Therefore Viveka comes from understanding both ourselves and others, compassion for those who suffer themselves or cause us pain, and a balance of confidence in our own abilities and humbleness in the face of the greatness of the vast universe. If we understood the essence of the other religions of the world and saw that, despite their differences, they all have a similar bottom line – be good to each other and a good human being – there would be little to fear from that understanding. If we felt confident in our ability to speak, we wouldn’t spend too much time criticizing the way others say things. This is often a reaction from insecurity, fear, jealousy, or ignorance. “What a jerk!” “This sucks!” “Stupid people!” “He’s always incompetent” “That (fill in the blank) is so wrong/bad/etc.” Case closed, mind made up, and that person, thing, religion, culture – whatever – has been condemned. We’re much more used to our reactive, judging minds. We are using the ability to perceive clearly. When we use Viveka, we are tapping into something much deeper than our egos passing judgment. Insight is seeing into something, from our inner self, not from outer rigid standards, opinions, or social pressures. Viveka, the Sanskrit word for discernment, is about seeing things as they are. Discernment is described as “keen perception insight acumen”. Webster’s dictionary says that to discern is to “separate (a thing) mentally from another or others recognize as separate or different” and “to perceive or recognize make out clearly”. With discernment we make good choices for ourselves, and for the good of others. It’s the cognitive ability of a person to distinguish what is appropriate or inappropriate. We know what it’s like to feel judged by someone else: it sticks to you like duct tape, and at times you find yourself feeling the pain of that condemnation days or even years later.ĭiscernment, however, is a more personal and conscious approach. Judgment also has a sense of finality, like a sentence being passed. It usually comes from a reactive place inside of us, like a knee-jerk when the doctor strikes the mallet on that joint – it’s unconscious. Judgment assumes that the person judging has the power and right to determine what is good or bad in general, not just from their point of view. Judgment feeds the ego’s deception of being better (or worse) than someone or something else. Judgment implies a power differential – I perceive myself to have power over you when I judge you (for example, “you’re a loser!”). Judgment: “an opinion or estimate, criticism or censure, power of comparing or deciding”. The dictionary definitions of the two terms shed some light. What’s the difference?ĭiscernment may seem like judgment, but the difference between these two approaches to life is significant. So if we’re not supposed to judge, but still need to tell right from wrong or good from bad, what are we to do? Yoga philosophy proposes the use of Viveka, or discernment. We’re already seeing signs of the kind of deterioration that comes from absence of making distinctions for fear of offending or leaving anyone out. Workers can become sloppy and unmotivated without some comparison of what’s good work and what’s just mediocre. If we feel pressured to accept everyone as they are regardless of their behavior, children can go undisciplined, hurtful behavior ignored, and vandalism tolerated. We can’t avoid altogether distinguishing things from each other. Hurting another person intentionally is wrong, period (taking circumstances into consideration). Some swimmers are faster than others, but even if we don’t win the Olympics we can still enjoy a dip in the pool. Not everyone can be a great artist, although we can all enjoy creating our own art. The truth is, some people do certain things better than others. Without some way to determine what’s good and not so good, standards disintegrate. The need to distinguish thingsĪt the same time, we can easily fall into the trap of swinging to the opposite extreme. Judgment, labeling, stereotyping, and segregating can lead to polarization of societies, dividing and angering large and small communities. It’s all too easy to fall into condemnation of things or people that are different than you, or to bad-mouth things that we dislike or disagree with. There’s good reason why society has shifted away from judgment. Some kid’s baseball games no longer keep score for fear of being the “losers.” We’re no longer stiff we’re just “flexibility-challenged”. Accept difference, see similarity, no one is better or worse than anyone else. Yet we’re also told that it’s not politically or even spiritually correct to judge. Our culture is strongly attached to categorizing and comparing. Every day, we’re surrounded by judgments, whether on the television or in our own minds.
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