On Medium: How Would a Saint or a Prophet Reply to Rude Online Comments?
Here's an article that imagines the mythic ideal of handling toxic online comment sections, and how to cope with the dead-end of trying to excel on a degrading platform.
It just so happens that there are records of how Buddha & Jesus responded to rude people. The first one is from Buddha and His Teachings by Narada Mahathera:
On one occasion the Buddha was invited by a Brahmin for alms to his house. As He was invited, the Buddha visited his house. But instead of entertaining Him,the Brahmin poured forth a torrent of abuse with the filthiest of words. The Buddha politely inquired:— “Do visitors come to your house good Brahmin?” “Yes”, he replied. “What do you do when they come?” “Oh, we prepare a sumptuous feast.” “If they fail to turn up, please?” “Why, we gladly partake of it.” “Well, good Brahmin, you have invited me for alms and entertained me with abuse. I accept nothing. Please take it back.”
The second is from Christ in Islam, by the Reverend James Robson; though it is apocryphal:
The Messiah, son of Mary passed by a company of the Jews; they spoke evil to him, but he spoke good to them. Then someone said to him, "Verily they are speaking evil, and you are speaking good." He (Jesus) said, "Everyone spends from what he possesses."
Thanks for those anecdotes. They're certainly relevant, although I suspect that these episodes sound better when written up. Can we imagine them happening in person, with one speaker obviously getting the better of the other so that everyone else bows down before the victor's greatness? Or is that only poetically just and thus a confection of fiction? The Buddha sounds like he was exercising the Socratic method.
Bon mots can go over our head or get lost in the noise. Interestingly, meme culture tries to preserve some anecdotes, although I don't know whether those aphorisms or jokes are especially wise.
It just so happens that there are records of how Buddha & Jesus responded to rude people. The first one is from Buddha and His Teachings by Narada Mahathera:
ReplyDeleteOn one occasion the Buddha was invited by a Brahmin for alms to his house. As He was invited, the Buddha visited his house. But instead of entertaining Him,the Brahmin poured forth a torrent of abuse with the filthiest of words.
The Buddha politely inquired:—
“Do visitors come to your house good Brahmin?”
“Yes”, he replied.
“What do you do when they come?”
“Oh, we prepare a sumptuous feast.”
“If they fail to turn up, please?”
“Why, we gladly partake of it.”
“Well, good Brahmin, you have invited me for alms and entertained me with abuse. I accept nothing. Please take it back.”
The second is from Christ in Islam, by the Reverend James Robson; though it is apocryphal:
The Messiah, son of Mary passed by a company of the Jews; they spoke evil to him, but he spoke good to them. Then someone said to him,
"Verily they are speaking evil, and you are speaking good."
He (Jesus) said,
"Everyone spends from what he possesses."
Thanks for those anecdotes. They're certainly relevant, although I suspect that these episodes sound better when written up. Can we imagine them happening in person, with one speaker obviously getting the better of the other so that everyone else bows down before the victor's greatness? Or is that only poetically just and thus a confection of fiction? The Buddha sounds like he was exercising the Socratic method.
DeleteBon mots can go over our head or get lost in the noise. Interestingly, meme culture tries to preserve some anecdotes, although I don't know whether those aphorisms or jokes are especially wise.