Judge Us Not

Judging others is something we all do. Breaking this bad habit is really difficult for me. I am not saying it is impossible but it is proving to be as challenging as getting rid of negative thinking. That took me a while to do. That was a tough one. A lot of practice, day in and day out, weeding out all of the cynicism and skepticism from my monkey mind. Making an attempt to be a better person, free and clear of the nastiest of faults, takes a ton of practice and a whole lot of hard work. It’s a retraining of the brain.

I am far from there, but it is the only horizon I can see that makes sense. If I am not at least trying to raise my standards, then what am I doing here?

Judging is such a lazy habit. Judging seems to make us right about things. But what for really? It’s such an easy way out. Judging is such a great excuse and way to let ourselves off the hook. It makes us feel like we are powerful and more superior than others.

I’m thinking about the measures I use to judge others. I judge others by what I value. I value a great work ethic and sense of self-responsibility. So if someone appears to be blaming others for their problems or not working up to their potential (my measure of “potential”) than I judge them. In my eyes they are wasting their time, not giving the world the best of their talents and using others as a crutch.

However, what has all that judging done? Nothing really. Nothing for me and nothing for the person I am judging. Nothing for the world.

“The act of judgment is an act of pride. It involves looking to our own store of knowledge, putting together a few facts, figures or fancies, and coming up with some sort of answer or solution to a given problem or situation. All too often it is the wrong solution or answer, and because of pride, we refuse to correct course. You judge, and then to make matters worse, you believe in your judgment. You’ve looked at the evidence, you’ve made a judgment – it must be right! There couldn’t possibly be any other conclusion to arrive at but the one your’ve chosen, could there? What you don’t see, don’t understand, is that your judgment leads to suffering – your own suffering. It does not touch the person judged; he or she is free of you and your thoughts and your judgments. You cannot change their behaviour by even a hair’s breadth by your judgment.”