Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. My friend Stacy and I were on a road trip, when a song came on the radio, and she said, "Ooh, I like this." We bebopped our heads to the beat, and she asked, "Who's the artist?" As soon as I told her who it was, she said, "Oh, I don't like it, then."
Her mind was so firmly set on not liking that artist, that even if she found herself enjoying one of their songs, she would convince herself otherwise. We also do this when we reject a movie without even watching it when we find out who plays the lead role. And most recently, I experienced this with an inspirational quote online. I want to talk about this post that I shared online, which was initially met with surprisingly equal praise and retaliation, so I started a discussion about it.
And that conversation sprouted its own legs and took off in many different directions. The reason I want to combine the experience into a podcast episode is because I think there's much we can learn about the human condition from the way people respond to having their comfort zone stretched. I read a lot of books, mostly on audible, especially when they are narrated by the author. And many of them are memoirs because I'm intrigued by people's stories and how much we can learn from one another.
After recently reading Michelle Obama's memoir, "Becoming," which isn't political propaganda, mind you, but a personal story of her individual journey, I shared an inspirational quote from her book online, which sounds innocent enough, and had I not credited the source, that quote would have probably been appreciated
and shared by many. But I actually named the origin, and it literally drove thousands of people to unfollow the Facebook page, and many chose to leave a nasty remark on their way out. Luckily, Facebook has built-in filters to automatically hide profanity posts from my page and, don't worry, I don't take any of this personally, I actually think of the refresh as a sort of spring cleaning. So I'm not upset about it, but the incident shed light on an interesting sticking point
we would ignore fantastic advice or a good song if it comes from an unlikable source, yet we would fully embrace bad advice from people we like. Now, I know we do this as teenagers when our parents tell us to wear a jacket because it's cold outside, even though it totally clashes with our outfit or whatnot, yet as soon as we see our friends wearing coats, we also grab one off the rack. But as adults, to dismiss good advice because we personally don't like the source
for some reason? I was honestly surprised because, to me, advice is advice. I say take it with a grain of salt or leave it well enough alone regardless of where it came from. In fact, our episode 45 of the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast, is actually called "The Message Not The Messenger" because of the danger in putting messengers on a pedestal.
I remember my own teachers telling me to be careful of doing that, and to not only focus on the message not the messenger, but to also look beyond the words to their meaning. So, in response to this eruption online, I posed the following question: Are you able to separate the wisdom from the source, or would you completely dismiss advice depending on its origin?
Surprisingly, most people wanted to know the quote and who it was by, which wasn't at all the point, indicating they gauge the worthiness of a message based on the credibility of the source. Well, that opens up a whole new can of worms, so to speak, because if we're looking for a perfect messenger from whom to receive worthwhile teachings, we will never find one. To err is human, after all. And I really think we not only need to stop
putting people on pedestals, but to also stop putting people down. Instead, let's look everyone at eye level, as equals, capable of great insight and equally horrible misdeeds. Keep in mind that this didn't just happen because I quoted the wife of a former president; I can remember a time when I've even quoted Gandhi, when a few people went off on how terribly he treated his wife, for example. Or if I quote Mother Teresa, there is a wave of detailed accounts listing all the horrible
things she was a part of. And I'll never forget the woman who was furious with me for quoting the Dalai Lama, saying she has no respect for any man who eats meat. So I asked her, "What about women who pass judgment? How do you feel about them?" But I never heard back. Are we still living in a world of saints and sinners, of caste, of hierarchy? When will it stop? And can it stop with you? Life lessons aren't always apparent at the time incidents occur, but often in their aftermath.
Not only when we look back, but when we look deeper than what appears on the surface of an issue to the core of the matter. And at the core of all this, the whole reason I brought this up, is our collective search for someone without flaws, as if we could
stand up to the test ourselves. You know we say "Namaste" to acknowledge that the divinity within us sees and honors the divinity within others, but I think we need a word to say When the ego within us sees and acknowledges the ego within others. That way, when we are outraged by someone's behavior, for example, we immediately see it simply of their ego, which resides within us all.
The world will no longer have pots calling the kettles black, no more "Judgy-wudgy was a bear;" just compassion, kindness, and patience. The whole concept of credibility is faulty because someone with a squeaky clean background is capable of horrific acts, and someone with a difficult past can spend the rest of their lives doing more good in the world than many of us combined.
So let's not be fooled by labels, and trust ourselves to read a quote, for example, and decide whether it applies to us or not. We don't need someone else to validate it in order for it to have value. Trust yourself. That's why it's not enough for us to teach children how to read, we must also teach them not to believe everything they read, and to take it all with a grain of salt. Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless and Buddhist Boot Camp.
For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com, where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list. We hope you have enjoyed this episode, and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions. Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army Love. 🙏🏼