Our Problem: Seeking Validation

Validation: recognition or affirmation that our feelings or opinions are valid.

This state of mind keeps us needy, insecure, defensive and aggressive. It’s our Achilles Heel, our weak spot. In the ordinary run of things, this is the way in which we conform. Someone says, “It’s like this,” and expects others to agree, to validate them – or rather, their ideas.

When we perform – which is our usual conversation – we want validation, and wait for a clap. 

It’s the claptrap. The word ‘claptrap’ comes from the idea of ‘a trick to ‘catch’ applause’, and its meaning evolved to mean showy, cheap talk and also, to some degree, nonsense. Talking claptrap is using pompous or pretentious words to sound important.

When we look for validation, we are seeking a ‘like’ for our ideas about our self. We disregard people who don’t validate us, and they become our enemy, but it’s not the person we dislike, it’s the ideas.

Spiritual realisation/awakening isn’t like that.

This is exactly why the Buddha said, 
“Don’t take my words for the truth: test them (validate them) for yourself.”

Then you know … 
but others may not want to know what you know.
😀

On our path, we are alone,
whilst knowing that others have done the same in the past.