Daniel Hi Daniel, thank you for your questions. Your first question, “Does being neutral mean not forming any opinions?” is followed by a paragraph about judging other people so I will answer your question within that context. In other words, I’ll answer the question: Does being neutral mean not forming any opinions about other people?
You mentioned, “human beings from various different backgrounds with very different personalities, and it can be challenging to engage with these people” and “there are times when it is seemingly necessary to make a judgement about a certain person”. These statements illustrate a very important point I was attempting to make in the video. If you don’t like something about another person, this aspect of “not liking something” is yours, will always be yours and will never change unless and until you change it within yourself. This is the important point. It has nothing to do with the other person. It has everything to do with you. Remember, you cannot change another person’s thinking, feelings, behavior, or actions. Only that person can change himself. Your “not liking something” in another person will continue to exist unchanged until you accept it or until the other person learns about “what you don’t like about him” creates his own will for change and transforms himself. Whatever you reject in another person is your responsibility alone to cope with and to resolve. If you become more familiar with the other person and you learn to understand his way of thinking, his thoughts and his feelings, you will create and build an understanding within yourself which will lead to an acceptance of everything. And if you create an acceptance within yourself, you will no longer be bothered by the other person. Does this answer your question, or did I miss the mark?
Your second question: “When you mention looking at a flower in a garden and judging that flower as being beautiful, are you saying that this kind of observation is a non-neutral judgement? Shouldn't we as human beings be able to recognize beauty on a daily basis?”
Well, I can see now that my example of a flower in a garden was not a good example and I will explain what I was attempting to illustrate. This discussion format was challenging for me. Normally with the videos in a presentation format I have written the script and reviewed it several times. Also, Christian and Crystal have both reviewed the script and made edits and suggestions so the final product is very polished. The only thing I have to do is read it from the teleprompter without errors, which can also be challenging. For the discussion format, I only had bullet points to prompt me on what ideas to talk about so the looking at a flower example was an attempt to show how every second of every day with judge things. But now we are in a written format, let me try again to make the point.
Yes, of course we can recognize the beauty of nature and that’s a very important thing to do. But let’s set nature aside for this discussion. I’ll assume you’re a heterosexual male for this example. When you see a pretty woman, what do you think? When you see a not so attractive women, what do you think? When you see a leather clad biker with tattoos and a gun at his side, what do you think? Whenever we come into contact with other people, we form an immediate judgement. This judgement, or more correctly this thinking, is conditioned and it happens so quickly and is so automatic that in most cases we are not aware of it. This is an aspect of non-neutrality I was attempting to illustrate with looking at a flower but did a poor job of it. Does this clarify the point or not?
Thank you again for your post and questions. All the best, Mike