441. Who We Are

Almost as soon as we notice something new, we start forming judgments about it. We can’t prevent this from happening because we are judgmental beings by nature. We automatically evaluate everything (and everyone) we encounter, which means we judge some things to be good and others to be bad.

Our judgments would not be a problem if we allowed them to arise and then depart, but we also have a tendency to become attached to them. We feel that because our judgments follow from the unique beings that we are, we must also identify with them. We end up limiting our understanding of both world and self because we have already judged their contents in one way or another.

The consequence of this is that we tend to become stuck with a very narrow way of seeing the world, a way that follows directly from the particular attachments we have formed. We build our identities around this narrow view, which in turn keeps us trapped in an endless and unnecessary battle with suffering.

To overcome this problem and broaden our perspective, we need to release ourselves from our judgments. But as judgments arise regularly throughout life, we cannot do this only once or twice. Our practice of release has to be a continuous one, an effort made in this and every moment.

We cannot allow ourselves to dismiss certain objects, people, or experiences simply because we have judged them to be unworthy of our attention. Everything that exists needs attention because its existence is entangled with ours. This is true not only in the obvious sense that our existences are coextensive, but in the further sense that everything that exists is also us.

To become aware of who we are, we must be willing to see ourselves fully. We must open ourselves up to the entirety of the world that is also the self. We must allow ourselves the opportunity for entirely new judgments to arise, even ones that contradict our past judgments. We cannot flee from contradiction or paradox, for these are at the very heart of our existence.