Sensei John Pulleyn, Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, offers a provocative explanation of why and how to let go of what others think about you. Learning to let go of social approval gives us the freedom to be who we are and let other people be who they are.
A couple of highlights from the article, The Big Man Can’t Shoot, are:
- It isn’t easy and it’s not comfortable to turn our back on the values and conventions all around us, especially when they’re unexamined.
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- For most of us, the approval or disapproval of others is an overwhelming force. We’re conditioned and accustomed to reading the crowd, to devoting a significant amount of our mental energy to understanding where we stand in the gaze of others.
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- (As) Anthony de Mello points out, “Being president of a corporation has nothing to do with being a success in life. Having a lot of money has nothing to do with being a success in life. You’re a success in life when you wake up! Then you don’t have to apologize to anyone, you don’t give a damn what anybody thinks about you or what anybody says about you. You have no worries; you’re happy. That’s what I call being a success.”
To enjoy the whole article, see the link below:
Life Matters 