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Jigme Dorje wrote: <<And there are always those who jump in and exploit the
situation as an opportunity to promote their own agenda, which becomes a further
irritant. As Linda reminds Tang, "This is not a contest, so there is no "best"
or "better.">>

If you mean me as "those who jump in and exploit the situation as an opportunity
to promote their own agenda", Jigme, then I plead guilty.

My agenda with regard to Evelyn has been invariant since my early dealings with
Evelyn, back in February.

Firstly, to remind her that there are rules of argument for fair argument, like
consistency, as opposed to opportunistic arguments that are purely ad hoc and
will change from one argument to the next -- what I have recently called
"turning around", of which she is a expert, as I have pointed out many times in
the last few days. Such opportunistic turning around is sleazy and contemptible,
by general consent, east and west, ancient and modern.

Secondly, that it does no good to examine others (largely for hostile reasons)
but rather to examine oneself, which is the main lesson of Buddhism. Buddhism
wouldn't exist but for self-examination. Linda has said the same thing, in
general and with regard to Evelyn in particular. (If you read carefully, you'll
see that Linda and I share lots in common in ideas, right down to the wording).
This self-examination is exactly what Evelyn tries her best to avoid, and
because of that, she is not a good Buddhist, regardless of two decades of
claimed Buddhist practice.

Thirdly, Buddhism is all about detachment, dispassion, letting-go, and I have
never seen any sign of them in Evelyn, who on the contrary is into self-grasping
and self-clinging of the tightest kind. I have said publicly that Evelyn spends
the greater part of her energy blocking herself from herself, especially from
her huge store of anger, hatred and hostility, and that all that bottled-up
anger will blow up once in a while -- which has occurred a few times already on
TRB and may yet occur again, and not just once. I have said publicly that Evelyn
is a total stranger to herself, whereas Buddhism is all about learning about
oneself, opening up oneself to oneself without restriction, in the end to let go
of oneself, but one cannot let go of something one doesn't know.

So that is my agenda with regard to Evelyn and also some other posters, which I
have steadfastly maintained and which I have made clear as daylight on TRB. To
the best of my knowledge, it does not depart from the Buddhist path, and on the
contrary veers quite close to it. If it is an irritant, much of Buddhism is an
irritant, as the Law goes against the stream, if I may remind you.

If all that is wrong, please kindly advise me.

Tang Huyen