Can We Communicate With EVERYONE?

It is interesting to feel the little hind-brain “flash” when someone insults you on the internet. Never happens in real life, but you know those keyboard warriors, right?

Anyway, I thought I’d go through the steps I took a couple of days ago in regard to this. I think I did pretty well.

1. In the middle of a back-and-forth discussion, the guy said something insulting.
2. My immediate reaction was to “get back” at him.
3. Then I remembered my commitment to wasting less time in such a way. I’ve determined that people who break the Three Gates in an argument (lie, get nasty, run in circular irrelevancies, etc) are signaling that this conversation will go nowhere. So I simply said that the conversation was over. I copied-and-pasted the entire conversation into a file, saw that I’d already marked this guy as a troll, and reminded myself to be more careful next time.
4. For HOURS afterward, I could feel the part of myself that was…peeved, shall we say. As I’m completely safe, and there is nothing this guy can do to me or for me, there is no logical reason to hold onto any emotions…or is there.
5. I decided to USE the irritation in my next meditation. It was there, like big chunks of rock in a tube otherwise filled with water. I could crash against the rocks…but better to float between them. To do that, all I have to do is not take myself so seriously. Don’t let my ego-need to “win” waste my time and energy.