Imagine if you said something true but unpopular in your social and professional spheres.

You could reasonably assume people would probably be talking badly about you amongst each other.

I used to think enlightenment meant imagining all the disparaging comments people might make and being okay with it. Every last petty personal disparagement of who you are and of your character, no matter how dishonest or out of context.

Consider the most passive aggressive person with whom you had had several run-ins, implying, insinuating, exaggerating or outright fabricating things you said or did.

You imagine all these attacks in detail, turn them over in your mind. “Yes, but I told the truth you tell yourself, and they are in the wrong."

But you are not cool with this at all. Your feelings are hurt, you’re angry, knowing what is likely going on, the unjust damage to your reputation, the likely social and professional consequences.

Maybe you shouldn’t have said it. Maybe you should have kept your mouth shut after all, since you are not enlightened and not prepared to suffer all this agitation.

. . .

But what I realized was that enlightenment isn’t about not caring what people think of you or what they say about you. It’s just choosing not to think about it.

You don’t agonize about any of it at all, just go about the business of your life.

. . .

Is this any different than fearing what the state will do if you speak your mind and exercise your rights?