Lord Buddha was passing through a village, and the people came and insulted him. They used all the four-letter words that they knew. Lord Buddha stood there, listened silently, very attentively, and then said, “Thank you for coming to me, but I am in a hurry. I must reach the next village; people will be waiting for me there. I cannot devote more time to you today, but tomorrow coming back I will have more time. You can gather again, and tomorrow if something is left that you wanted to say but have not been able to, you can say it. But today, please excuse me.”

Those people could not believe their ears: this man has remained utterly unaffected, undistracted. One of them asked, “Have you not heard us? We have been abusing you like anything, and you have not even answered!”

Lord Buddha said, “If you wanted an answer, then you have come too late. You should have come ten years ago; then I would have answered you. But for these ten years, I have stopped being manipulated by others. I am no longer a slave; I am my own master. I act according to myself, not according to anybody else. I act according to my inner needs. You cannot force me to do anything. It’s perfectly good: you wanted to abuse me; you abused me! Feel fulfilled. You have done your work perfectly well. But as far as I am concerned, I don’t take your insults, and unless I take them, they are meaningless.”

When somebody insults you, you must become a receiver; you must accept what he says; only then can you react. But if you don’t accept, if you simply remain detached, if you keep the distance if you remain cool, what can he do?

Lord Buddha said, “Somebody can throw a burning torch into the river. It will remain alight till it reaches the river. The moment it falls into the river, all fire is gone; the river cools it. I have become a river. You throw abuses at me. They are fire when you throw them, but the moment they reach me, in my coolness, their fire is lost. They no longer hurt. You throw thorns, and falling in my silence; they become flowers. I act out of my own intrinsic nature.”

“Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is like expecting the lion not to attack you because you are a vegetarian!! Think about it.”

“There’s no reason to stay stuck. There’s nothing that can take you down without your permission.” — Jack Canfield

“Freedom comes only from seeing the ignorance of your critics and discovering the emptiness of their virtue.” — David Seabury 

“Never let life’s hardships disturb you.  After all, no one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages. One is not necessarily the target of slander and criticism because one has done something wrong.  On the contrary, even saints and sages are maligned and abused. Sometimes, people’s very greatness makes them the target of persecution. We shouldn’t let it worry or perturb us.” — Nichiren Daishonin

One who feels insulted for every small thing indicates low self-esteem. Moreover, who gets insulted? It is the puny little ego, which is non-existent, but appears to be in its own absence, like the mirage water. This low self-esteem is a big offence against our essential nature — the pure self, which is ever free, eternal, infinite, pure blissful awareness.