(Picking up from last post)
Immediately after discovering how thoroughly—and for
how long—I’d been plagiarized, I found myself reflexively asking, “What would
Thich Nhat Hahn do?” In his book Anger:
Wisdom for Cooling the Flames, Nhat Hahn recommends allowing anger to
manifest, smiling to it and acknowledging it: “Breathing in, I know that anger
is in me. Breathing out, I smile to my anger.” He teaches that by acknowledging
and validating any strong emotion (and consciously smiling to it), we reduce
its power over us.
Another important precept he offers is this: It is extremely dangerous to speak or act
when we’re angry. In that state, our brains are flooded with neurochemicals
that demand action; our rational
powers are temporarily overwhelmed by the primal commands of the amygdala (also
known as the “reptilian brain”). Our heart rates speed up, our stomachs flip
over; our breathing becomes fast and shallow. In this state, we’re not that
much different from a wolf whose prey another predator is threatening to steal.
Reacting thus may well be something the wolf must do to survive; among human
beings in a state of civilization, however, it can be disastrous. We may find
ourselves letting fly with horrid statements or acting in ways that undermine
and invalidate both our spiritual practice and our health. That’s why the maxim,
“Don’t just do something; sit there!” is so important to take to heart,
especially when you’re in the grip of strong emotion.
By sitting with our anger, smiling to it and fully
validating it, we use up a lot of the red-hot immediacy of its energy. We’re
then free to start transforming it into something more pleasant. We should
definitely not fail to honor ourselves
with some kind of vague sense that spiritual practitioners should always ignore all offenses. To do so is a failure of compassion, both for yourself and for the offending
party. You deserve to have your intellectual property respected; by ignoring
plagiarism, you dishonor yourself and set up the offending party for more
serious karmic consequences in the future.
Here are some ideas on how to honor your practice in
this kind of situation:
First, spend as much time as you need in sitting meditation to stabilize
yourself.
When you’re confident you’re back in balance, send
the offender a friendly note acknowledging the plagiarism as a potential
oversight, thus giving him the benefit of the doubt. Tell the person you’d be
happy to write for him; perhaps you’d even be willing to let him use your
existing work if acknowledgment is given.
If this overture is ignored for more than 24 hours,
continue to smile and breathe mindfully. In a meditative state, write a Cease
and Desist Notice. Don’t allow anger to resurface unmitigated while you do. Smile
and breathe with full awareness while you nonetheless uncompromisingly insist
that the plagiarized material be removed. Take special care when you reach the
line, “If this notice is ignored, my attorney stands ready to commence legal
proceedings.” Since this is a threat, it can easily hook our reactive minds
and send us into a downward spiral of self-righteous anger.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we may find that (at
some level) we actually hope that the
individual won’t respond! Let’s face it: anger has its pleasures. Just as we
evolved to enjoy sex (to make continuation of the species more likely), Homo sapiens came to find a certain pleasure
in the emotion of anger. I believe the purpose of this was to make us more likely
to respond with deadly force in a life-or-death confrontation. Our more recent
evolution, though, is every bit as important: our species is now involved in learning to
control, modify, and transform our primal responses.
If your Cease and Desist Notice is ignored, write a
warning to the web server supporting the offending party, keeping the above
concepts in the forefront of your mind. Don’t forget to breathe deeply and smile! The web host is required by law to take down the plagiarized material if their client fails to do so.
I sincerely hope that you never suffer either a
break-in at home or a rip-off of your
copyrighted material. The casual theft of highly reflective, personal writing is
particularly vexing, resulting in a strong sense of personal violation. If it does happen to you, I encourage you to
honor your practice; don’t allow the unscrupulousness of another to invalidate
your spirituality! Instead, sit with your anger, breathe mindfully and smile.
You can then then use the experience as an opportunity for spiritual growth.
Cheers (and Namaste),
WKF
Copyright © 2012 by William Ferro
All rights under copyright reserved.
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