The Shenpa Syndrome...

Shenpa: to get hooked, attached, stuck

This semester I'm taking World Religions. And one principle we've been really focusing on is that of Meditation and peace of mind. In reading an article the other week, we learned about Shenpa. Shenpa is a Tibetan word meaning "attachment". And I think that's a huge part of getting offended. We get hung up on something someone says and blow it all out of proportion a lot of the time. The truth is, we have the complete choice of whether or not we are "Shenpaed" to something someone says or does. You CAN choose. And honestly? Heavenly Father allows these things to happen so we can learn to control our emotions and become better disciples of Christ. Our whole purpose here on earth is to become like Him. I'm sure Christ never allowed himself to get hung up on something offensive that was said to him. He chose to disregard these kinds of matters as unimportant and instead chose to see the good in that person. So in conclusion... don't get "shenpaed".

Below is an excerpt from Pema Chodron - a tibetan teacher:

This is a teaching on a Tibetan word: shenpa. The usual translation of the word shenpa is attachment. If you were to look it up in a Tibetan dictionary, you would find that the definition was attachment. But the word "attachment" absolutely doesn't get at what it is. Dzigar Kongtrul said not to use that translation because it's incomplete, and it doesn't touch the magnitude of shenpa and the effect that it has on us.

If I were translating shenpa it would be very hard to find a word, but I'm going to give you a few. One word might be hooked. How we get hooked.