ON FACEBOOK TROLLS

Yup! Lotsa folks on FB. Some are delightful and others are like a plague. Consider though, that bad actors challenge the strength of our spiritual understanding and compassion. The challenge itself affords an opportunity to determine what we feel deeply about our spiritual perspective and how our understanding works for us. 

If attacks are met with peaceful and compassionate responses consistently, usually one of two things happen: 1) The attacker gets bored or frustrated and fades away or 2) They become interested in how their victims maintain their peaceful and compassionate nature. At that point, the attacker could end up being a seeker of truth. 

It's very common to view forgiveness as removal of judgment or letting someone "off the hook." Yes, that's a nice thing to do, but what does it actually accomplish? Often it encourages bad behavior, as the offender depends on such forgiveness for opportunities to get away with even more bad actions. 

Some people "forgive" as a proclamation of their own virtue. Such people tend to be transparent to everyone but themselves. 

In my opinion, whether it's in cyber-land or real life, forgiveness of the greatest value takes the form of seeking healing or resolution of the pain/suffering that lead to the negative or pathological behavior. 

So, instead of singing to one's self, "How great I art, 'cause I forgave you," the focus becomes, "How can I help?"

Trolls are fellow humans who have not yet encountered the Light. They may be convinced their illusions are real. They may believe it's the spiritually oriented people who are messed up, and need help to be brought back to "reality." 

Some need to be forgiven and put in jail anyway. Some soldiers feel both forgiveness and grief when causing the death of an enemy. Far from being a mushy, feel good thing, forgiveness calls upon strength and courage. 

In this little cyber-haven, we can choose to respond in the most useful and compassionate way possible, thereby demonstrating how understanding and connection with Source serves us.