“Be sure to taste your words before you spit them out.”

—Auliq Ice

I refuse to read newspapers, watch news on TV or listen to it on the radio. I can’t stand to hear about the suffering in the world. I figure if there’s anything I really need to know, I’ll hear about it. There’s no shortage of available information to people to spread. 

It’s bad enough when it’s an “Act of God” or some terrible accident. But I simply cannot tolerate hearing about the dreadful things people do to each other. There are few things in the world that are worse than when one human being causes any kind of suffering to another.

There is no need for that at all. It is beneath our dignity. It goes completely against the divine spirit that resides in everyone. It is human behaviour at its worst, and spiritual behaviour at its most absent.

What springs to mind are the usual kinds of suffering that are always in the news — beatings, rape, kidnapping, torture, murder and other maliciousness.

But there is a much more insidious and far less visible kind of suffering than these obvious ones. There is the emotional suffering that is caused by gossip, vindictiveness, or jealousy. There is the torment that is caused by vicious and judgemental attacks against others — especially when spreading exaggerated or untrue stories — in a deliberate effort to turn others against that person.

It’s one thing to confide in a trusted loved one when someone has hurt or betrayed you. All of us need to be able to share such experiences in a safe environment. 

Or if you’ve been on the receiving end of shoddy or unethical treatment by someone in business and others ask about your opinion or experience because they’re considering using their services. 

But that’s not what I mean. 

I am outraged every time I hear about people who choose to spread or to believe vicious and vindictive talk about someone else without having any personal knowledge or experience of such incidents. That “sheep mentality” is what gets us into so much trouble; it is how Hitler became such a hit in the eyes of his followers. They followed the herd. They believed the rubbish that was crammed down their throats by fear-based, power-hungry, hateful bullies. 

I am even more outraged every time I hear about the people who have launched just such a campaign of hatred. I’m talking about those who do their level best to get a group of people on their side against others so they can gang up on them, bully them, verbally assault them, and do their best to make everyone hate them.

For some small-minded “reason,” there are those who choose to be vindictive and nasty in their attempts to scapegoat others. It is disgusting. It is shocking. It is unconscionable.

What’s worse is that these people act as though they have the right to trash another person to anyone who will listen. They defend their actions as if they’re the actions of the pure and innocent, when in fact, they come from mean-spirited, vengeful, vindictive, fearful, power-hungry, judgemental hearts.

They could stand to take a good, long look in the mirror.

Whatever they think is so awful about so-and-so that they should be spreading their hateful and vindictive comments and opinions so freely can’t possibly be anywhere near as bad as their deliberate and vicious verbal assaults on another human being. Especially when they’re exaggerating, lying, or putting their own toxic spin on a situation purely for attention or sympathy.

It Gets Worse…

What further offends me is when such people are two-faced and are sweet to the person they’re trashing. Or when they pretend to be deeply spiritual and loving in other arenas, or with other people.

And if it weren’t so twisted it would almost be hilarious but sometimes they even say they are healers!!!

Then they turn around and treat others in a way that is downright evil because it is deliberate. Their desire is to hurt, attack, be judgemental, and to make one person hate or avoid another.

There is no excuse for such reprehensible behaviour in adults who understand the social and emotional ramifications of what they’re doing. But then, those ramifications are precisely why they do it. They want that person to suffer. They want that person to be hated by others. 

How malignant, how destructive, how evil…

Thank heaven for the Law of Karma.

At some point, they will pay for what they’ve done. We don’t need to concern ourselves with that. The Universe will take care of the situation by doling out the appropriate karmic consequences. 

Karma isn’t about judgement; it’s simply a balancing of positive and negative energy. If you put loads of negative energy out there, you’re going to get it back at some point. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Throw a ball at a wall straight ahead of you, it will bounce right back and slam you in the face.

One way or another, what we do will eventually come back to us. Those who launch verbal assaults on others or spread vicious attacks on someone’s character to anyone who will listen might do well to remember this.

READ: LOVE DOES NOT CONQUER ALL