good & bad

This is the very basis of the judgemental mind: the feeling of something as good or bad. From this fundamental concept of value, we judge everything: rejecting some things as bad, pushing them away, and grasping at other things as good, wanting to hold onto them, attach ourself to them.

Yet this good and bad is clearly a mental judgement. There is no fundamental goodness or badness in anything in existence. How could there be? All that is, simply is. Everything is a manifestation of existence. And yet somewhere along the way, we learn that some things are good and some things are bad. And we start to judge. And from this judgemental way of approaching life, all our struggle is born. For how can we have an enemy if we do not feel something to be bad? How can we cling to something, attaching ourself to it, becoming dependent upon it, unless we feel it to be good?

It is this rejection of some things and dependency, attachment, to other things, which creates our struggle. We gain some psychological comfort from this judgemental way of being. For we can associate ourself with the good, and we can disassociate ourself, distance ourself, from the bad. The ego loves this. The sense of the self can be nourished by feeling that one is somehow in one camp, the good camp, and not in the other, not in the bad camp. It is all nonsense of course. A childish game of the thinking mind and of the ego.

On the spiritual path, we go beyond this. We accept all that is – everything in existence, everything that is manifesting in our life – we accept it all as a gift from god, from existence. And in this total acceptance, good and bad are no longer needed, and we slowly begin to feel everything with equanimity, with peace in our heart, no longer pushing away half of life, no longer clinging to the other half. As we mature, we no longer need such comfort blankets. We can let go of the good, and we can embrace the bad. For ultimately all these judgements of the outer world are a reflection of a self-judgement, a self-judgement of something deep within us, a feeling that somehow we are bad, we are wrong, we are incomplete, not worthy to be.

So when we have unearthed our own existential self-doubt, once that has been brought into the light of awareness, once that has dissolved away life the morning mist, then we no longer feel ourself to be good or bad. We no longer judge ourself in this way, and when this self-judgement ends, the judgement of things on the outside also ends. Remember, the way we see the outer world is a reflection, a mirror, of the way we see ourself.

So take an attitude of acceptance, acceptance of all that is: all that is on the outside, and all that is on the inside too. With this acceptance, we can go beyond good and bad. We can go beyond the judgements. And with it, we will go beyond conflict, and find peace at last.