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If you’re willing to stand tall with your head above the crowd, someone is bound to throw a tomato at you. It’s just the way that it is. There will be people that love you, there will be people that hate you, there will be people that could care less and be completely neutral towards you. That’s just life. When you know what you’re doing is authentic and truly you, please do let the words of criticism slide right off your body—don’t even let it into your field. You’re doing what you’re doing, you’re living your life, because it’s your duty and your right, to live the life you choose, to fully be yourself, not in condition to the praise or the haze from any outside forces.
In Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke writes:
"Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or less fortunate misunderstandings. Things aren't all so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe; most experiences are unsayable, they happen in a space that no word has ever entered, and more unsayable than all other things are works of art, those mysterious existences, whose life endures beside our own small, transitory life."
What that means is this: Your judgment, your opinion, your criticism of what you experienced of others on the most surface level of reality—think twice before it comes out of your mouth—especially if you weren’t asked for it. C’mon, wake up. Who are you to judge another? Are your words serving the greater good for all or is it serving the validation of your ego? Is it coming from your heart? Are you doing a disservice or service with you words?
I’m strong and have an abnormally fierce will. I know that. Although, I also have my moments when things get to me. I get annoyed, I get frustrated and time to time, I get disheartened. I’m sensitive. I’m a yogi. I’m a human and I have yet to meet a perfect human. So yo, give one another some damn slack.
The Bhagavad Gita is my go to for wisdom and guidance. While you trek along this journey of your dharma, you will come across many different situations that will, no doubt, challenge you. Stay true to you and your work. Stay grounded and centered within your internal domain. The whimsical fancies of others thoughts and opinions, listen, receive what resonates and throw away the rest. Let it roll, let it roll. You just keep on doin’ your thing and always always—remember Arjuna.
The following scriptures are from The Bhagavad Gita, translation by Winthrop Sargeant. Gandhi would go to the Gita for solace and support in times of grief. Amazing what books and the power of the written word is capable of speaking. Live your dharma, live your Truth! Do what makes you happy and anything and anyone who do not support you in your pursuit of your bliss, well, they’re the ones who are missin’ out. HAVE FUN AND ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF THE JOURNEY!
II:31
And, perceiving your own caste duty,
You should not tremble.
Indeed, anything superior to righteous battle
Does not exist for the kshatriya.
II:47
Your right is to action alone;
Never to its fruits at any time.
Never should the fruits of action be your motive;
Never let there be attachment to inaction in you.
II:48
Fixed in yoga, perform actions,
Having abandoned attachment, Arjuna,
And having become indifferent to success or failure.
It is said that evenness of mind is yoga.
III:19
Therefore, constantly unattached,
Perform that action which is your duty.
Indeed, by performing action while unattached,
Man attains the Supreme.
IV:17
One must know the nature of action,
The nature of wrong action,
And also the nature of inaction.
The way of action is profound.
V:24
He who finds his happiness within,
His delight within,
And his light within,
This yogin attains the bliss of
Brahman, becoming Brahman.
XVIII:47
Better one’s own duty, though imperfect,
Than the duty of another well performed,
Performing the duty prescribed by one’s own nature,
One does not incur evil.
Published June 15, 2012 at 8:20 AM
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