Depends on whether it's judging or discrimination - wise discrimination. I don't believe it's always what we've got for ourselves, although if we're not enlightened, we will probably all have greed, aversion and ignorance. But certainly when there is a need for wise discrimination, seeing an action as unskillful, then we may be judging at that time. We're having discrimination regarding this action being unskillful. Whether it goes into judging the person, and being very critical of that person for doing that, then I guess, if we still have greed, aversion and ignorance, then this statement would be true. Because everybody's human, and if we don't like something in others, then it's important to see the hindrances also in ourselves. That's the process, to learn how to have Compassion for them, see the hindrances in them, and understand that these things are in ourselves. However, that does not mean there may be the same amount in ourselves as there is in them.
Sometimes the judging mind is a very harsh mind, but other times it's quite necessary for us to see whether a person is unvirtuous and be careful about whether we want to be involved with that person. Because in the end, only we can protect ourselves. No one else is going to protect us. Part of finding our way in the world and protecting ourselves from harm is learning how to see qualities that are unskillful, not only in ourselves, but also in others, and being able to see if a person has this quality in an extreme form. If so, they may not be a person with whom we prefer to be associated. That is Compassion for ourselves.
However, this Wisdom, discrimination, has to be also balanced with Compassion. That is, we can still have Compassion and Lovingkindness for these people, but we realize that through Compassion to ourselves, we may not have the strength or capacity to be associated with them all the time because it's harmful to ourselves. We may be too influenced by them. Some people who have very arrogant qualities and bad qualities may be very pushy, and it's difficult sometimes for us to deal with these types of people, because they will continually try to influence us in these ways.
There's a fine line, I think, between letting go of all judgement and criticism, seeing it as a bad quality, and wise discrimination. Wise discrimination is knowing correctly: what is skilful and what is not, what is helpful and what is not, what are right conditions for us and what are not, what are right friends and what are wrong friends, what is right conversation and what is wrong conversation. We have to remember to have compassion for ourselves at these times, having equanimity towards these particular types of people.
But certainly if we're just judging people on their looks, how they dress, etc, things that are not that important to judge someone on, then we may see whether we're overly concerned about appearance ourselves. Or overly concerned about how people perceive us, because often at times when we're overly concerned about how a person looks or dresses and everything, then we're terribly concerned about that in ourselves. We also have to try to understand that everybody's human, and that people will have the five hindrances going through their mind from time to time. And if these are not very strong in other people, but they experience them from time to time, then just as we see the hindrances internally, yes we do also see them externally. This is part of the Satipattana Sutta and the Five Hindrances, perceiving the five hindrances internally and externally. But we wouldn't want to totally let go of the discrimination factor in the mind that helps us to have compassion for ourselves.