No Comment!

Judgment was made to be a weapon used against the truth.ACIM-W-311:1:1

Mental Commentary and Judgment

One of the many remaining issues I have in this awakening process is in my challenge to say "No comment" to the roving reporters in my mind. I find myself commenting on what I am experiencing to others and to my self.  Not only that I am judging things as good or bad still.  For example I may be walking in the woods on a beautiful day, determined to be peaceful.  In that short little hike of a few minutes duration,  I will too often catch myself saying, "Oh this is lovely.  Look at that beautiful tree; the sound of chickadees is so lovely.  This is good...this is such a good experience and I like it so much.  I am so grateful for it. This day  is a wonderful thing."

What's wrong with commenting on what's right with the world?

While I am commenting on anything I am doing two things that take me away from the present moment.
 1)  I am judging things as good or bad and in a sense determining what is acceptable and what isn't
 2)  I am observing, following, experiencing thought rather than experiencing Life.

The Problem with Judgment

As soon as we judge anything we set up the premise of what is acceptable or what isn't in our minds.  If something is pleasant we are open to it, allowing it into our experience.  We also set up a precedent for what we will do when the opposite occurs.  For example, if during that walk , all of a sudden a storm came pounding down on me, I get sprayed by a skunk or fall and seriously hurt myself...what then?  How would the commentary go then?..."Oh My God!!!! This is terrible. I can't believe this happened. This day sucks!"

The day isn't wonderful and the day doesn't suck...it just is.

Judging things as good or bad, right or wrong, worthy or not worthy take us away from truth...from the 'isness' of the moment we are in.  Judgments  are very selective guards that determine what we allow into our moments and what we actively resist.  Good things can come in and bad things will be beaten out of there with a lot of "Oh No!" It is a very conditional way of living and it takes us from our moments rather than towards them.

All things in the moment are worthy of being expressed.  Our acceptance of all this as simply being what it is...is the only way to truly experience life and find peace.

Observing Thought is not Experiencing Life

As long as I am commenting and narrating my way through Life...I am stuck in words, thoughts, stories and not truly experiencing Life.  Remember that thoughts  are the clouds and we are the sky. The clouds can obstruct the presence that is us...the present moment from being fully embraced.

There is a Taoist story that I cannot cite exactly because I only have it in my head at this point.

 In a monastery long ago there lived this esteemed Tao master and his many disciples.  The master liked to walk every evening as a form of meditation and he would take one of his worthy disciples with him on the walk.  He had one rule...that no one, no one talk at all during the walk. 

One day he chose one of the newer but promising disciples to come with him and pleased as punch the young disciple happily went along.  As they were walking, reaching the top of the hill they came across the most magnificent sunset ever witnessed.  It was outstanding. The young disciple gasped at the beauty of it and uttered, "What a beautiful sunset." To which the master responded by turning around and walking back to the monastery leaving the disciple where he was. 

Later the disciple was told that he would never walk again with the master because he broke the rule.  Feeling sorry for the young man, one of the other monks approached the old master and said, "Surely you can forgive the boy, he only uttered one sentence.  It seems like a pretty unfair rule to have in the first place. He was, after all, just commenting on something beautiful."

The master refused to concede and said instead, "As long as he is commenting on something beautiful, he is not experiencing something beautiful. If he comments on the sunset  he is watching his words not the sunset."  When we comment on the moment, we are not living it. We are watching the clouds instead of experiencing Life as the sky.

So the next time ego holds a microphone to your mouth asking you to comment on something that is happening around you or in you, simply say, "No comment!" and get back into the moment that can not be experienced  with words.

All is well.