Specks and Beams

Oct 18, 2011 | Healing, Philosophy, Wisdom, Yoga practices | 0 comments

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?

In the yoga spirit of self-study or svadhyaya, I’ve been thinking about the above quote in relation to a couple of judgments I’ve been harbouring.
Sigh.
I notice I get super critical about how much screen time my hubby spends between iPad, iPhone, Mac and a little episodic t.v. watching. When I finally took my attention off vetting his activities, I realised I do a lot of that stuff too. Maybe not as much, but I’m also not the computer geek. I guess I’m just an “enamouree” of those shiny Apple toys.
The other thing I’m going to bust myself on is being a procrastinator. I’ve been on said hubby’s case for not getting our tax info organised for the accountant. In the meantime, I’ve been dawdling about getting the development of my next workshop completed.
Hence the biblical quote springing up unbidden out of my psyche.
What does it mean?
The beam signifies a large piece of timber with the speck being just a small object. The idea is that we are much more quick and acute to judge the small offences in others, than the much big offences in ourselves; that small fault in our significant other, we see much more readily than the large one in ourselves.
Humility is helpful here. It seems like such a simple virtue but don’t you find it’s hard to give up being right (or righteous!)?
Here’s the great man, Mahatma Gandhi, telling it like it is:

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

Good yoga practices: humility and telling it like it is.

- Specks and Beams

Nicky in Baddha Konasana


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