Kodo Sawaki Roshi was an influential Zen Master. I have written about him in an earlier blog. And a still earlier blog.
His language was earthy but his insights were penetrating. The life learnings are deep.
Another of his lessons is below:
To you who can’t stop worrying about how others see you
You can’t trade even a single fart with the next guy. Each and every one of us has to live out his own life. Don’t waste time thinking about who’s most talented.
The eyes don’t say, “Sure we’re lower, but we see more.” The eyebrows don’t reply, “Sure we don’t see anything, but we are higher up.”
The nose can’t replace the eyes, and the mouth can’t replace the ears.
Everything has its own identity, which is unsurpassable in the whole universe.
We have been trained to compare ourselves with others. The programming is deep and it is responsible for much of the angst in our life.
When I was teaching at top business schools, students would constantly compare stating salaries and the ‘prestige’ of the companies that made the offers. They would then proceed to feel elated or dejected.
I did well, extremely well, in my corporate career. But I was aware of others who did better financially, and I drank the bitter gall. I thought that ‘they’ looked down on me and laughed at me. And I was not even clear on who ‘they’ were and could not say why it mattered what ‘they’ thought.
Look back on your life. How much misery have you brought upon yourself because you were concerned about what ‘they’ thought?
I have written about this earlier.
The lesson is still valid. They are not thinking about you.
Be smart and join them. Stop thinking about you.
Peace!
