New Internet Bullying

Yesterday a friend of mine, Judy Siegal*, was the target of a very disparaging note on Facebook. She is probably my best friend in the world. She's got multiple sclerosis. I went over to her apartment and stayed with her.

The person who wrote the Facebook note shared it with quite a few people, and some of them have shared it with others.

The author of the note is Ricki Black*, the same person I wrote about in an earlier post here. Ricki is the woman who told me I better not go back to synagogue, and that many communities are angry at me, and that I'm not wanted, and that I'd better watch my back.

Late yesterday night, Paula Rubenstein*, a woman I dated briefly last year, posted a disparaging note about me on her Facebook wall. She added additional disparaging posts about me to her Facebook wall this morning, and sadly, a few of her friends responded to support her.

I know what you're thinking, are they teen-agers?

These women are 50 years old and they're acting this way. It's really sad. I wrote about Paula in a post here.

I've been upset about it, and I'm concerned and even a little scared when I realize that decent people are getting a strong dose of all that, yet they don't have accurate information to counter it with.

Today I'm a little sick and nauseous from the after effects of a migraine. But I have suppositories to control vomiting and I took one.

Certainly there are physical, emotional and social effects of what Paula and Ricki are doing. But what really concerns me is the spiritual side of it.

When people mistreat me, slander me, defame me, threaten me, mock me, I ask myself what's the spiritual way to handle it?

Should I fight back? Do I need to defend myself?

Is it spiritual to fight?

Is it spiritual to let your name and the name of your friend be defamed, and to allow a community to become riled up, and to do nothing when bullied or lied about?

How does one practice non-attachment under these circumstances?

How do I practice Yogic and Buddhist principles around this?

If my true interests are meditation and yoga, and I seek enlightenment, how does engaging in these worldy conflicts advance that?

In following Yogic and Buddhist ideals, am I following the right virtues?

If I want to meditate all day and do yoga, then shouldn't I move to a temple and do it there?

Last night Durga and I spoke by phone and she gave me a pep talk about the Bhagavad Gita. Durga is a classmate from Yoga Teacher Training, and the Bhagavad Gita is one of our texts. It's a 2,500-year-old allegorical spiritual story, and even Mohatma Gandhi has written about it. She reminded me of Arjuna's inner conflict on the eve of war against his family, his teachers, his friends. He didn't want to go to war. He preferred inaction. He was upset and confused and confronted Krishna about this.

"How can I wage war against my family and my teachers?" is the essence of the young man's question to Krishna.

Another of Arjuna's questions is, "Why can't I just do nothing instead?"

Krishna answered in a way that allowed Arjuna to see it was his duty to go to war. He helped Arjuna to see the world would fall out of balance if the young man did not restore order, justice and truth.

You just don't attach to that war's outcome.

Do I have the strength of Arjuna?