Non-Resistance: The Judgment-Free Path to Self

Ben Neil
Oct 5
2 min read

The Freedom of Living Fully Open and Fully Present

Our existence unfolds within duality. We do not see reality as it is — we see it through the lens of our own minds. That lens is often clouded by unhealed wounds, lingering fears, and the disempowering beliefs we’ve carried from the past. Our perspective, no matter how sharp, is always short-sighted compared to the eternal view. Saints, sages, and mystics throughout the ages recognized this truth: to live fully, we must rise beyond judgment and practice the path of non-resistance.

The ancients knew that the ego and conscious mind, while powerful, are limited in their perception. They filter reality through fragments of experience, unable to see the grand design unfolding. This is why practices of non-judgment and non-resistance were taught as essential keys to balance and harmony. They quiet the grasping of the ego and allow us to flow with the wisdom of the greater whole.

Lao Tzu’s story illustrates this perfectly: A farmer’s horse ran away, and his neighbors lamented the loss as misfortune. But when the horse returned with several wild companions, they celebrated his luck. Later, the farmer’s son broke his leg taming one of the horses, again judged as tragedy. Yet when war swept the land, the injury spared the son from being drafted. The lesson is timeless — what we label “good” or “bad” is often incomplete. The story has not yet finished.

Non-resistance asks us to release our judgments and surrender to the greater unfolding. By doing so, we free ourselves from being emotionally and energetically bound to circumstances that are still evolving. We no longer grasp at outcomes or fight against the flow of events. Instead, we trust, we allow, and we align ourselves with the deeper current of the universe.

When we live in this way, outer circumstances lose their power to disrupt our inner harmony. Balance and peace become our foundation, not because life is without storms, but because we no longer resist the winds. In that flow, we awaken to the ideal state — whole, open, and fully present. This is the judgment-free path to Self, the gift of living as our truest offering to the world.

If you’re interested in reading more about these subjects, I urge you to visit my websites and explore my books from The Initiate Series.

Here is a list of my websites: