How to Break Free from the Trap of Seeking External Validation?
The relationship can be very strong, but the strength of the relationship may not necessarily be an auspicious thing. You can have a very, very strong relationship with the external, and yet it could be from a very wrong center. And what do we mean by wrong? The center of inner ignorance.
This summary is AI-generated. Please read the full article for complete understanding.
Questioner: Pranaam Acharya Ji. Acharya Ji, my question is: how to break free from seeking external validation? I keep repeating the same mistake again and again. Where am I going wrong?
Acharya Prashant: You see, we are made in a way that we'll always have a relationship with the external. When we say internal, we mean things that we consider as part of the self—all that we call as internal. So the body, mind, thoughts, feelings—these we usually call as internal. And then these objects of senses, the entire big world—these we call as external. We'll always have a relationship with the external
The relationship can be of two very different kinds. One, when you know yourself and are sure of yourself within—that is one center to operate from. And second is when you do not know of yourself, when you have never bothered to be authentic in your thoughts, beliefs, actions, way of life—then that is another center one operates from. See, when one operates from a center of inner ignorance, then it becomes very necessary to depend on the outer, and that is one kind of relationship.
You can be greatly related to the other, very strongly related, very inexorably related to the other, and yet you could be related from the wrong center. You could say you could be related because of the wrong reasons.
