If we can watch ourselves daily without justifying or condemning anything, just be aware of how we never think without judging, comparing, evaluating, then that very awareness is enough. We are always saying, “This book is not as good as the other,” or “This man is better than that man,” and so on; there is this constant process of comparison, and we think that through comparison we understand. Do we? Or does understanding come only when one is not comparing but is really paying attention? Is there comparison when you are looking attentively at something? When you are totally attentive, you have no time to compare, have you? The moment you compare, your attention has gone off to something else. When you say, “This sunset is not as beautiful as that of yesterday,” you are not really looking at the sunset; your mind has already gone off to yesterday’s memory. But if you can look at the sunset completely, totally, with your whole attention, then comparison ceases, surely.
-As One Is: To Free the Mind from All Condition