Judging a Type of Character: The Anointing Women, Mindfulness, and Beginner’s Mind

Abstract

This article will argue for mindful awareness and curiosity as correctives to the mindless judgements that sometimes arise from interpreting events that are similar as though they are identical. To make a case for mindfulness as an antidote to judgement, the essay will examine four literary texts that all describe a similar event, an event that triggers judgements within the characters involved in the story world. It will then step back from what’s happening in that literary world and trace the differences in details and actions across those four texts, highlighting how readers have over centuries recognised—and yet still often conflated—those differences. The essay will continue to pan out to look at the resulting judgements that have arisen in the process: how realworld readers have tended to fall into the same pattern of judgement that the literary text cautions against. From that textual example and the historic reception of these texts, the essay will then show how an understanding and practice of mindful attention can help prevent similar unquestioned judgements.