The Mote and the Beam
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Mattew 7:1-5)
Trigger warning for mainstream Christians. Today will be the first in a series of commentaries on Jesus’ parables. These commentaries come from non-dual awareness arrived at by way of Intuitive Insight. As such they will have the flavor of Eastern Psychology. If hearing the esoteric meaning of a parable is going to offend you, you should stop reading now.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
When we are identified with the dualistic mind of the ego, all of reality is split in two. The conceptual mind is dominated by categories such as good and evil, right and wrong, self and other, subject and object. This dualistic mind is an illusion, because the true nature of Reality is One.
The conceptual mind is the mind that judges, and it is the typical psychological state of nearly everyone. The ego that judges others, also judges itself for its own limitations, short-comings, and failings. Thus, in the same way you judge others, you will judge yourself.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
The plank in your own eye is the psychological identification with the delusive, egoic mind. This is a form of schizophrenia, a fractured mind, wherein one identifies with an illusion, the ego, while simultaneously looking past the ground of conscious Awareness that is one’s true identity.
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Although you can point out your brother’s sin, the minor speck of sawdust in his eye, you lack the means to help him because of the plank in your own eye, your own identification with the ego. If you were to dissolve the delusive mind and cease to identify with the ego, you would then have the capacity to help your brother remove the speck from his eye.
Sin as it’s used in the bible, is a translation from the Greek word Harmatia or the Hebrew word Hata, which mean “to miss the mark.” The word was used in reference to archery, such as when an archer’s arrow misses the target.
To identify with the ego, and overlook your true identity, is to miss the mark, and thus to miss the very point of existence. All actions taken in the state of sleepwalking are missing the mark. All words and concepts of the conceptual mind miss the mark of Reality. This is the meaning of the Zen phrase “one continuous mistake.” For someone who hasn’t awakened to their true nature, all of life is one continuous mistake.
There is of course a Way of Liberation, and that is to drop identification with the false identity and remember who you are: