Misunderstandings...

I suddenly got a message on facebook tonight. Surprised, and a bit dumbfounded, I read through the message from a friend.

In it, the friend said how disappointed he was of the way our friendship has disintegrated in recent times, citing examples of how my words, actions or silence contributed to that. I cannot say that I have not been a little distant, or that I am innocent of things I said or did that put a strain on our friendship. But I never realised that being distant can lead to alienating people. Perhaps I simply do not know how best to balance a friendship, especially one that's laden with a history of intimacy...

It's too easy to misunderstand people. What one person wants to say and how it is received in the ears of another can sometimes be very different or completely the opposite. But is not intention what ultimately counts? Intention, as the monk in the mountains has repeatedly told me, distinguishes between whether an action or thought is right or wrong... If I don't intend to hurt or humiliate a person, then I am not guilty of hurting that person, right? But things can sometimes be turned upside down that I wonder if that still makes sense anymore...

Perhaps the best thing is to say nothing, to do nothing, to not interact at all with anyone, so nobody will be hurt by misinterpretations or misunderstandings.

Yes, it may be true that the world of people is too complex and complicated, and that life can be much simpler to retreat into the mountains and be a hermit who does nothing else but meditate on the meaning of existence with a goal to end suffering. Only then can your thoughts and actions harm no-one else but yourself...