Our judgments affect our lives much more than we realize. Our prejudices are like a filter over our eyes, preventing us from seeing things as they really are.
Our minds are constantly judging – and usually they criticize, because the mind tends always to look for what is wrong. That not only makes us feel uncomfortable, and closed off, but it also affects our relationships with others, because they sense our judgments, even if we don’t speak them.
Many of our judgments are not only about others, but are about ourselves, which directly affects how we feel.
Is there any way so that we do not become our own worst enemies?
Is there any way to stop this endless procession of judgmental thoughts?
Once we begin to understand what is happening in the mind we being to see its movements. Knowing the movements of the mind we are able to then begin to understand that the mind moves – that is its nature.
With that understanding, we can begin to see thoughts as they are, without making them so personal. It’s taking thoughts so seriously that makes us feel the gravity of them, rather than see them just being like the passing of clouds in the sky.
When we feel the weight of our thoughts we believe every movement of the mind and it is all taken seriously, but could we just remain separate from whatever happens? Is it possible to remain a watcher to whatever arises?
There’s always the feeling that we should not think badly about someone, to not feel negative emotions about someone, but it is that very meddling that creates a movement whenever we wish for something other than what is in front of us.
This creates conflict and that conflict comes because we wish something to be different that what is. What is happening is the conflict, is the aversion, is the feeling of disgust.
If we resort to some positive thinking technique that we have learned from some book what happens is that we are always at odds with what is. Being at odds with what is creates friction and the friction only continues to create more of it.
It continually rubs, creating distinction between our internal and external states – becoming forever at odds with the reality that our experience has brought to us.
This is not to say that we should be completely passive to the world, it actually requires an intense alertness to notice the movements of the mind, without being caught up in the feeling it is trying to convey.
In fact, far from being passive, watching the mind requires an active intensity that has a burning interest to see what it is looking at.
Judgment Exercises
There are a few things that we can do to begin to practice watching the movements of the mind, it’s judgments, it’s biases, it’s opinions.
Whenever you catch the mind judging or making a negative remark about someone you just take notice. The simple act of noticing stops the mind and allows for perception to take in what is in front of it.
Although a very simple almost passive act – the act itself is very active because it is a moment that is given for perception to see things afresh.
All we need is but a moment for the mind to be able to perceive the possibility of something new in front of it outside of the lens that the thought pattern would have you believe. That one moment is enough.
If we are caught up in a very intense judgment, the simple act of noticing allows for perception to open to the possibility that there is more there than just the movement of mind.
This gives some space so that we begin to see that judgment isn’t the only thing that’s going on.
Whereas before the judgment was the totality of our experience whereas now we noticed that it’s happening, but because we notice the smell of the flower and the sun behind the clouds we aren’t as absorbed into the story that the judgment would have us believe.
Can we open into wonder?
Can we remain open to wonder is the simple act of letting go of whatever content the mind would have us believe. It is the ability to let go and not hold on to the judgment that arises in our perception.
The moment we are able to let go of the attachment to the thought we begin to open into a state of wondrous curiosity. It’s as if we begin to see things for the first time.
When we are free from repetitive movements of the mind continuously labeling and telling us what we see, we begin to see things outside of the words that would define our experience.
This is the beginning or the opening of a perception that creates a more fluid movement in which we live life not based upon the dictates of the mind, but based upon a clear perception that moves and unfolds in a way that is not directed by all the noise in our heads.
What is the end goal?
It is the birth of an understanding that we are not our thoughts that we are not our judgments and that we are free to move, to live and breathe free from the dictates that would tell us otherwise; free from the biases and opinions that our mind would have us believe are real.
What does this look like? Look and find out.
