I've been a fairly serious meditator in a Buddhist tradition for more than a decade.
From that perspective, the only response in harmony with that worldview in "low expectations" but in truth "no expectations" is closer to the goal of being unattached to outcomes. Recognizing that relationships are constantly in flux and honing my ability to notice the qualities of that change helps. I am working on patience and in many areas of my life, because I have noticed a deficit in my personality.
Your eagerness to judge other people on precious little evidence runs rather counter to this. Maybe some meditation would help.
Actually, you have been pretty consistent with the traits that allowed me to draw the conclusion that your extreme righteousness has backed you into a corner, or out of the loop, in many contexts, including the professional.
Being flawed is not against the rules, but telling someone their practice is flawed because they are not perfect, Jesus, or the Buddha is kind of clueless and bitter. IMO, it's one of the most revealing indicators of a person who hasn't taken many steps on their own path.
PS: Being a meditator makes it easy not to take this personally
and apologize to lorelei for misinterpreting her post which should have alerted me to yours. It also makes it easy to tell the
people person who one-off me when it hurts (after I sit with meditate on and observe those feelings for awhile, several weeks, if not a couple of months in the case of the hatter) and not to give a hoot other than some genuine compassion for sense I have of the maimed inner lives of those whose one-offs don't. Then there are those one-offers who are so predictable, I might even miss them if they let up.
Does this make sense? If not, try meditation. You can learn a lot about your process, which is a poor substitute for criticizing mine, when it comes to not taking things personally.
