Why white people need to stop saying 'namaste'

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Being able to detect shades of grey and growing out of dualistic thinking is the hallmark of having achieved a mature stage of moral and cognitive development. Everything in the human experience is subject to a sliding scale. You don't have to agree with where I draw the line on this particular issue, but character assassination is a little much, wouldn't you say?

This is an easy fix. Do whatever you want. Whoever doesn't like it can cry to whomever they think might care. Thus, leaving me out of it.

Taa Daa.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: DBCowboy

I was also looking forward to 'devoured Benji'.

About the only yoga move I can make is "The inflamed Hemorrhoids" which is also the name of my aged rock band.

Namaste'

originally posted by: DBCowboy
About the only yoga move I can make is "The inflamed Hemorrhoids"...

Nanasty.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

That is what I normally do but sometimes you just get tired of it.

a reply to: Dark Ghost

I think the author, Kamna Muddagouni, is a total #ing idiot, and should probably stay closed off in her own ethnocentric circle if that is how she feels.

That said, I think non-yogis of all ethnicities and religions should stop saying namaste because it makes them sound douchy. I mean, if they want to, they're completely free to, but it lowers their standing in my eyes. Not because of "cultural appropriation", but simply because it's douchy, latching-on, using of a phrase they don't fully grasp trendy.

originally posted by: mamabeth
That is what I normally do but sometimes you just get tired of it.

There are bigger things in life to worry about than some tool bag who wants to get their panties in a twist. If they get under your skin they already accomplished their goal.

Didn't Bruce Lee catch a lot of flak in a similar fashion teaching martial arts in the west?

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

17 year old BFFT was an unfiltered mess

:-)

nice - and kinda sweet

The difference now? They have a platform. Back then we'd just make fun of them until they shut up again. Now, they have communities where they find validation and support.

When we're young - we deserve a chance to run off at the mouth. We form our thinking about our place in the world and learn to assert our individuality just like this. Sometimes that means mouthing off about how other people behave, what they say - how they should handle things

When we get older? We all change - somehow, some ways - even if we stay true to our original world view. But we still mouth off about how other people should behave. That makes us all social justice warriors - and it greases the wheels of civilization - don't you think?

Some social justice warriors have made all the difference in how some people are perceived today - and that translates into how they are actually treated in real life. I'm talking about all walks of life here - religion, ethnicity - gender

Just words and opinions...reason and time

I had a favorite teacher in high school - the most left leaning, Dylan quoting social justice warrior you would ever want to meet. Kids today should be so lucky as to have a teacher like him

He demanded that you think, that you have an opinion. That you speak up - and speak out

He also taught me that balance is everything - and that the right cannot function without the left - and the left is nothing without the right

In a world where people don't like to have to rearrange their beliefs or their thinking - nothing changes without a little friction. Bless those girls that you tried to mock into silence :-)

How can any of us make an intelligent argument against the beauty of this amazing noise we all get to be a part of?

originally posted by: dogstar23
a reply to: Dark Ghost

I think the author, Kamna Muddagouni, is a total #ing idiot, and should probably stay closed off in her own ethnocentric circle if that is how she feels.

That said, I think non-yogis of all ethnicities and religions should stop saying namaste because it makes them sound douchy. I mean, if they want to, they're completely free to, but it lowers their standing in my eyes. Not because of "cultural appropriation", but simply because it's douchy, latching-on, using of a phrase they don't fully grasp trendy.

What makes it douchey? Would it be less douchey if they were practicing Hindus who understood what they were saying?

originally posted by: Spookytraction

Would it be less douchey if they were practicing Hindus who understood what they were saying?

Yes.

I just think everyone should stop saying it because it makes you look like a huge douchebag

originally posted by: Domo1
I just think everyone should stop saying it because it makes you look like a huge douchebag

Yes, but why is that? Is it because adopting the trappings of another culture in a superficial manner looks ridiculous? Is there a more specific term for that than "douchey"?

a reply to: dogstar23

Yeah, I never got into the trendy thing.

I met a gal just recently who's saying "Namaste" because she "found enlightenment". She knows nothing about Hindi. She isn't meditating. She found this "enlightenment" through a hallucinogenic that seems to be getting popular around here as of late to 'fix your spirit'. Damn wannabe hippies! So now... She just says Namaste because it's supposed to mean something, yet she really has no clue of the relation it has to anything at all.

This is just stupid.

Personally, no one should stop you from saying anything for any reasons. No words should be taboo for any people. Though, you shouldn't cringe when I call you a flipping idiot for trying to be something you're not when you know zero about the history of your new trendy word.

Conformism 101?

a reply to: Domo1

Namaste Domo1

:-)

a reply to: Spookytraction

Appropriate whatever culture you want, just don't try to seem deep/spiritual/worldly by using a word you probably don't understand.

Douchey works. As long as you're a white male that wears Chubbies.

While I have no issue whatsoever with people taking those aspects of any path from anywhere in the world and melding them into their own form of self-enrichment practice, and I don't think people should stop doing it if it helps them, I can kind of understand where the author is coming from.

In my case though, it's not so much cultural misappropriation being my pet peeve, as people assuming authenticity and authority in their chosen hodge podge of practices where in reality there is merely synthesis and even sometimes outright facsimile.

I don't like our western use of the word "karma," either. The traditions and belief systems containing the concept of karma would not delight in others' suffering even if it was teaching them a lesson or coming about through through their own mistakes, yet here whenever something bad happens to someone we dislike or who has done something with which we disagree, someone invariably says, "Ha! Karma's a ____." That's not how traditional precepts of karma work, and it's not in the spirit of those traditions and belief systems.

That said? To each their own. Everyone can do and say whatever they want to ultimately, and I'm not telling anyone to stop. Just exercising my own equally valid right to say it does sometimes rub me the wrong way. But if it enriches people's lives and improves their health, then that aspect of it is a net positive imo, and I say carry on.

Peace.

originally posted by: Spiramirabilis
a reply to: Domo1

Namaste Domo1

:-)

Stop that you!

originally posted by: AceWombat04
The traditions and belief systems containing the concept of karma would not delight in others' suffering

Yeah that would be schadenfreude. Totally different head.

originally posted by: Domo1
I just think everyone should stop saying it because it makes you look like a huge douchebag

Danke schön.