The fundamentally pure nature of the mind, though present in all beings, is obscured by the negative emotions. The practices of Buddhism are concerned with defusing our ego, negative emotions, and fixed ideas, and revealing our Buddha Nature. The most important test of your spiritual practice is to look at your own life and see whether your self-centeredness, negative emotions, and fixed opinions are diminishing, and whether you are becoming more peaceful, loving, and compassionate in your daily life. If our spiritual practice makes us more judgmental of others, it is only a sign of our own lack of compassion and spiritual maturity. It is said that we must use the teachings as a mirror, to examine ourselves, not as a window, to judge others.
For example, take the Philadelphia Flyers of the past 2 years. They encourage their fan base to continually change "Crosby sucks" during their home games (whether or not Mr. Crosby is on the ice or not), along with a 3-note organ accompaniment that is used soley during Penguins games to initiate this chant. The fact that they (as an organization no less) condone such negativity is somewhat appalling, and it is no surprise to me that they continually have had such limited success against the Penguins over the past 3 years, as Mr. Crosby is quite good at reflecting the negativity of the Flyers fans back upon them by scoring goals, such as the 2 he had in the last game of the 2009 playoff series. Until the Flyers begin to correct this ever-worsening negative trend, they will be doomed to failure.
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