Gossip

Last night, we had a private screening of the John Patrick Shanley film, Doubt, starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymore Hoffman.

Set in 1964, Doubt centers on an old Italian nun, Sister Aloysius Beauvier, who confronts a priest, after suspecting that he might be sexually abusing a young, Black student. He denies the charges, and much of the film's quick-fire dialogue tackles themes of religion, morality and authority. However, one particularly poignant scene involves a sermon, in which Hoffman's character, Fr. Flynn, tells a story about a woman, who spread gossip about somebody. She later felt guilty, and went to sleep, only to dream she saw the hand of God pointing down at her.

Naturally, the woman went to the confessional and told the parish priest how she gossipped and felt remorse. The priest gave her a penance, and she quickly said that she was grateful to have been forgiven.

"Not so fast!" the priest said. "I want you to take a pillow from yoru bed, go onto your roof, and take a knife to that pillow, until it's torn to shreds... then come back here to me."

The next afternoon, the old woman returned to the confessional and told the priest that she did as he instructed.

"Good," said the priest, "Now, I want you to gather back all of the feathers from that pillow."

"But Father," the old woman protested, "It would be impossible... the winds carried those feathers away. I could never get them all back. I wouldn't dare imagine where they ended up."

"And THAT," the old Irish priest exclaimed, "those feathers in the wind, is what GOSSIP is!"

Gossip is an extreme example of what happens when we cling to our opinions and perceptions. Even our tendency to cling to our dogmatic and sectarian spiritual views fall into this category.

The Buddhist philosophy describes this dogmatic adherence to one's own ideology "ditthi-paramasa", and teaches that adherence to one's dogmatic ideology is more dangerous than ordinate attachment to material things.

It is this warped perception that leads to religious fundamentalism and exclusionary views.

Similarly, when we fall into the habit of clinging to our delusional ideas and opinions of right and wrong, we easily begin to judge others, and in so doing, give rise to a hunger for gossip. This is neither helpful nor compassionate.

Genuine compassion also gives rise to mindfulness of the interconnected nature of all beings and phenomena. Compassion is not idealistic.

Unless we learn to let go of our opinions, accepting them simply as they are, and allowing for others to do the same, we will be setting upon the wind a storm of feathers.

And we could never hope to gather those feathers again...

Namasté!

- dharmacharya gurudas śunyatananda
http://dharmadudeunplugged.com

 

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