Please tell me why I shouldn't be offended.

[vlyons]

14. Here's the Buddhist perspective on why you shouldn't be offended

Because basically, you're better than that, and you came into this world already possessing Buddha nature. You just haven't realized your true nature yet.

Everything that we experience in life, falls into one of 3 categories: pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. There are more things that are unpleasant than there are stars in the sky. But if I got angry and resentful everytime I experienced something unpleasant, I would never be happy. Ditto the pleasant stuff. Usually our unenlighted ego responds to the pleasant with desire, greed and attachment. To the neutral, we nurture indifference. We respond to the unpleasant with aversion that we nurture into fear, anger, and hatred. Attachment, aversion, indifference are what keep us stuck in problems and suffering. Just ask yourself are you truly happy and joyous, when you're telling yourself how justified you are to feel insulted. You can always choose not to nurture resentment and anger. You can choose to think different thoughts. It's the Donald Trumps of this world, who get freaked out, resentful, and angry, when they tell themselves how they've been disrespected. They let that resentment fester and fester and then blowup in a temper trantrum. How dare the universe present them something unpleasant! There outa be a law against it! that's his thought process.

We cannot control what others think and do. We can only control what we think and do. Taming our own minds is the greatest of all accomplishments. That's why it's called enlightenment. Seeing the world with a higher mind is virtuous and its own reward.

If you know that your campaign contributions were the right thing to do and made with a good intention, that's really all that matters. If people see Beto as an old white guy, who cares what they think? It's what you think that matters.

May all sentient beings rest in the equanimity of no more craving, attachment, and aversion.