Non-Reactive Judgment (extract)

"Pass judgment in a way that doesn’t debilitate you. That’s the main problem with most people’s inner critic. It passes judgment and leaves no room for improvement, passes judgment and leaves no room for believing that you can actually do something right. Your inner critic has to be trained to understand that it is possible to put an end to suffering and you can do it. You have to be responsible, but you are capable and you really will benefit.

That’s the other part of the bad inner critic, the part that says, “No matter how hard you try, it’s going to be a waste, so don’t even bother.” That inner critic has to be banished and replaced, not with an uncritical mind, but with a more skillfully critical mind — starting with teaching yourself to be non-reactive. You can see unskillful things in you and you don’t get worked up about them. You recognize them as unskillful and then you try to be very matter-of-fact in overcoming them.

So that’s how non-reactivity functions. It’s a support, not for a non-judging mind, but for a skillfully judging mind, one that knows how to pass judgment in a way that leads to the end of suffering. When its work is done, then you can put it down, but you let it go not because you hate it, but because it’s done all it can for you and you can part ways on good terms."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Non-Reactive Judgment" (Meditations12)


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