It’s very humbling to observe how judgmental I can be. These judgements seem to pop up continuously. All of the “spiritual” teachings I have encountered are geared to stopping our judgements, but good luck with that.

If the judgements ever stop, it won’t be because I decided to stop judging, or because I meditated or spiritualized them away.  (If I do decide that, I’ll weigh 300 lbs., as all the sublimated judgements accumulate in my physiology.) It will be because there will be less and less identification with an “I” that needs to defend its very existence, thus creating beliefs, boundaries and limitations which act to define it.

Then there is the matter of judging my own judgements (as right or wrong), and judging that I am having judgements in the first place. (See what I mean about spiritual teachings?) It’s like an unending parade of judgements and criticism….but then, who doesn’t love a parade?

So I watch this parade of judgement, somewhat in awe at how all-pervasive it is. Thoughts still occur that attempt to rationalize many of them away, or seek justification for having them in the first place. I watch all that too, as I notice the righteousness, arrogance, and ultimately, shame, that seems to follow in their aftermath.

I do notice this mechanism weakening in its intensity, as I take my “self” less and less seriously. I can’t say that I am completely comfortable as I watch this parade, but I no longer expect it to end, nor would I be shocked if it ceased.

Well, OK, maybe I would be shocked if it ceased, but it would be a wonderful kind of shocked. Kind of like waking up to the headline that the war in the Middle East had ceased. Something like that.