Seeking Approval

Classroom Talk: 7/16/2004 - Seeking the approval of others -- in the hope of measuring the worth of ourselves -- makes as much sense as looking for our reflection in a falling drop of rain, with the main difference being this: A raindrop actually lasts longer than does that fleeting sense of self we win for having sold our soul for another empty smile.

Classroom Talk: 5/16/2003 - There is no human being on earth with the power to grant us what our heart of hearts longs for: the end of that empty feeling that as we are, we are simply not enough. And the struggle to resolve this unwanted feeling -- by selling our souls to win the approval of others -- is to run off a cliff while chasing the end of a rainbow!

Classroom Talk: 9/25/2002 - Don't try to be free -- for this sets you against any movement of life that doesn't line up with your ideas about the nature of freedom. Better than trying to be free, learn instead to freely explore all of your moments. For instance, be free to wonder about your worries instead of feverishly working to resolve them according to your present ideas about a worry-free life...

Classroom Talk: 8/21/2002 - Whatever is True, Right, and Real in any human being need no more seek approval for its own nature than does an eagle in full flight hope to hear the "caw-caw" of some crow below it, calling out to it about how confident it looks soaring alone through the wide, open sky!