Method 66 · Attention, witnessing and inquiry
Even Under Praise and Blame
Praise/criticism equality GentleIn the app
Notice how praise and criticism land in body and mind, and explore meeting both with the same steady, interested attention rather than being pulled by either.
Understand
Few things move us as quickly as what other people say about us. A compliment can lift the whole day; a sharp comment can replay for hours. This method looks at that pull. It invites you to notice what happens inside when you are praised or criticised, and to explore whether both can be met from the same steady place.
The idea is not that praise and criticism are meaningless. Feedback can be useful, and kind words matter. The method points instead to the awareness that receives them. Seen from there, praise and blame are both experiences that arise, bring their feelings and sensations, and pass. Accounts of this kind of practice describe a growing sense of balance: still caring about what is said, but less thrown about by it.
A common misunderstanding is to think the aim is indifference, or to pretend that criticism does not hurt. Pushing feelings down is not equanimity; it usually makes them louder. Here the feeling is allowed to be there and is looked at with curiosity. Another misunderstanding is to dismiss all feedback as “just words”. You can stay open to what is useful in a comment while being less ruled by the sting or the glow.
This method may suit people who notice they are strongly driven by approval, or easily knocked off balance by criticism, and who would like to understand that pattern more clearly. It works best with mild, everyday examples. If criticism you have received is tied to bullying, abuse or a painful period of life, it is wiser to set this practice aside or explore it with suitable support, and to begin with simpler body or breath methods.
Deep dive
The Vijñāna Bhairava includes a small group of methods that work with the pairs of opposites that shape ordinary life: pleasure and pain, friend and stranger, honour and dishonour. This method belongs with them. Its theme is evenness, the possibility of meeting opposite experiences with the same quality of awareness rather than swinging between them.
Teachers have commonly read this kind of practice in two complementary ways. One reading is ethical and psychological: by noticing how strongly we crave praise and fear blame, we see how much of our behaviour is organised around other people’s opinions, and that seeing loosens the habit. The other reading is more contemplative: praise and criticism are both appearances within awareness, and awareness itself is not made larger by one or smaller by the other. Many contemplative traditions, not only this one, value a similar evenness of mind. These interpretations are offered as commentary rather than as a statement of what the text literally says.
Some historical forms of training in equanimity were quite intense. Practitioners might deliberately seek out insult or humiliation, or live under strict discipline designed to wear down pride. Those approaches belonged to particular communities with their own supports and are not appropriate for self-guided practice. Deliberately exposing yourself to harsh criticism, or staying in a situation where you are mistreated in order to practise equanimity, is not what a modern adaptation would ask.
A safer, everyday interpretation keeps the method small and kind. It works with mild, recent moments of praise or criticism, or with the ones that arrive naturally during an ordinary day. It focuses on noticing sensations and feelings rather than judging yourself for having them. It leaves room for action: equanimity does not mean accepting unfair treatment, and you can stay steady while still setting boundaries or asking for change. And it treats any sense of balance as something that grows gradually, not a standard to reach.
Seven Doors places this method in the Feeling door, while grouping it with the awareness methods, because it sits where attention meets emotion. It can pair well with practices that rest attention on whatever arises, since the same open noticing is being applied to a particularly sticky kind of experience.
How to try
Sit comfortably and let your breathing settle by itself. Recall a small, recent compliment. Notice where it registers in the body, perhaps warmth or lightness, and any thoughts that follow. Let it fade. Now recall a mild, fair piece of criticism, nothing painful. Notice where that registers too, perhaps tightness or heat, without arguing with it. Then rest for a moment as the one who noticed both. If either memory becomes upsetting, let it go and feel your feet on the floor. Finish by opening your eyes and looking around the room.
Stop whenever something feels uncomfortable. Open your eyes, feel your feet on the floor and look around the room.
Source text
Verse 125 · The Vijñāna Bhairava, ed. Mukunda Rāma Shāstrī, Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies 8 (1918)
समः शत्रौ च मित्रे च समो मानावमानयोः ।
ब्रह्मणः परिपूर्णत्वादिति ज्ञात्वा सुखी भवेत् ॥
samaḥ śatrau ca mitre ca samo mānāvamānayoḥ |
brahmaṇaḥ paripūrṇatvāditi jñātvā sukhī bhavet ||
Translation
Being the same towards enemy and friend, the same in honour and dishonour, and knowing that the absolute is wholly full, one becomes happy.
How the practice adapts it
The verse asks for evenness towards friend and enemy, honour and dishonour; the practice keeps meeting praise and blame with the same steady attention.
Seven Doors’ own translation from the Sanskrit of the 1918 KSTS text, made and reviewed with AI assistance in two independent passes; the works listed were drawn on for the meaning of hard words, from the AI’s knowledge of them, and were not compared page by page.