Criticism and praise. Not looking up and not looking down.
Posted: 10/16/2021
Gary Vaynerchuk, despite what one’s opinion of him might be (which does not matter anyways), has an amazing quality: he is able to just be himself and not pay attention to the hate he gets because “Gary Vaynerchuk doesn't much care about what his critics think and he doesn't pay all that much attention to the praise he receives either”.
In an adjacent idea Jaggi Vasudev Sadhguru speaks of in his book Karma (and just talks online): “if you don't look up to anything and if you don't look down on anything you will pay attention to everything. If you pay attention to everything and see everything the way it is without prejudice, what is good and what is bad you will effortlessly navigate through life. Look at everything the way it is. That is all it takes to make a beautiful life. When you look up to something, you are making authority the truth. That way, truth can never be the authority in your life. If truth is not the authority in your life, you will never know what your life is about. When you look up to something, you inevitably look down on something else. The moment you stop looking up or down on anything, there will be no heaven or hell for you. As long as you think you are going to some other place, you are doing all kinds of nonsense here. Once you know you have to live on this planet, you will live sensibly”
Neither humble nor arrogant. This is a practice of a non judgemental view avoidant of any dualities (good/bad, right/wrong etc).
I guess irony is by even sharing this or writing it out here like this one might observe a sense of praising or “looking up to”ness 😅
Adjacently, one thing Pandurang Athavale Dadaji talks about is not having an inferiority or superiority complex, especially when giving. श्रध्दया देयं - Shraddhayaa Deyam - give with faith and love. Not from a place of “I’m better than you”.
The meaning of Namaskar/Namaste well explained related to this idea of seeing others as equal.