"In this world no one escapes from blame," said the Buddha. How can we deal with blame from others skillfully without getting crushed by criticism or react to it in a way that causes more suffering for ourselves and other? The key to not being lost in Praise or Blame is non-identification, not taking ownership of your experience. This includes not identifying with your body or mind. We can appreciate the gifts we've been given as well as our shortcomings without taking them personally. This is the natural by-product of understanding anatta, the selfless nature of existence.

Advaita teacher H. W. L. Poonja spoke of emptiness as "No place to land." This follow-up talk on Praise and Blame, discusses how understanding the Buddha's teaching on Emptiness—the selfless nature of the process—we can appreciate the positive impact we have on others without taking personal credit when praise comes our way.

"Pleasure/Pain; Gain/Loss; Praise/Blame; Fame/Disrepute". Talk offers equanimity wisdom teachings and practical tools for "riding the eight worldly winds."

An examination of how we practice with pleasure and pain, gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame; with stories referring to Buddha's teaching + discussion.

We continue to explore the cultivation of equanimity by focusing especially on how we keep balance and, increasingly, unshakability with the eight worldly winds of pleasure and pain, gain and loss, fame and disrepute, and praise and blame. We also focus on the qualities of understanding, joy and faith found in mature equanimity, with stories from Martin Luther Kind, Jr., Etty Hillesun and more treatment of multiple near-enemies of equnimity.

The world spins around the alternating pairs of gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute, and happiness and unhappiness. When we bring them into our awareness, we see how much of our time and energy is spent trying to create and hold on to the positive ones, and avoid or get rid of the negative ones. If we see with wisdom, we realize that these conditions are always operating no matter what we do, and that the skillful way to respond to them is to come to a clearer understanding of what actually brings us true happiness and a sense of well-being, and to cultivate that, rather than chase after gain, praise, fame, and superficial happiness.

Success and Failure, Gain and Loss, Praise and Blame, Pleasure and Pain can haunt our life. All these wordly conditions weave in and out of each other.