It certainly has not escaped anyone’s notice that today’s world, despite being mostly free of tuberculosis, the bubonic plague, polio and other age-old scourges, is still not free of the scourge of douchebaggery.
In fact, in recent years, the level of douchebaggery has done nothing but increase in many countries. What is a good Buddhist and life-hacker to do when inevitably faced with these hungry hordes of douchebags?
The Dalai Lama has the answer! Of course, His Holiness has yet to go on the record with his opinion about douchebags, but a lay-Buddhist like myself can easily extrapolate from his writings.
The main thing that HH the DL preaches is compassion. And interestingly, his definition of compassion is not what you might expect.
The typical Western definition of compassion is to feel bad about other people’s bad feelings. The world is full of “good people” who try to sell you on bad feelings, as I mentioned in a previous pro tip. Of course, feeling bad because others feel bad is a great way to end up in a bottomless spiral of bad feelings, and nothing good will ever come of it.
In comes HH the XIV DL with a new definition of compassion that actually doesn’t suck. For His Holiness, compassion means that in dealing with people (including douchebags) we should:
1. Recognize that they are human just like us.
2. Recognize that they too suffer.
Buddhists are encouraged to meditate on these two simple points in any encounter with other people. And douchebags, believe it or not, are just other people.
So next time you’re confronted with some manifestation of douchebaggery, just remember: douchebags also suffer. They probably suffer much more than you do, in fact, and that’s why they’re acting douchy.
Meditate on it, and understand that the douchebaggery you’re experiencing says absolutely nothing about you as a person. It says, in fact, everything about the other person.
Funny thing, it’s difficult to take anything personally when you realize that everything is all about them. You’ll end up feeling better. A lot better.
And then, you can just smile and go back to living your life the best you can.
Peace, love and compassion,
Daniel.
P.S. I use the word douchebag in this article, but the same goes for all manner of assholes, dicks, cunts, coozes, dingleberries, dirtbags, and cocksuckers.
P.P.S. No offense is meant to any actual vaginal irrigation apparatus that might be reading this.
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