Nonjudgement
Scripture ~ Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back – given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.” Luke 6:37-38 The Message
Spiritual Focus ~ “Simply put, mindfulness is moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness.” Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor of medicine, author, meditation teacher, founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
Breath Prayer ~ Inhale, One Path ~ Exhale, Love
Devotion ~ As we study Jesus’ sermon on the plain, love your enemies is probably the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings to practice and do not be judgmental is perhaps the second. However, nonjudgment is central to living a blessed life. Judgement often results in suffering. Psycho-social therapists believe that people who are judgmental of others do so because they themselves have been harshly judged or harmed by others’ judgment of them. They project the hurt they have experienced on to others.
Honestly, we are all judgmental. To recognize this trait in oneself gives us the choice to practice love and acceptance rather than drawing us down a path that harms others by judging them. Being aware of our own “stuff” can lead us to being easy on ourselves and on others and it is a moment-to-moment practice. A mindfulness practice of nonjudgement requires critical thinking, discerning what is true, and what is necessary in words and actions. When we practice nonjudgment we are not only freeing ourselves to live easier lives, we’re also moving ourselves along the one path, the journey of love toward God’s vision of life together.
Nonjudgement is central to most faith traditions, secular ethics, and spiritualities of many cultures, and it is an important intersection between theology and yoga philosophy. Ahimsa is a Sanskrit word that broadly means non-violence and is the most important of the five yamas, or universal teachings of Patanjali’s eightfold path. Ahimsa means refraining from anything that harms oneself, another person in body, mind, or spirit, any living thing, and the earth itself. Ahimsa teaches anything that causes pain or harm does not recognize the Self within, the Holy Breath. Ahimsa is rooted in compassion and union with the love for the greater Self that we name God.
