Look at Your Own Mind Before Another's Faults

We easily notice other people's faults and shortcomings. As we judge why they speak that way or why they have such habits, their poor points soon appear larger than their good ones.

A mind that keeps searching for another person's faults does not stop at simple observation. Dislike, gossip, comparison, and judgment follow, and that habit grows again as a dark seed in our own mind. Eyes that see others badly eventually make our own mind coarse as well.

Practice is not the work of finding out what is wrong with others. It is the work of illuminating our own mind. As Seongcheol Keun Sunim taught, before seeing another person's faults, we must see our own. First we must notice the judgment, anger, and sense of superiority within ourselves.

Of course, this does not mean refusing to discern what is wrong. It means that before discernment hardens into dislike, we should examine what habit our own mind is growing. Then discernment becomes wisdom, and the mind becomes a little more gentle.

Today, when you see someone's fault, do not immediately carry it into words. First look at what is moving inside your own mind. When the eyes that searched for faults turn inward, the path of practice opens.