Christians sometimes end their notes to each other with “in Christ,” “in God’s Love”, “keeping the faith”, “have a blessed day” and many more nauseating, sanctimonious, trite sayings. They bizarrely also reflexively use these empty phrases when closing vituperous comments on blogs. Many Western Buddhist likewise often use a hackneyed passive-aggressive comment closing called “metta,” or “with much metta”. “Metta”, means “loving-kindness” which is a Buddhist virtue. Another common ending on Buddhist posts is the hand salutation called a “gasshō” which is symbolized as “_/\_”.
It is funny to watch both Christians and Buddhists attack each other in blog post debates and yet end their comments with these holy closings. I offer my above photoshop creation today as a curative for such sanctimonious silliness. Mind you, there may be a place for such greetings, but when they clog up dialogue and block self-insight with this holy hiding of intent, and false comforting smugness, then such constipation should be addressed. If you are afflicted, send for your free trial bottle of Metta-mucil today!
Triangulations 
Ha! Looks delicious!
In FSM,
Mike
I kept seeing some ending their notes with “Pax”. I had to google it. I was quite surprised at it’s meaning after reading the content of the comment. Doh!
I’ve seen that too, D’Ma. Maybe they should translate “you mother ^&%&^%&^” into Latin too, and ad that to their sign off. 😉
LOL! I think you should put that in your side-bar.
I love it!
Others are namaste, “God willing”, and PBUH.
I see namaste a lot, especially from folks who take yoga. Haven’t seen any of them be jerks yet. 😉
@ Sabio: Human beings are all searching for that something that gives them meaning and comfort. Some of the answers they find are dangerous like militant fundamentalism, while some are nauseating like Jim and Tammy Fay Baker’s version of the Bible. But when like-minded people exchange greetings coming or going they will usually use something familiar to their organization or group. I am not sure this warrants the intense post here. I must play “devil’s advocate” (if you’ll excuse the religious expression… :-}). This post feels angry and almost mean. It is not up to the intellectual standard you have set on the blog. If you have taught me anything Sabio, it is to honest when I write.
@ Mike: I agree, regarding the namaste’ folks… usually pretty straightforward and unthreatening… rarely nauseating. I do not see why anyone would have a problem with
_/\_ namaste’ or gassho … and if christians want to greet each other with familiarity then go for it…
We are all just looking for a little shelter from the storm.
@ Ed,
I agree that people scramble for comfort and meaning. It is only natural and sometime successful but often disillusionally disappointing.
If you will note, I said,
It is this phenomena that really inspired this post.
But indeed, beyond this, reflexive, self-comforting tribalism is also deserving of some ridicule. For we need to stop taking ourselves so seriously.
Thanks for your comment,
May the Flying-Spaghetti-Monster’s holy appendages tickle your soul !
— Sabio in all his negativity (not trying to be nice) 🙂
I have to agree with Ed on this one: nauseating , sanctimonious and trite are hardly objective categorizations. You can better navigate life with ‘ skepticism, freedom and compassion’, per your mission statement, without the unwarrantably harsh tone. . A very heated, spirited debate can and should be civil, as polemicists over many centuries have shown us. Peace brother!
My guess is that Sabio was more “nauseated” by the things they said in the body of their posts, rather than the sign-offs. Unfortunately, that’s hard to convey without examples.
To be fair, it did come across as a bit petty and biased (‘nauseating’ sounds worse than ‘hackneyed’, IMHO). But ironically, I suspect that that’s a reflection of Sabio’s restraint in not posting the specific missives involved.
Ia Cthulhu, Ftagn!
DaCheese
_/\_
i kid i kid
In the comments, we have both Buddhists and Christians enjoying my humor and getting what I am pointing at. But we have others who find my expression mean-hearted.
Note to self: Do not use at large public gatherings.
But it is so fun to break the rules, especially the sacred ones. Alas, there is no hope for me.
how dare you! what do you know you’re outside the tribe and can’t understand the complexities! that’s why i write “in Christ” so that you know that you’re obviously ‘OUT Christ’ as in -without, need to become like me, obviously misguided.
i take great pride in being In Christ even though Christ says pride is bad and many traditions have labeled it a sin but aside from that i also have my conviction that i’m right 100%, 100% of the time. so my problem isn’t so much constipation as it is crapping all over others and then flinging poo to make sure you get the point (new twist on your Monkey god post? ;-))
In Sarcasm,
-z1g
Out Sarcasm: great post, i get it. right on the money dawg.
@ Ghost: LOL ! You got it ! !
Sabio, did you make the Metta-mucil image? It’s a terrific idea, one way or the other.
I don’t know how you have time to do all this stuff here. Really.
@ Paul,
Yes indeed, it is my photoshopped image! Brilliant, isn’t it.
Cheap too — would you like a case?
_/\_
😉
It’s clever, my dear, and a few different interpretations might be made. 😉
Thanks, Jamie! I am sure !
_/\_
so was yours the passive aggressive one,
or the legit?
When I was in Nepal and Tibet we made the sign with our hands
all the time – though it was legit.
Mine was the humorous one sent to someone sending out Sanskrit chants. AGAIN, AN AUDIENCE THING. LOL
Btw, I lived in South Asia and Tibet area for almost 3 years
7 in Japan
CHINA TOO