Perhaps the most profound mindful practice is digging into the truth about you.  As my friend Jimmy Buffet sings, “It is simply complicated.”

I have been hanging out with students of Dharma for a long time now.  I noticed something.  We seekers of light are NO different than anyone else.  Not when it comes to weeding our own consciousness.  Most ‘seekers’ who I know consider themselves to be progressive and even pride themselves in openness and tolerance.  ‘We don’t judge, we are free of stereotype and prejudice.  In these politically correction times and places ‘we’ are tolerant.  We accept and promote equality for women, people of color, people with alternative life styles.

However, I see many of us slip down the slope of intellectual arrogance, spiritual elitism, and stereotyping.  Here is a little test.  Get your internal emotional meter ready.  Notice what these words do to your emotions and what biases surface. You might want to put a + or – by the word to see the positive and negative emotions that surface.

Master
PhD
Enlightened Master
Highschool Dropout
Christian
Buddhist
Republican
Democrat
Conservative
Liberal
Meditation
Rama
Buddha
ERA
GMO
UFO
Global Warming
Tea Party (modern day)
America
ExPatriots
Pollution

So, before you and I presume we are free of judging others, whether those judgments are directed towards individuals or groups, we might want to pause and look are our own tendencies to stereotype and act upon those prejudices.