Today I attended the funeral service of someone and listening to the beautiful tributes in the eulogies that were made of this kind, loving, and amazing woman…I realised something that really made me conscious and aware, and initially sad too.
All my life I had carried a judgement of this person based on the viewpoint of others, who had their prejudices that clouded their vision of this person, not maliciously, it’s just how they had been conditioned and that was their level of consciousness at the time. They were not able to see the person as they were, they saw them through the lens of their mind and I did the same.
I remember when I was younger a feeling that this wasn’t right, but our minds and that of others are powerful if we allow them to be, they override our soul’s innate wisdom.
It was an important reminder that judgements of another is never kind and has no benefit, it creates suffering within us and sometimes for the person we judge. It is never to do with them, it is our own internal struggles that create these judgements. When we disassociate from our mind and its ego and stories, we free ourselves to see others as the beautiful human souls that we all are. We remove the suffering within.
It struck me though, how many other times in my life have I missed seeing others as they truly are? How many amazing people have I not seen and had perhaps dismissed based on nothing but my mind’s judgemental conditioning and my internal narrative? Based on nothing, we can end up missing so much.
The past is exactly that, gone and unable to be changed, so I accept all as it is, it was just a valuable experience, that can help me to grow and expand.
Philip Dodson 