“Those who judge will never understand, and those who understand will never ever judge.”
- Gautama Buddha
When you look around the world, you find, people are judgmental about everything. If you meet a person, immediately you come to a conclusion that person isn’t capable, he isn’t friendly or he’s crazy & so on. In most places, the law of ‘first impression’ impedes your thought process and you won’t be able to think clearly & objectively.
In the above quote, Buddha says that those who judge will never be able to understand the other person or anything & those who understand will never judge. Say, a student is taught a lesson, which he was familiar. The normally, he assumes that he knows everything about that, & he gives least attention to the teaching. As a result, he’ll not be able to understand the lesson thoroughly & it affects his performance in the exam.
The feeling of 'I don't know' fuels the wise to learn more, to be more curious & intuitive.
Even those who’re considered to be experts in the domain will be non-judgemental & curious about a new concept or theory. They listen very carefully & increase their expertise.
Judgmental attitude affects curiosity & impedes creativity.
This is applicable to the relations as well. You won’t be able to understand that person’s ideas, viewpoints or thoughts, as long as, you don't listen carefully. You will remember some bad experience with him or something bad about him & you won’t be able to understand his viewpoint. This is bias!
Most listen to the other person, not for the sake of understanding his viewpoint, but to give answers.
Bias, prejudices or judgmental attitude are obstacles to understanding and ultimately, knowledge.
It doesn't mean that you shouldn’t judge at all. But you should judge the idea & the proposal only up to the extent of that transaction, idea or event. You tend to judge the idea or viewpoint, at the beginning itself. In that way you may miss potential opportunities.
As per human psychology, an average human will have 50,000 thoughts in a day. Most of them are judgmental thoughts. You tend to pass on judgement about yourself, people & almost everything we encounter. Your tendency to pass on a judgement causes anxiety, stress, worries & other related complications.
In Emotional intelligence 2.0 book, the author Mr. Travis Bradberry tells us to be non-judgemental about emotions, he tells us to stop tagging our emotions as good or bad. Thereby, you'll be able to reduce emotional triggers & outbursts.
The same principle is applied in ‘Vipashyana’ meditation. Dale Carnegie in his book “How to win friends & influence people??”, has suggested the same principle needs to be followed when we interact with the people. He suggests not to criticize, condemn or complain or judge. He tells us to understand their viewpoint & situation.
Human senses are feeble. We won’t be able to accurately judge or conclude accurately about anything. This is the main reason that non-judgemental attitude needs to be developed. When you cannot judge accurately about most of the things, it’s unjust to pass on a nasty judgement on others or gossip about others & even judge about yourself.
In support of this, J. Krishnamurthy quotes-
“The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.”
By being judgmental, we won’t be able to truly love anybody or anything. Dalai Lama says-
As per Buddhism & Vedic philosophy, every thought & act, whether good or bad, makes us indebted to Karma. So, in order to nullify Karma & progress spiritually, non-judgemental attitude is the key.
As per Bhagavad-Gita, by being non-judgemental & surrendering ourselves to the Lord, thereby submitting all our deeds to the Lord can nullify karma. Unless we nullify our karma, it's impossible to attain salvation or Nirvana. We need to surrender to the lord because, in this universe nothing hasn’t happened & can happen without God’s wish. No good thing has happened & can happen without his grace. In a similar way, no bad thing has happened & can happen without his wish.
“Thena vina trunam api na charathi”
"Not even a single grass cannot move without his wish or grace."
Finally, when the God himself will not judge about our good deeds & bad deeds till our last breath, who are we judge about anyone or anything. Excessive tendency to judge is a curse to human progress. This results in increased ruminocity or over-reactivity.
Particularly, judging or discussing about people will affect relationships & even our progress. In support of this, Eleanor Roosevelt says-
“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events & cheap minds discuss people.”
Non-judgmental attitude needs to be developed by all. Before judging about anyone or anything think about its necessity, effects and then go ahead with it.
Practicing non-judgemental attitude can make this universe a better place to live filled with peace, love & prosperity.
Thank you so much!!
YaDu,
On behalf of Get Inspired Spiritually,
www.getinspiredspiritually.com
https://youtu.be/sr5UQJKCWRk