Comments on: James: You’re Going to Hell http://www.effectivefamilycommunication.com/josh-youre-going-to-hell/ Learning to Love and Get Along with Ourselves and Others Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:46:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Ben http://www.effectivefamilycommunication.com/josh-youre-going-to-hell/comment-page-1/#comment-76 Ben Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:10:28 +0000 http://www.effectivefamilycommunication.com/?p=17#comment-76 Caring about someone, and letting that person know we care, is sometimes all that is required to change a person's life for the better. Caring about someone, and letting that person know we care, is sometimes all that is required to change a person’s life for the better.

]]> By: Adam http://www.effectivefamilycommunication.com/josh-youre-going-to-hell/comment-page-1/#comment-73 Adam Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:04:05 +0000 http://www.effectivefamilycommunication.com/?p=17#comment-73 As a Buddhist I would have to agree with you. In Buddhism we are taught that if someone dies with negativity in their mind (as is fairly likely if they overdose on drugs), the consequences of this are that they take lower rebirth (as an animal, a hungry ghost, or a hell being). I don't think that this was the wrong thing to do. This poor guy guy clearly felt that no one cared about him, and that he wasn't worthy of anyone's concern either - hence his statement that you'd be better off worrying about yourself. Essentially, you were letting him know that you did care about him, that you recognised his reckless disregard for his own life, and that you wanted to let him know that he shouldn't comfort himself with the thought that death would be a prelude to an eternity in paradise - quite the opposite. Even if it didn't work in terms of making him change his ways, at least he would have gone away with the feeling that there was at least one person he knew who did in fact care about his welfare in this life, and the next. As a Buddhist I would have to agree with you. In Buddhism we are taught that if someone dies with negativity in their mind (as is fairly likely if they overdose on drugs), the consequences of this are that they take lower rebirth (as an animal, a hungry ghost, or a hell being).

I don’t think that this was the wrong thing to do. This poor guy guy clearly felt that no one cared about him, and that he wasn’t worthy of anyone’s concern either – hence his statement that you’d be better off worrying about yourself.

Essentially, you were letting him know that you did care about him, that you recognised his reckless disregard for his own life, and that you wanted to let him know that he shouldn’t comfort himself with the thought that death would be a prelude to an eternity in paradise – quite the opposite.

Even if it didn’t work in terms of making him change his ways, at least he would have gone away with the feeling that there was at least one person he knew who did in fact care about his welfare in this life, and the next.

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