I have written about this topic before but I keep returning to it as this teaching is yielding me benefits daily. Even hour after hour and moment after moment.
I will talk about the theoretical justification of this teaching later. First let me describe the benefits that I have spoken of.
Leaving questions of good or bad, right or wrong to God almighty or to a judge in a court of law means that you are not on this earth to judge, or to punish, or to reward. You start by not judging myself. You are not obsessed with what you (or anybody else) did. You are not obsessed with being fair to people all the time. In short you are not being made miserable by a guilty conscience. It also frees up your time and energy wonderfully for constructive activities or simply to live.
You are also not being made miserable by grudges or concerned with the rightness or wrongness of how people treat you or whether you deserved what you got. You simply don’t bother about these subjects.
You are then free to live life.
You are free of the ego to some extent.
You are free to pursue your interests and hobbies and passions and do what makes you and others happy.
In my meditation practice also the habit of judging has resulted in much more peaceful and effective sessions.
You have more empathy for yourself and others. You don’t get stressed out if people behave in irritating ways around you. You are able to accept whatever is going on.
You are free to enjoy the beautiful world that we live in.
In short you have life more abundantly.
Now all this involves some amount of mental hygiene. Not judging is all very well but you still have to deal with your disturbed feelings if someone treats you badly or some upsetting memory arises or some disaster strikes.
When people treat you badly it is the most natural thing in the world to feel upset. I make it a point to not think when I am feeling bad and simply deal with the feeling and wait till it passes away. The mindfulness practices of Buddhism have proved to be invaluable to me.
And then I am in a better position to think clearly. One of my practices is to simply describe instead of judging. Use neutral language instead of emotionally charged words.
And I am much happier and more peaceful as a result.
As the Hindu scriptures say: happiness or bliss lies within us. By letting go of your thoughts, judgments and grudges you are freeing yourself of the ego. Then you are the happiness you always were; which is your true nature.
You are free to spend life in constructive activities.
As to the theoretical justification for not judging it is to be found in the Bible as well as Zen teachings. Please see the below:
The Zen scriptures say:
The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
If you want to get the plain truth,
be not concerned with right and wrong.
The conflict between right and wrong
is the sickness of the mind.
This Zen poem is attributed to the Third Patriarch of Zen, Seng-ts’an.
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