(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

My friend Marigold sent me a copy of actor Gwyneth Paltrow’s online newsletter Goop, edition April 16, 2009 in which Paltrow asks: Why are people delighted when bad things happen to other people?

Possible answer: we feel better about ourselves. Why? Because we can “shore up” what we mistakenly believe is our own independent, ongoing, permanent identity.

At the end of her article the actor asks:

I’m curious about the spiritual concept of “evil tongue” (speaking evil of others) and its pervasiveness in our culture. Why do people become energized when they say or read something negative about someone else? What does it say about where that person is? What are the consequences of perpetuating negativity or feeling schadenfreude?

While contemplating Paltrow’s question on her Goop website, I thought of the nursery rhyme about the Goops written by Gelett Burgess and published in 1900.

The Goops they lick their fingers,
And the Goops they lick their knives;
They spill their broth on the tablecloth —
Oh, they lead disgusting lives!
………
……..

This poem in turn reminded me of the Tibetan word drip

….describes contamination of ourselves and the environment—the depletion that comes from living on the “me” plan <emphasis mine>. Drip is the opposite of windhorse, Windhorse thrives on discernment and intelligence. Drip thrives on lack of it. Windhorse is the element that emerges when we engage in virtue. Drip is the element that exudes when we engage in aggression and fixation. We think we have to push to get to where we want to go. Windhorse, comes from paying attention to how we conduct our lives. (Drip) comes from feeling that it doesn’t make a difference. Windhorse attracts drala—the blessing energy that arises when we overcome our own aggression. Drip attracts obstacles. Windhorse is clean fuel, Drip is a layer of goo, like soot from a coal fire. It feels dark and heavy, like having tar in our lungs from smoking. Windhorse uplifts us. Drip thickens our mind. By cultivating negativity, we are neglecting our potential to discover basic goodness, and the pollutant in our system gains the strength to overpower our wisdom and compassion. There is no drala. Life becomes dark and difficult.

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