How to Overcome Judgmental Attitudes

Nayaswami Devi shares this helpful spiritual advice during her Sunday Service talk at Ananda Village, on March 27th, 2022. You can find the complete talk here.

Transcription

I remember once there was someone in the community who had made a big mistake, and I was thinking about this person, and I was judging him. And then I thought, "You know what: the only reason you can stand back and judge is because you made that mistake already. And you learned from it. So what pedestal do you have to stand on?" And not that I did that exact thing, but if you're free of anything in this life, it's because you did it, and you learned from it. And there's no ground to stand on to judge anybody else. And that's—it's such a freeing thought.

And Swami says... and it's so beautiful and useful: When you sit to meditate, think of anyone with whom you have a not entirely integrated relationship—perhaps negativity, whatever it might be; or you hold a grudge against them. He said, before you sit to meditate—and this is so important and helpful: he said, before you meditate, pray for that person; send them love. Because holding on to negative thoughts for others creates tension in your subtle spine, in your consciousness, and you will not be able to meditate deeply.

Try it. It's very, very interesting. It's a very interesting experiment to just say, "I release that," and you settle back into yourself. You settle back, and then you're able to meditate better. And the more you meditate, and the deeper you meditate, the more you feel your oneness with everyone. So it's a beautiful cycle. You let go: you go deeper; you go deeper: you feel your oneness; you feel your oneness: you're incapable of judging anybody because that's my brother, though... or sister, though unclear in the moment.