from judgment to silence

There have been many challenges this week in letting go of judgments.  Sometimes I find that it is much easier to let go as soon as I notice the judgmental thought starting to grow, instead of waiting until I have built a case for why I should be judging.  I also find that accepting myself for judging is necessary in order to let the judgments go.  I am learning to say things to myself like "I am in a judgmental mood right now and that is okay."  I certainly do not want to feed the judgments nor do I want to judge myself for judging.  Instead I ground myself in the moment by noticing where I am at, take a breath, and let it be.

Adyashanti and Michael Singer talk about how the thoughts in our minds, the judgments, the stories we tells ourselves keep us from experiencing the moment.  They keep us locked in the confines of the psyche and thus cut off from the power of Spirit.  We use our minds to fix our problems so that our lives run smoothly but ultimately this does not work and we end up struggling with life.  Adyashanti says:

"Revelation and insight come from ...a place that we as a culture seem to have so little respect for- a place called 'silence.'...We spend so much energy running away from silence, but silence is the ground from which awakening springs.  It's the ground from which we shift out of this egoic state of consciousness, out of this belief in separation."  (p. 86)

Adya says that silence is actually "a deep, wordless listening."  So you notice the stories, the judgments etc. that the mind makes and then you listen.

"When we begin to see that our mind is just a storyteller, however, then we begin to listen-not for more thoughts or more complicated understanding, but for the silence.  It is when you listen this way that you can see that it is only your mind that has the capacity to make you suffer.  Only your mind has the capacity to convince you to struggle.  Only your mind, nothing else.  It's all an inside job.  It's all happening inside of you." (p. 88). 

As Michael Singer suggests you don't work with the world, you work with the mind...not by changing it, but by transcending it through witnessing from the place of silence.