Earth Day is
one of my favorite days. And HH Karmapa is one of my favorite beings.
Two great things in the same post seems a no brainer. The post was
accompanied by the following picture, artist noted, etc. (click to
see original) I liked the post, as I had so many before, but there
was something about the growths on the neck, so I said I found the picture a bit disturbing.
BAM!!! By the
time I left work that day, it was done. Evidently, one can not be
kicked off a page one likes, but the ability to like, comment,
message or post was totally and irrevocably gone. I looked for a way
to open dialogue. The contact website is His
blog, but there is no way to contact anyone at the blog. All of
the contact information is for His office in India.
That is when it
really hit me. I was being shunned by the actual representatives of
HH the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa. No message to ask me to
reconsider my comment, no simple deletion of my comment (although
that was gone as well), just the sledge hammer of doom square on my
head. To say this made going to see Him at Kagyu Thubten Choling the
24th difficult is an understatement. I was in awe and
happy to see him, but profoundly sad. It would be only the third time
I had ever seen Him and I felt I had done something terrible to Him
somehow. My opinion was in some way so reprehensible as to cause His
office to find a way for me to never ever voice one again.
There is
incongruity in all of this. The Karmapa's message is so different
from the beat down I took online. That is what I focus on in the
aftermath. I am working out which ego buttons got pushed and using my
shunning as instruction. What else can I do? His staff are just
people doing the best they can. At KTC He talked about seeing the
behaviors of all beings as symptoms of the pervasive illness of the
kleshas, mental afflictions so ingrained in us that they follow from
life to life, controlling and even possessing us. I will try to see
them as such. This does not make it bother me less for now.
Having learned
my lesson regarding never ever saying anything but “Karmapa Chenno”
in the comments to posts, I have since done the only thing one can do
online that is much less possible offline: re-invented my Facebook
self and opened a new account. A do-over of sorts. It is long
overdue, actually. Unfriending is not my style, so I will maintain
both. One for co-workers and those who have friended me here and
there, and this new one for those who want more than cat pics and
jokes from life. The new me will be far more careful not to be
shunned or unfriended by the Karmapa.
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