How to avoid judging.

A quick trick to shift perspective.

@joooo.ann

There’s a story in the Upanishads, one of the four central Vedic texts, which goes something like this…

A farmer and his son owned a horse that was dearly beloved to them and which helped them make a living.

One day, the horse ran away.

“What bad luck!” the neighbors said, taking pity on the man and his son.

“We’ll see,” the man replied calmly.

A few days later, the horse returned, bringing several other wild horses with it.

“What good fortune!” the neighbors said, amazed.

“We’ll see,” he replied again.

Soon after, the farmer’s son fell and broke his leg while trying to tame one of the new horses.

“How unfortunate!” the neighbors lamented.

“We’ll see,” came his reply once more.

A few weeks later, soldiers came to the village to conscript all of the able-bodied young men into the army.

Seeing the farmer’s son’s broken leg, they passed over him.

“How lucky!” the neighbors exclaimed.

“We’ll see.”

A few weeks ago, US markets were plunging toward record lows at an unprecedented rate, and a recession loomed increasingly likelier.

Today, the Associated Press reported that a ninth straight day of Wall Street gains, marking its longest winning streak since 2004, has erased all losses.

The point is—there’s no using passing judgment on anything that happens, because we’ll never have the full perspective to be able to assess it comprehensively.

What we do know is that everything is happening for not just a reason, but for all reasons, in order to support the evolution of all things.

Evolution is all that’s ever happening.

By refraining from judgment (a Herculean feat no doubt), we allow ourselves to remain open and aligned with the evolution that’s unfolding and respond from the stay-and-play mindset rather than having our potential handicapped by fight-or-flight stress reactivity.

Next time we find ourselves casting judgment on a situation, we can use reframing, a page from the neurolinguistic programming (NLP) playbook, and replace it with a “we’ll see.”

Each time we replace judgment with “we’ll see,” we strengthen the mental muscle, and further solidify a healthier mindset.

And obviously as we continue to meditate and make contact with our least excited state, we’re more clearly able to observe how things unfold in the broader sense and less attached to the day-to-day market fluctuations of our lives.

Let’s discuss these and other ideas during Collective Effervescence, our online group meditation series, this Sunday May 4 at 12PM ET. Drop in for meditation only (first 30 min) or stay for discussion + Q&A on this and other life topics from the Vedic perspective. Join the WhatsApp group to receive reminders 24 hours before each session, or use the below links to have all upcoming dates automatically sync to your calendar.

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