feminish

A few readers have got in touch by email to say how surprised they are by my response to feminist Christian Kathryn’s comments on my Wintry link-fest post.

I feel I should explain myself…

When I read, talk or write stuff, or just get on with my daily life, I always try to practice being as open-minded as possible. It’s a point of principle I’ve had since I was a child, encapsulated in Buddhist philosophy’s grounding principle of openness, articulated in this precept:

Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, I am determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help me learn to look deeply and to develop my understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill or die for. (( The 1st of the 14 Mindfulness Trainings ))

So, in principle, I don’t mind people being Christian and I certainly don’t mind people being Christian at me. Hiyever, I do object to fanaticism and I do object to intolerance. And if someone chooses to be preachingly Christian at a thinking spiritual lass like me, and on this rigorous and grounded blog, I would like them to be ready to receive as good as they give. For the record, I never tolerate spam, which I take to be text posted off-topic to promote another site or product.

But the most honest explanation of my hard response, is that my own spiritual life is based on rigour, and I get impatient when others aren’t rigorous and, further, when they expect me to buy into a non-rigorous position. I work hard to only trust and have faith in things that I myself have experienced to be true.

The spiritual dimension has worth for me only when it really deepens and enriches my daily life. For example, on the post in question, I wrote about how my mindfulness helped me be awake to experience winter; and yet (as far as I could gather) Kathryn wrote about how she was asleep to the fact it was Winter and, for some reason which I don’t quite understand, this was connected to her Christian beliefs. It struck me as foolish, and she fell hostage to my fortune. (( Btw, I also emailed her to ask her if her comment was indeed spam; if it wasn’t could she please come back and respond. She didn’t reply… ))

Fierceness (”letting off with both barrels”, as one of you put it) is nonetheless not my intention, so I shall do my best to be tolerant of everyone, even the unthinking and especially the fanatics.

Try me.

A few readers have got in touch by email to say how surprised they are by my response to feminist Christian Kathryn’s comments on my Wintry link-fest post.

I feel I should explain myself…

When I read, talk or write stuff, or just get on with my daily life, I always try to practice being as open-minded as possible. It’s a point of principle I’ve had since I was a child, encapsulated in Buddhist philosophy’s grounding principle of openness, articulated in this precept:

Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, I am determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help me learn to look deeply and to develop my understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill or die for. (( The 1st of the 14 Mindfulness Trainings ))

So, in principle, I don’t mind people being Christian and I certainly don’t mind people being Christian at me. Hiyever, I do object to fanaticism and I do object to intolerance. And if someone chooses to be preachingly Christian at a thinking spiritual lass like me, and on this rigorous and grounded blog, I would like them to be ready to receive as good as they give. For the record, I never tolerate spam, which I take to be text posted off-topic to promote another site or product.

But the most honest explanation of my hard response, is that my own spiritual life is based on rigour, and I get impatient when others aren’t rigorous and, further, when they expect me to buy into a non-rigorous position. I work hard to only trust and have faith in things that I myself have experienced to be true.

The spiritual dimension has worth for me only when it really deepens and enriches my daily life. For example, on the post in question, I wrote about how my mindfulness helped me be awake to experience winter; and yet (as far as I could gather) Kathryn wrote about how she was asleep to the fact it was Winter and, for some reason which I don’t quite understand, this was connected to her Christian beliefs. It struck me as foolish, and she fell hostage to my fortune. (( Btw, I also emailed her to ask her if her comment was indeed spam; if it wasn’t could she please come back and respond. She didn’t reply… ))

Fierceness (”letting off with both barrels”, as one of you put it) is nonetheless not my intention, so I shall do my best to be tolerant of everyone, even the unthinking and especially the fanatics.

Try me.