How do we balance our honest opinion of another's personality with a generous approach to her? When do we share our judgments of others, or keep them to ourselves? How, in other words, do we judge well? In this post, I turn for answers to these questions to Confucian thought, which has been influential throughout China, Korea, Japan, and the broader Asian continent... Read More

Some corporate training programs use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to help people with different personalities get along. The Myers-Briggs types are based on the psychological writings of the Swiss physician Carl Jung. Dr. Jung's theories, in turn, were greatly influenced by Hindu yogis... In other words, some of today's corporate training programs have been influenced by early Hindu thought... Read More

The recent votes on the stimulus package were cast explicitly along party lines.  If I were a member of the legislative branch and I truly, deeply respected those on the other side of the aisle, I believe I would be deeply disturbed by the sort of inter-party struggles that are currently taking place. 

Many national legislators have spoken of their political principles in the past weeks, but what about their personal principles of respecting not only those with whom they agree, but also those with whom they disagree?

I realize that to make political judgments that are sympathetic and charitable in these times may not feel either natural or easy...There are, however, many reasons that wise people from many cultures extol the virtues of judging with care. Read More

In the Hindu wisdom tradition, a person who is dear to Krishna and is balanced and near grace is likely to judge others with empathy, and in a detached, mild, and impartial manner.  Given the choice, I suspect, most of us would prefer being judged by such an individual than by another person who is, according to Hinduism, deluded and confused... Read More