For enquiry to penetrate deeply, it must be accompanied by non-judgement. The impurities we uncover should not immediately be disparaged. If every unflattering discovery is met with self-criticism, the mind quickly learns to hide what enquiry is trying to reveal.

Moreover, being scandalised by our shortcomings is just a form of egoic identity. Behind it lies an attachment to an idealised image: I should not be the sort of person who feels this way.

Judgement directed towards ourselves or others can therefore reinforce precisely the structure enquiry is attempting to dissolve.

Our task is to look inward without immediately dividing what we find into grounds for self-praise or self-condemnation. Otherwise, enquiry degenerates into self-indulgence or self-flagellation and produces exhaustion rather than clarity.

We learn to become friendly towards what is uncovered—not indulgent, but honest and unafraid.

Anger, envy, fear, vanity and neediness can be acknowledged without defending or condemning them.

Non-judgement permits genuine self-acceptance, and self-acceptance allows for meaningful change.

The American psychologist Carl Rogers expressed the paradox memorably: when we accept ourselves just as we are, only then does change become possible.

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