I’m fascinated by my choice of verses in Wayne Dyer’s book today. I like to scan the table of contents and pick the Tao Te Ching verse that speaks to me at that moment. Today it was verse 56, or as Dyer calls it, “Living by Silent Knowing”:
http://www.taoteching.org/chapters/56.htm
Dyer sums up the verse this way: Those who care the least about approval seem to receive it the most.
This jumps out at me at a time when I am contemplating my professional growth. The verse is tied to the stillness, more like silence, that I have recently found to be valuable at regular intervals in my life.
I like it.
Your blog post gave me a timely reminder of:
‘Those who care the least about approval seem to receive it the most’
My husband and I were chatting today and I have been having a lot of issues with my mother in law as we disapprove of each other greatly. I suppose the disapproval is there because we are both desperately seeking approval from one another. However, my husband mentioned something that caught my attention. He said, “I learned a long time ago not to care about what others think because the more I care the more I am burned by it. My siblings found out that I cared about being chubby, and they just wouldn’t stop calling me ‘chubby chubs’ all the time” (by the way, he grew up to be very tall and skinny).
Perhaps the need for approval may be an inherent disapproval self and others.
Thank you for writing. Yes, I think that is so true. The disapproval of self is at the root of so many issues, isn’t it? If we could only love ourselves more, or at least be easier on ourselves, our quality of life would improve dramatically!