompassionate\u201d and \u201ckind\u201d, but who are in fact everything but. Honestly, I don\u2019t think they would be able to recognise actual kindness and compassion if they saw it; in fact, I think they would condemn it as some kind of evil.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s actually very hard for me to define kindness. I can recognise it when I see it, but definitions are tricky, as they have to be accurate, specific and exclusive \u2013 basically, they need to say what something is, but not by being so broad they are useless. They need to exclude all the similar things something is not<\/i>. In this case, a definition of compassion needs to exclude all the things that look like compassion, but are in fact not.<\/p>\n
So, let me think about it. Compassion is samyama<\/i> on a person. If I had to explain it to a non-yogi, I\u2019d say samyama<\/i> is to \u201cgrok\u201d something or someone, to understand the inner nature of a thing or a person by means of being. Kindness is now easy to define; from a state of compassion, kindness is to give someone that which he needs to become more of self; to exceed limitations and attain realisation of one\u2019s true nature (or, should I say, attain realisation of God’s true nature). Kindness, in essence, is what a bodisattva<\/i> or a dakini<\/i> does and you are awakened from an illusion and prodded forward on a path toward buddhahood.<\/p>\n
Making \u201cpoor you, I\u2019m so sorry for your predicament\u201d statements is neither compassion nor kindness. It\u2019s a manifestation of narcissism, nothing more. You just wish to be seen by others as a good and compassionate person, in a value-system where those are desirable qualities that elevate one\u2019s social standing. People making such statements don\u2019t really care if they actually helped someone; they just want to be seen as well-meaning and helpful, and in reality they never touch the actual person they are talking to, nor would they wish to. It\u2019s like one of those formal greetings, where you say \u201chow do you do\u201d and you don\u2019t really care, nor do you expect an answer.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s the problem with the Internet; it empowers poseurs and sociopaths to an extreme. It rewards people for making statements and gestures, that don\u2019t necessarily have to be backed by anything real. Sure, things of this kind existed since forever, but an inherently superficial environment really encourages them.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the difference between a compassionate person and a poseur? Well, a compassionate person sees someone with a problem, feels personally touched by it and drawn to act, and does something very real to help the person. For instance, see someone you used to know who fell on hard times, so you do very concrete things to help them \u2013 give them a place to stay, buy them clothes, find them work to do so they can earn money, basically help them end the downward spiral and reverse the negative trend of their life. You can\u2019t really solve anyone\u2019s problem, but you can buy them an opportunity to do it themselves. That\u2019s what compassion and kindness are. What\u2019s the fake thing that postures like the real thing in order to get social points? Mother Theresa. She didn\u2019t solve anyone\u2019s problem, nor did she even try to. She basically faked compassion in order to be thought of as a saint by other people, but she didn\u2019t actually help the people she supposedly helped. Everything she did was for self-aggrandisement only, and it worked; she is generally recognised by people as an icon of compassion or whatever.<\/p>\n
Internet is full of people like that; judgmental, self-centred ego-trippers, who always know the right thing to say to make them look good. How can you tell a fake from a real one? See how they deal with the \u201cnazis\u201d, the \u201ctax collectors\u201d, the people their ideology demonises. An excellent example is a black musician who heard about the KKK racists, and didn\u2019t like the idea of being judged and rejected by someone for things that had absolutely nothing to do with him as a person, so he basically went there and talked to the KKK leaders, and eventually befriended them to the point where they renounced their former ideology, which they could no longer espouse in clear conscience. A poseur will call everybody a \u201cnazi\u201d because that\u2019s what you do if you want to pose as someone who\u2019s \u201ca good one\u201d, on the opposite side of a nazi, and would immediately reject a person for a mere suspicion of embracing an ideology that\u2019s not the left of Chairman Mao, thus indicating that he\u2019s so extremely \u201cleft\u201d, that anything less than absolute extremism on the leftist spectrum is a \u201cnazi\u201d to him.<\/p>\n
What is my recommendation here? Well, stop rewarding worthless people with positive social score just because they make extremist statements of virtue-signalling. Stop assuming someone means well and is a good person because he said all the \u201ccompassionate\u201d words, such as congratulating people on apparently good things and telling them how sorry he is when something apparently bad happens. How about putting all such people in a spam filter and completely ignoring them, because that\u2019s what they actually deserve. They are like those people Jesus talked about, who make everyone know when they do something pious or charitable, because what they are actually after is social approval and elevated rating. They don\u2019t give to the poor because they care about the poor, they just want to be perceived as compassionate and generous. They don\u2019t fast and uphold religious rules because they care about God; they do it so that people would perceive them as properly religious, and as such better than all those who aren\u2019t. Interestingly, if you actually helped another person, you would know how wrong it would feel to even mention it, let alone brag about it to third parties. You did it because it felt like the right thing to do. You might have even gotten punished for it in some way. It\u2019s a real thing that exists in the world of real things, and the reward for it is to feel reality, and participate in it. You do good things because to elevate others is to feel close to God, who is the great attractor on the coordinate axis of all greatness. Social posturing would make a real person feel diminished and soiled. On the other hand, it\u2019s everything a fake person lives for, thinking that if they convince people, God will have no other option but to sign off on it as well, because if all the people think someone is a saint, how could God ever reject such a person, yes? The entire thing makes me want to puke, but the phenomenon is quite real, I assure you. Well, let me tell you this: God is not God because he has your vote of approval. In fact, you can all call him Satan or a Nazi for all He cares, and it would affect only you. God is God because he\u2019s the fullness of sat-cit-ananda<\/i>. God is God because He\u2019s where all the greatness and beauty originates from, and to which all saints aspire. God doesn\u2019t become God by giving His imprimatur to fake people who managed to deceive gullible people who lack discriminative faculties. That\u2019s my opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am so annoyed by stupid, superficial, arrogant and godless people on the Internet who pose as \u201ccompassionate\u201d and \u201ckind\u201d, but who are in fact everything but. Honestly, I don\u2019t think they would be able to recognise actual kindness and … Continue reading