Thanks to faithful reader Pacific231 for this response to our conversation about sending love to bullies and other irritating people:

“I strongly believe that feeling compassion for a bully must not translate into martyrdom… A very recent Buddhist book on the subject of politically-engaged Buddhism… mentioned how ancient Buddhist armies were most certainly not pacifistic. They would try to avoid killing their enemies and instead shoot them in the legs or otherwise render them unable to kill or maim, keeping them alive, thus retaining the possibility they might still realize enlightenment.

“Using this same logic, one could therefore argue that fighting and beating up a physically violent bully, instead of sustaining a martyr-like beating, stops the bully from bulling and actually helps them find a new, better way of living and behaving.”