3rd October 2024
I’m back with another blog! Autumn time has come and as the leaves turn fiery have you experienced the same fire coming from someone’s mouth or perhaps your own?
Why do we get hurt when we are slandered and bashed? What is the shame, guilt, resentment and fear that arise? Whether it be friends, family or colleagues who inject their sweet slandering into our ears, heart and stomach it has a stinging effect.
To truly see and feel this is to heal it as my meditation teacher Punnu says. In my own life I realise I have an expectation for the other person to be flawless, not lose their temper. This can be especially hard when it’s a parent or partner to not feel victimised, ‘why me’. To hold compassion for the flawed, the unconscious and ignorant is a colossal strength. Especially if you can do it with humour.
As in Hebrews 5:2 “He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.”
Realising we too are subject to be lost in the forces of maya, the horse running away from the chariot of our intellect. So too that can occur with our fellow riders. Can we laugh at this breakaway steed at a far. Or must our chariot too become unsteady?
I will end this blog on an amazing Shabad by Bhagat Kabir on his cool attitude towards sweet slandering. Enjoy!
-Jhoty 🙂
Slander me, slander me – go ahead, people and slander me.
Slander is pleasing to the Lord’s humble servant.
Slander is my father; slander is my mother.
If I am slandered, I go to heaven.
The wealth of the Naam, the Name of the Lord, abides within my mind.
If my heart is pure, and I am slandered,
then the slanderer washes my clothes.
One who slanders me is my friend;
the slanderer is in my thoughts.
The slanderer is the one who prevents me from being slandered.
The slanderer wishes me long life.
I have love and affection for the slanderer.
Slander is my salvation.
Slander is the best thing for servant Kabeer.
The slanderer is drowned, while I am carried across.
-Bhagat Kabir Jee (SGGS Ji Ang 339)
“Forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
Jhoty 