Good Karmic Input, Anyone?
Tuesday September 30, 2008
thinkBuddha.org got a mention in an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer last week. The article was about websites that see their task – and here I am quoting – as promoting niceness, and claimed that thinkBuddha.org “welcomes good karmic input”.
I confess to being a little baffled. I’m not entirely sure what good karmic input is (and therefore, I’m not entirely sure whether it is something that I would, in fact, welcome…), nor am I sure that promoting niceness is what I’m about. Is niceness always something to be striven for (see the link here, which is adorned by slightly alarming pictures of Tony Blair and Prince Charles sipping tea)? Once again, I’m not entirely sure…
But, having said that, I don’t want to appear churlish. It sure is nice, after all, to be mentioned.
Thanks to Lisa Solonynko for the photograph
#1 · Barry Briggs
30 September 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer gave you some “good karmic input!” That’s wonderful.
Still, you’re right to express bafflement about “niceness.” In my experience, many people confuse niceness with compassion.
Niceness often disguises truth with honey-sweet words. It sometimes purposely leads people away from what is actually happening.
Compassion, on the other hand, always exposes the truth. Indeed, the two are inseparable. Compassion isn’t always nice: there is a place for loving-anger, along with loving-kindness.
As for me, I’ll take the hawk of compassion over the sparrow of niceness, anytime.