How to respond to mean people?

[blackraven]

Haven't read through this whole thread, but the heading question reminds me of an incident I observed the other day. While at the deli counter in the grocery store a huge crowd was waiting to be served and the number system was broken. People were complaining and some were making light-hearted small talk to make the most of the wait. One woman being waited on was ordering just one or two slices of a variety of meats and cheeses. A fed up customer came up to her and berated her for taking up everyone's time. I can't recall exactly what she said, but it was 'mean' to say the least. Everyone in the crowd stopped talking to listen to the customer's response before the mean customer stormed off.

She said, "I hope you have a blessed day. I will pray for you!"

Enough said.

[guthrio]

Originally Posted by EdmundJohnstone

How should someone respond to mean people? There are multiple options such as being mean back to them as well, not being mean to them and keeping the bad feelings and emotions inside, which in time will start to hurt, or being indifferent and try not to keep the emotions inside (sort of hard for myself)

Hi, EdmundJohnstone,

The long flow of intuitive responses to your excellent question has come to considering hypnotism, as an answer, with which I agree.

...with one caveat: the power of hypnotism is not in what the hypnotist tells you. The power is in what you tell yourself about what the hypnotist tells you. Hypnotism is about what you tell you.

Therein lies the power of your subconscious to turn imagination into reality....

...whether the message or the messenger is labeled by one's self as being "mean", "lovable", "despicable", "uplifting", "debased", "transcendent", "ill-informed", "righteous", "wrong-headed", or....(fill in the blank)!

Commentary to the contrary notwithstanding concerning whether someone is hypnotizable or not, consider that one is always self-hypnotized by one's OWN penchant to create, then apply such labels...that are then acted upon, as if TRUE!

ALWAYS!

Don't believe me? (excerpted from the reference below).

How can you distinguish between {what you think you believe} and {what you actually believe}?

Simple!

Your actions always indicate what you actually believe. Always.

Your actions reveal what you are actually believing.

EVEN if one thought the above was not irrefutably true....one's actions would then reflect that belief, irrefutably!

The power is ALWAYS in your own mind to believe what YOU will, as YOU so designate.

Know what I "mean", people?

Just as Blackraven's superb example from his post immediately above demonstrates, so perfectly, just who really holds the power of one's own response to mean people :

She said, "I hope you have a blessed day. I will pray for you!"

Enough said.

Reference: https://iasos.com/metaphys/bashar/#ActualBelief

Originally Posted by EdmundJohnstone

How should someone respond to mean people? There are multiple options such as being mean back to them as well, not being mean to them and keeping the bad feelings and emotions inside, which in time will start to hurt, or being indifferent and try not to keep the emotions inside (sort of hard for myself)

I guess Jesus would be proud.

How we 'receive' it in the first place says something about us, because if someone can be mean to us then we've given them our empowerment and allowed them to have power over us. Nobody makes us feel as though people have been mean to us, we allow them to. It's also the ego that feels as though people have been mean to us, so being Spiritual isn't such an automatic dissolution of the ego after all. And it's our definition and therefore our reality. It's also as bad to take offence as it is to give it, and taking offence or thinking people are mean is a choice.

If people are being mean then it shows a lack of depth to our own characters, because we're just not willing to go to the next step and try to understand that while our personal history makes us think they are mean, we aren't aware that our own history has more control over us than we'd like to think it has. If we see mean people then we have a history too, and the next question there is what are we going to do about it? It also means that the Unconditional Love we talk so enthusiastically about in these here forums needs to have less talk and more practice.

"What you see in me is yours, what I see in you is mine."

[Anne]

Yikes, I wonder what Jesus would think of me now..

For most of my life I have practiced turning the other cheek. It’s rather galling to realize, after so many years of living, the need to toughen up and toss everyone out of the temple.. Oh but wait, I recall he did that as well.

“Keep smiling and "Nihil illegitamus carborundum" - don't let the illegitamates grind you down, that really ticks them off. You're better than that.”

Less talk, more practice.. Thank you Greenslade for your post today.

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by Anne

Yikes, I wonder what Jesus would think of me now..

For most of my life I have practiced turning the other cheek. It’s rather galling to realize, after so many years of living, the need to toughen up and toss everyone out of the temple.. Oh but wait, I recall he did that as well.

“Keep smiling and "Nihil illegitamus carborundum" - don't let the illegitamates grind you down, that really ticks them off. You're better than that.”

Less talk, more practice.. Thank you Greenslade for your post today.

Hi Anne -

The restroom graffiti I came across was "Illegitimus non carborundum est." which translates as "Don't let the b*stards grind you down!" LOL

Re Jesus's turn the other cheek advice, in my treatise "What Did Jesus Really Mean?" I wrote:

Many who think that being unconditionally ‘kind’ and/or equally ‘generous’ in relation to others was what Jesus advocated in the ‘name’ of Universal Love don’t realize that his ‘turn the other cheek’, ‘give him your shirt also’ and ‘walk an extra mile if and when compelled to walk one’ statements (see Mathew 5:39-41) shrewdly coached physiosocially ‘powerless’ people to psychospiritually embarrass and thereby (hopefully) pique the conscience of those who were being unconscionably coercive and exploitative (in face of the fact that they would invite and likely incur further abuse if they attempted to ‘resist’ such treatment). His endorsement of the use of ‘embarrassment’ and ‘showing people up’ (for the abusers that they are!) as tactics in service of the cause of ‘truth and justice’ is especially apparent in his advice that folks take off and give their shirts (as well!) to anyone who sued them for and were being awarded their coats (for non-payment of debt), because the men in his culture just wore (long) shirts under their (long) coats, and they would therefore thereby ‘flash’ and ‘moon’ (i.e. expose their genitals and asses to) their persecutors!☺

[summer26]

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

― Mahatma Gandhi