Episode 22: Telling Stories to Ourselves about Ourselves cover art

Episode 22: Telling Stories to Ourselves about Ourselves

Episode 22: Telling Stories to Ourselves about Ourselves

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 “Look [at the man who is]...the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself...Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden, p. 7. There is an Iraqi folktale of a man who is possessed by an evil jinn. Though he does not wish to, because he is possessed the man speaks horrible words that destroy beloved relationships and even cause the deaths of loved ones. Many of us may recall times when we uttered horrible words that damaged relationships, as if we too were possessed by such a jinn. One friend struck a chord with many of us when he said that he often speaks to himself about himself with that horrific voice of the evil jinn. What stories about ourselves do we tell to ourselves? The Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am committed to speaking truthfully using words that i
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