Dealing with criticism is difficult for most of us. Whether it's professional criticism, friends criticizing our personal behavior or total strangers criticizing out public behavior. On top of all that, we may also face criticism as part of a group. Our church may get criticized, or our school. Our race may be the brunt of some criticism. Our nationality may be the brunt of jokes.
    Part of becoming a mature adult is learning to handle criticism gracefully and, perhaps more importantly, learning when to listen to the critics and when to ignore them. If you're a professional writer, for example, you have to pay attention to what the professional reviewers say about your writing, even if you don't agree with them because they can influence the sales of your book, or your future writing assignments. 
    On the spiritual side, we also have to deal with criticism. They may criticize the specific church or spiritual school you belong to. They may criticize the teachings. And in many cases, especially in the last few years, they may criticize the whole concept of God and spiritual worlds. You have to become fairly thick-skinned about it when you know in your heart that what you are doing is the right thing and that the critics are either jealous of your commitment or are just ignorant of truth. And it is usually best to avoid arguing with a critic who criticizes you in public or in front of friends. Arguing with them tends to make you look bad so the best response is usually to just smile and tell the critic he is entitled to his opinion and so are you.