One of the first skills that one learns in the art of mindfulness of mindful presence or mindful kind attention

is to name and acknowledge the states of mind without getting lost in them.

And one of the most helpful acknowledgments is of the judging mind.

So there you are, you know, doing your art, you're playing music, you're playing ball, you're, you know, your painting, you're whatever happens to be, you know, and then the judging mind comes to have started earlier, you should have you could have done this, you could have learned all those things and you could say, oh, I hate this judging. I want to get rid. Judging is terrible.

No more judging. I'm going to, what was your word,

eradicate that sucker, you know?

Stop judging, I hate judging.

But what's that?

It's another judgment, right? Just piles on. Instead, what you do is you turn almost with a bow and you say judging, judging then if you need to or if it's helpful you can say thank you

for your opinion to that part of your mind you know and if you want to take it one level deeper, you can even

reflect now whose voice does that remind you of because it's not just your own.

It was recorded in there from, you know, school parents, whatever.

We won't talk about them.

Okay, thank you for your opinion.

I'm actually okay for now.

You can rest, put them on the sideline and go on.

And it will arise a number of times but all of a sudden your

relationship to the judging mind becomes one of not living inside it with the belief that it's true, but seeing it as just

conditioned.

And that is, this is a small example, a small window or doorway into the kind of inner freedom that comes as we learn to meditate and

learn to practice. Okay, welcome back, or welcome to the Finding Mastery Podcast.

Happy.

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