Commentary on My Internet Participation

January 31, 2009: For almost 20 years now, I tried hard to suggest peaceful solutions to local and global challenge on the Usenet newsgroups and Internet forums, usually to no avail.

When I suggested people meditate more often, the spiritually shallow accused me of being a naive hippie. When I suggested they complement their readings with a deeper reading of the Bible, Qu'ran, Buddhist scriptures, the Talmud, etc. they claimed suggesting religious sources are irrelevant to the topic at hand.

All in all, a few Internet users seem to be shallow people who react to what you write if it challenges their limited world-view and exposes the truth about their fear of change, and the endemic fear of psychosis.

Let us hope that that my conclusion proves that most online users have a deep and meaningful relationship with both themselves and others, primarily their families and friends.

Update: 20130125.1945

Since almost four years, my review of the past 20 years suggests to me that the first response to peaceful solutions will be either derision or acceptance.

However, I have been mistaken about it mostly being derision. That mistaken belief may have been due to scrutinizing the derision rather than seeking acceptance.

My suggestions about meditation didn't work because the proof that it works wasn't made part of my overall suggestion. As well, a few people are negative towards meditation due to their own prejudices.

This is due to the reasonable fear of the unknown (meditation), despite the fact that the current alternative (prayer) is also a part of the dual discipline of prayer and meditation.

For the people who are prejudiced against meditation are usually biased for prayer, considering "prayer as prayer" when in fact, a few of them have meditated when engaged in deep prayers which last longer than five minutes.

As I stated before, the current prejudice against meditation is due to fear of the unknown. It is my contention that the source of that fear is due to ignorance about meditation, including its use by Jesus and the Apostles, but especially its use by monks in solitude.

However, it is the fear of change that must be challenged. I totally support online users who have the courage to challenge their fears about meditation and especially psychosiphobia in a timely manner

For when you face the fears that arise from my suggestion to meditate early, it becomes easy to apply it to your personal toolkit for coping with change. Meditation aids in our ability to adapt to change, for it transcends prayers by going beyond bringing it to God's attention to being willing to accept God's will.

Such acceptance is achieved by first calming your mind, and secondly, being able to create the solution that works for everyone's best interests.

Indeed, prayer and meditation works when, out of humility, you focus on what's best for all of humanity.