Is being TOO GOOD a sickness?

Do you think you are a good person? What does that even mean? How did you come to the conclusion that you are so good? After all, “good” is a very relative term. The whole dualistic mindset of GOOD vs BAD is very bipolar and is completely man made. The dualistic mindset is based on competition and division. If you are good, then something else has to be bad. It implies that you are “better” than whatever you are comparing yourself to. If you are “bad” than it is because of how much better you think other people are than you.

The moment you define something as good or bad, you’re just dividing the world.

-Sadhguru

Who suffers more, good people or the so called “bad people?” Really think about it. Too many “good people” always seem to be suffering more while they look on at the bad people living it up and enjoying themselves. How do you even become good? You head outside for a stroll where there are lots of other people and say, “he’s no good, she’s not ok, he’s not ok, he’s not ok, he’s not ok, she’s bad, she’s DEFINITELY not ok… compared to all of these people I am GOOD.” Once you have labeled a sufficient number of people as BAD, then you feel good. The more good you think you are, the harder it is for you to find somebody else that is OK in your mind. Meanwhile, some people sit around being such “goodie goodies” that nobody can stand even being around them!

We think that we are good, because we are trying so hard to avoid all of these bad things. It doesn’t even matter what these things are. They’re different for each of us depending on our own personal views. We develop a sort of superficial happiness and satisfaction by successfully avoiding these “bad” things. These situations and vises that appear to be causing other people to be unhappy. But… have you ever noticed that when you are trying really hard to avoid something you just can’t stop thinking about it? Why is it that when you are trying to avoid a certain person that really pisses you off you just cant stop thinking about them all day and how much you can’t stand them. You are so afraid of the unpleasant situation that might ensue if you run into them, that you spend your whole day anxious and unhappy.

You are not free from it… You are just avoiding it…

Avoiding something is not freedom from it.

-Sadhguru

Too much of our mental process around these concepts of “goodness” and “happiness” is based on feeling good and/or happy because we don’t have something undesirable in our life that somebody else does have. Along the same lines we have this same happy/good feeling when we DO have something desirable that somebody else doesn’t have. All of these aspects of our self image that completely come from comparing ourselves to other people are completely unhealthy. Putting somebody down or excluding them to make yourself feel bigger and better in an outward way is frowned upon. This is referred to as bullying and bigotry. Why then do we think it is OK to do the same thing within the confines of your own thoughts? Just because nobody else can hear or see you doing it doesn’t make it acceptable. The door swings the other way too. Constantly putting yourself down by comparing yourself to other people is like cutting and other forms of self harm, only you’re doing it to your mind and emotions.

We all have to stop this constant judging and comparing. Get rid of the old dualistic way of thinking based on good vs bad and right vs wrong. These are all man made concepts that don’t have any existence outside of our mind. Why is it so hard to just be ourselves? Why can’t we just be genuine and do what feels natural without worrying about what anybody else is going to think or say? Why can’t we just let other people be themselves without judging them or pointing at them or whispering about them?

The easiest way to live in a more balanced and authentic mindset is to simply STOP judging other people. Try it for the rest of the day today. Really. I am challenging you. Whatever time it is that you are reading this, see if you can make it until you fall asleep without attributing any form of judgement an another person. It might be hard, especially since other people are constantly talking other people TO US (these other people really are a pain in the ass aren’t they… or is that a judgement too). You can listen, just don’t join in. When you feel the urge to get out your gavel, give yourself the reminder that every single person on this planet is doing the best they can with what they’ve got. If they knew better, they would do better and we need to be compassionate. A wise man once said we should treat other people the way we want to be treated. This GOLDEN RULE extends into the mental realm. Don’t think about others the way you wouldn’t want them to think about you.

Do this for the rest of the day. Then all day tomorrow. Then the next day, and the one after. You’ve got nothing to lose except a bad attitude towards other people! It will only make it easier to stop judging yourself! Do the future a solid and teach your kids the same habit!

This is just another way we can keep evolving a little every day in every way.

Purity comes from INCLUSION, goodness comes from exclusion.

-Sadhguru