Back in 2000 when my dad was sick and dying of AIDS, he got more "spiritual".
Which included reading books on Buddhism.
He started quoting things to me.
I was twenty-seven, only a tiny bud of what would become the flower of my spiritual (and emotional and political and cultural and intellectual and. . .) awakening.
One quote I remember:
"Learn to observe without judging or reacting."
Not sure if it was a direct Buddha quote, but I was immediately drawn to it – intellectually at least.
I wrote the quote on a whiteboard in the bell closet of the hotel where I worked as a bellman and valet.
As a joke, someone changed it to say:
"Learn to judge and react without observing."
Ha, ha!
It was all good fun. We laughed for a few minutes, and nothing more was said.
And after twenty years of mindfulness practice – of intentionally trying to observe without judging or reacting – I can't help but notice that so much of the strife and conflict and war and divisiveness and echo chambering and hatred and misunderstanding and othering and canceling and. . .
Comes from judging and reacting without observing.
It's hard to know who was really onto something – my dad and Buddha or the jokesters on the bell staff.
I'm putting my money on my dad and Buddha. Seems like a more worthwhile pursuit.