I am a sweet tooth who absolutely loves chocolate. I have made a good friend here in Taiwan and it’s clear that it’s not our love for chocolate that brought us together; she absolutely hates it.

If you would ask the both of us to say something about chocolate, I might say “chocolate is delicious” and she might say “chocolate is disgusting“.

I have been asking people for their view on which of these statements is true. Up to this point I have only received the answers “both are true” and “both are neither true nor untrue“, neither of which is my answer.

I reject the answer that both are true because both statements are contradicting each other. The truth, in the highest sense, is not subject to personal point of view. In other words, if it is really the truth that chocolate is delicious, then it must be the case that that is the truth for everyone. That means that the statement chocolate is disgusting is automatically untrue.

I also reject the answer that both are neither true nor untrue, because that would mean that both statements contain no information in them at all. It would be the same as not expressing anything at all, but everyone seems to sense that at least something is being said.

My answer is that “both statements are untrue“. When I give that answer, some people have disagreed saying that both cannot be untrue, because at the very least both statements are personal truths. I agree that both statements are coming from some personal experience, but if you observe the statements chocolate is delicious and chocolate is disgusting, you will see that no personal experience is mentioned at all; the word “I” does not appear in any form in either statement.

I say that both statements are untrue because neither “being delicious” nor “being disgusting” are properties of chocolate. Chocolate is chocolate. It is more accurate to say that “experiencing delight” and “experiencing disgust” are possible experiences of somebody who eats the chocolate.

This is why I say that judgements are objectified subjective experiences; judgements are personal truths expressed as absolute truths.

So let’s say that we have understood the analysis above, and you would ask us again to say something about chocolate. I would say nothing about chocolate directly, but I would say “when I eat chocolate, I really enjoy the taste and she might say “When I eat chocolate, I really dislike the taste“.

I have also been asking people to let me know what they think of these two statements, and all have said so far that both statements are true. Contemplating this, I gained an insight that has helped me very much: When you judge, you lie. When you express your feelings, you don’t (lie).

This insight that judgements are lies has helped me to become more free from them, because we automatically let go of mental concepts when we understand them to be untrue. It has also helped me to gain an insight in what it means to express opinions, but I will leave that insight to another article.

I would like to conclude this article with an interesting observation for people who are familiar with the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yoga starts from love, because its first practice (ahimsa: non-violence) is love applied. Love means accepting all and rejecting none. Love is therefore free from judgements and since judgements are lies, the practice of ahimsa automatically leads to satya (truthfulness).

我是一個熱愛甜食的人，非常喜愛巧克力。我在台灣生活期間認識了一位好朋友，但並非因為我們對巧克力懷抱同樣的喜愛。我的朋友非常厭惡巧克力。

如果你問我們兩個人有關巧克力的事，我可能會回答： ｢巧克力真好吃！｣而她可能回答： ｢巧克力真噁心！｣“.

我問了許多人，這兩個說法，哪個才是真的。至目前為止，我聽到的答案包含：｢兩個都是真的。｣、｢兩個都不是真的，也不是假的。｣，但這都不是我的答案。

我拒絕｢兩個都是真的｣ 這個答案，因為這兩個說法彼此矛盾。就最更高意義而言，真實是不能取決於個人觀點的，也就是說，如果c巧克力真好吃這個說法r確實是真的，那麼應該每個人都是這麼認為。這表示巧克力噁心的說法，自然而然地是不真實實的。

我也拒絕了｢兩者不真也不假｣的答案，因為那意謂著，這兩個說法並未含有任何資訊，就好比這些說法從來沒有表達任何事情一樣。但是我想每個人都可以察覺到，這些說法當中至少表達了某些事情。

我的回答是：｢兩個說法都不是真的。｣當我提出這個回答時，有些人不同意，因為他們認為不可能兩者都是假的，畢竟兩個說法都至少包含了某些個人真相。我同意這兩個說法都是來自於個人經驗，但如果我們進一步看這兩個說法：巧克力真好吃以及巧克力真心，你會現這些說法中並沒有提到任何個人經驗，我這個字並沒有出現在任何一個說法中。

我之所以說這些說法都不是真的，是因為｢好吃｣以及｢噁心｣都不是巧克力的成分。巧克力就是巧克力，較準確的說法應該是說，｢體驗到喜悅｣或｢體驗到噁心｣，這都是在吃巧克力可能產生的體驗。

這就是為什麼我會說，評斷是 客觀化的主觀經驗；評斷是個人的真實但卻被表達為絕對的真實。

假設我們瞭解上述分析，你可以再請我和我的朋友說說巧克力。我不會說任何與巧克力直接相關的事，我會說：”｢當我吃巧克力的時候，我真的很享受巧克力的滋味。｣，而我的朋友則說：｢當我吃巧克力時，我真的很不喜歡那個味道。｣

我也問很多人他們對這兩個說法有什麼看法，至目前為止，大家都說這兩個說法都是真的。從這當中思考，我也因此獲得了我相當有幫助的洞見：當你評斷時，你在說謊。當你表達感受時，你不說謊。

批評是謊言的這項心得，使得我能夠從評斷當中解放，當我們瞭解這些批評並非真實的時候，我們就能夠放下它們。這也幫助我了解何為表達意見，但這個議題，就留待另一篇文章再行探討。

我希望能夠以一項觀察，做為本篇文章的結尾，特別是提供給熟知帕坦加利的《瑜珈經》的朋友：瑜珈由愛開始 ，因為該經典所列的第一項練習(非暴力)，正是愛的實際運用。愛意謂著接受一切，毫不拒絕，因此愛是免於評斷的。而既然評斷是謊言，那麼非暴力的練習自然而然地導致誠實(truthfulness)。