Okay, first we need to stipulate that passing judgment is an innate part of any social animal’s nature… and most especially human animals. I say “most especially” because we lug around many preconceptions that worm their way into our imagination. This natural process only begins to impede life’s flow when we nail down our judgments with cognitive certainty. To paraphrase chapter 1,
Hence, normally without judgment so as to observe its wonder. Normally having judgment so as to observe its boundary. D.C. Lau translates it with a somewhat sterner imperative, Hence always rid yourself of judgment in order to observes its secrets; But always allow yourself to have judgment in order to observe its manifestations.
The judgments we pass are actually projections of our own experience and in particular, our needs and fears. A concurrent awareness of this process as you are judging significantly dulls the edge of judgment’s blade. Recognizing that judgment is an instinct base tool for social interaction dulls it further. If you wish to further blunt that blade, accept the fact that (1) we are born with an innate set of instincts, (2) circumstances following birth feed into those instincts and bias us in certain directions, epigenetic or otherwise, that mirror our core fears and need (1).
Submitting completely to the actuality that no one has free will pretty much demolishes the destructive edge of judgment, and all one is left with is deeper self understanding. The illusion of free will simply arises out of our internal need to control circumstances to suit our agenda. It is ‘mental’. Other animals, living their moment without imaginary fields to wander, remain unburdened by this illusion.
(1) It helps to pondering a person born with Hitler’s genetic code, but raised in the outback of Australia in aboriginal circumstances. There is no way he would ever be the destructive force he became. The same applies to all of us. Just imagine your genetic self being born in completely different circumstances. A certain core essence would be the same, yet life style and circumstance possibly vastly different… depending on when and where. For example, imagine your allotment of birth DNA in a stone-age hunter-gatherer.
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