Originally Posted by
Tai Shi
My unhappiness always was coupled with two things-- anger and its repercussions. My whole life until I was about 60 had been the result of what people thought of me. I had some friends who I thought were always thinking of me. My life had also depended on these five people, not my wife, daughter, brother, or dad. My mom had been dead for almost 25 years, and still I believed they were concerned about her death at age 68 from breast cancer. I kept thinking they knew parts of my life totally personal, and I would sometimes call them up to find out why they hadn't called me. I explained on Facebook, and I was a hybrid of believing Christian, and practicing Soto Zen Buddhist. This is acceptable here on Treeleaf Zendo, and in my Unitarian Universalist church, but suddenly they began posting in the negative. I called up two of them, "Don't you see! We cannot tolerate any Christianity! They have done horrid things and by posting this, you force your beliefs on us." I took a deep breath, and I unfriended all five. At first, I was frightened, and tried to befriend them only to learn they had blocked me, and then they would not answer my calls. One person blocked my calls. I thought hard, "I regret this, but isn't anger, and (unhappiness) fear a fiction. I had learned this from my therapist. I have excellent friendships here in my home area, I'm close to my family, what need of I of people who haven't called me in many years, who hadn't been friends since college. I realized my therapist is right. Anger is a fiction, and at any time I can rewrite my own story. I regret that some are intolerant. I posted in my bio on Facebook, "I believe in religious freedom, and I love my family." This took courage, courage to finally realize that I am a strong and happy man.
Tai Shi
sat/lah
Gassho