Judging Mindfulness
October 20, 2023

I was reading the other day what was supposed to be a scientific definition of mindfulness. On the one hand, they said that you should regard your mental states without reacting, without judging them—just watch whatever is going to come, whatever is going to go. Pass no judgment at all. But then on the other hand they said that mindfulness also means that you should act thoughtfully toward others.

There’s a real disconnect there, because where do your actions come from? They come from your mind. They come from the state of your mind. And it really does make a difference whether you’re acting on greed or acting on non-greed, acting on aversion or non-aversion, delusion or non-delusion. So you really do have to be careful and thoughtful about what states come up in your mind, which states you foster, which states you feed, which states you have to starve.

This is why we meditate: to feed states of mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment. We feed our goodwill, our compassion, our empathetic joy, our equanimity when it’s called for. In other words, we learn how to nourish what’s good in the mind and make sure it doesn’t go away. The Buddha actually said that’s one of the duties of mindfulness. He calls it mindfulness as a governing principle.

He himself said he got on the right path when he was able to divide his thoughts into two types: those that should be acted on and those that shouldn’t, judging them by the mind state that gave rise to them. If they’re the type you shouldn’t act on, he said you try to beat them back in the same way you’d beat back cattle that tries to get into a rice field when the rice is growing and the grains are maturing.

So you do have to play an active role in looking after your mind and learning how to pass intelligent judgment on what’s coming up: what emotions should be nurtured, what should be put aside.

So get the mind still here in the present moment. You do have to start out by saying with whatever comes up, “I’m not going to be shaken by it.” It’s only when you’re unshaken that you can pass judgment clearly and accurately.

So try to get the mind still and give yourself a good place to inhabit inside here in the body, here in your awareness in the present moment. That way, when other thoughts come in, you can judge them from a place of comfort, a place of well-being. And you don’t feel so threatened by the negative states you see; you don’t get all excited about the positive states. You realize you have duties to do here.

And they’re good duties: looking after your own mind, making sure that this corner of the world for which you’re responsible isn’t generating anything bad, and instead it’s generating good things through your thoughts, your words, your deeds. That’s the real duty of mindfulness, and it’s a good duty. It follows in line with the duties of the four noble truths. If something gives rise to suffering, you should try to abandon it. Activities that lead to the end of suffering are things you should develop. That’s a value judgment right there. You want to learn how to apply that value judgment to what’s going on in your mind right here, right now, with the realization that the Buddha’s directions are for your own benefit, they’re for your own good. None of his negative judgments are final judgments. Think of yourself as a work in progress, like a carpenter working on a chair. The carpenter planes, here, planes there—whoops, there’s a nick. Okay, you have to learn how to reshape the wood so that nobody can see the nick. You don’t say, “Well it’s just a nick,” and just leave it there. You want the chair to look good.

The other day, when I was talking to the people at Apple, one guy was saying he had trouble at work in that he tended to burst into tirades at the people working under him. He told me, "I guess my problem is that I’m a perfectionist and expect everybody to do really good work. Maybe I should lower my standards.” And I told him, “No, don’t lower your standards. Just realize that tirades are not effective. You want to make people want to rise to your standards. In that way, good work comes out.”

The Buddha was not opposed to having high standards. He himself had very high standards, but they’re high standards for your sake. You realize that he’s not trying to punish you; he’s just pointing out that if you really want to be happy, this is what you’ve got to do. And it is something you can do. That’s why his judgments are not harsh. They’re helpful. That’s why he taught. He wanted to help people. And here we are, ready to receive his help.