[BebopVT]

I was briefly browsing the website of Martine and Stephen Batchlor and found this article "Judging".

I wondered if anyone had comments about the article or personal reflections in connection with its contents.


Judging

When we meditate, we become aware of our patterns of thinking. We start to see how they affect us, and how they hold us in their grip. As human beings, it is wonderful to be able to think, reflect, imagine, plan and discriminate. These are inherent functions of our mind. When you meditate, sitting quietly, trying to focus on the breath, sensations or sounds, you start to notice what takes you away from the focus.

A thought emerges, it is so fast and intimate that you do not question it, you are not even aware of it arising. You just think it and act according to what it seems to dictate to you to say, do or feel. When you look at how you think, you start to notice the language in which the thought is expressed inside your head. You are talking to yourself most of the time. There is a constant commentary going on in your head. What shape does it take? How is it expressed? What is the texture of the stream of mind? What do you cultivate that will influence that texture positively or negatively?

Are we using a language in our mind, which is tentative, soft and open or are we using a language, which is harsh, strict and compulsive? We will feel differently if in our mind we are using repeatedly, ‘I must, they must, it has to be, it cannot happen, they should, he never, she always’. The more we use internally this kind of language, the more we will feel tension and rigidity, especially if things do not go according to plan.

If instead we were to use more tentative language like ‘I could, he possibly, it might, they sometimes’ we then would encounter reality and circumstances with a more open and creative attitude. We would be open to things going one way, but also happening in a different manner as well.

continued :

http://www.stephenbatchelor.org/index.php/en/judging

[wllsqyuipknczx]

It's ever so true that we all have an internal dialogue that goes on most of the time in everyday life. This concept has often been looked at by other writers.

If the thesis of the article (I've read it all, not just the piece reproduced here) is "change the dialogue, it will change your experience", then I really cannot swallow it. It's a tautology. Your experience provides the foundation for the dialogue, the dialogue is made of your experience.

The conscious mind doesn't create the dialogue in the mind, it comes from the unconscious, and that's (almost by definition) something that you don't consciously control.

I'm not particularly a Stephen Bachelor 'fan'. He's OK but not very Buddhist in my opinion, despite all the books he's written and all the study he's done on Buddhism. So possibly that affects my judgement.

[Weislenalkata]

Any judgement cannot be real. It only exists in the mind(s) and nowhere else.

Which of the thoughts if any represent reality? Does a flower thinks it is beautiful or a centipede thinks it is disgusting and dangerous?