One must lose hope in the false idea that winning the approval of others has any real power to quiet the nature within that doesn’t know what else to do with its sense of being incomplete save to imagine itself as being something it’s not. If I am what I believe myself to be, why do I need anyone else to confirm it; and if I am not what I believe I am, then can anyone’s confirmation of this illusion make it real?

The peace of mind we seek is not to be found in the world around us, but rather in the understanding that who and what we are can’t be measured by ourselves, let alone be judged by anyone else. Thought is but an instrument, and no tool or scale can know the value of what it measures. To see the truth of this is to be touched by a grace that comes only with dying to the whole idea that you will ever be able to pocket and save what is truly Good.