sanctimony

An friend I do not know in person (but only through the Internet where he has offered me support and encouragement in the past), sent along some kind words today: "After wading through the mountains of sanctimonious airy-fairy bullshit written about Zen practice, it was a real pleasure to find your book, and then your blog."

Did I preen and purr. Yes, I did, a little bit.

But his words also made me think about "sanctimony," a word defined by an Internet dictionary as,

 the quality of being hypocritically devout

"Hypocritically" means that a person does not put his money where his mouth is, that s/he may talk the talk but does not walk the walk. And in this regard, I guess I am as guilty as the next person of accusing someone else of being a sanctimonious nitwit ... seldom me, always you or him or her or them.

But when I look around in my life, past and present, there seems to be a lot of proof positive that I was a remain more than capable of sanctimony -- claiming to take something seriously without seriously investigating it. Really, the laundry list is pretty long.

And from these sanctimonious heights, I would suggest that sanctimony is worth keeping an eye on, assuming it can't be avoided in the first place.