Comment by ctippett
1 day ago
I empathise with the advice, even aspire to it. Despite that, I abhor a bully getting away with being a bully and would feel discontent not putting up a fight on principle.
1 day ago
I empathise with the advice, even aspire to it. Despite that, I abhor a bully getting away with being a bully and would feel discontent not putting up a fight on principle.
In meditation, we learn to let go.
Attachment is discontent.
Tangential, but I’ve always found this hard to understand. Surely the things you value are worth hanging on to/fighting for?
> Surely the things you value are worth hanging on to/fighting for?
Maybe. For me at least, the art is in what you choose to value in different contexts, rather than in absolute terms. Thinking about this specific case, I might value my own peace of mind, money, and time much more highly than justice or retribution.
Other times, something we value is taken from us and living in the past, spending our days wishing for it, etc. can prevent us from "moving on". It can become an anchor or baggage.
The cultures I'm aware of that practice meditation value letting go of the things that keep you attached to physical existence, because they're looking forward to a spiritual existence that value more highly.
For my part, I feel that there's value in critically examining parts of your life and deciding what really matters. If something matters, fight for it. If it turns out something didn't, or it doesn't any more, let it go so you can make room in your life for more important things.
When the powerful is screwing over others, "letting go" is complicity, not a virtue.
Maybe, just maybe, it's time for the greedy rich to let go.
Choose peace or violence. Violence doesn't have to mean physical destruction or harm, it can mean self psychological harm as you put aside your comfort to further a goal or your values.
Peace is a perfectly valid option for people to pick. If they can master it, they can weather any depredation the world throws at them. Which may be many if society continues to slip slide into fascism.
However I believe most good things in the world came at the behest of violence - again not necessarily physical, but at minimum people sacrificing personal peace. Woman's suffrage, black suffrage in America, the civil rights act, LGBT rights in the UK, the overthrow of the kmt military dictatorship in Taiwan. Endless examples.
I'm still thinking about this all the time, I wrote about it a while back: https://blog.calebjay.com/posts/accept-or-reject/
> However I believe most good things in the world came at the behest of violence - again not necessarily physical, but at minimum people sacrificing personal peace. Woman's suffrage, black suffrage in America, the civil rights act, LGBT rights in the UK, the overthrow of the kmt military dictatorship in Taiwan. Endless examples.
Absolutely. I would further assert that path of least resistance is very often not the right one. The art, as I think you imply, is in "knowing" when to pick up a fight and persist, vs. when not.
1 reply →
In the entire history of the world, not one single thing ever got better by accepting something as it is.
"You’ve heard of animals chewing off a leg to escape a trap? There’s an animal kind of trick. A human would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remove a threat to his kind."
- Dune, the gom jabbar's test for humanity
In this particular case, do you advocate the individual fight it to the bitter end? Or should they just walk away?
Just because one ignores something, does not mean they've let it go.
> Just because one ignores something, does not mean they've let it go.
To ignore something means choosing not to notice, acknowledge, or respond to it — even though you’re aware it exists.