On Judgement

What is judgement, exactly? I’ve struggled with this. I know I’ve judged others wrongly in certain situations. I know that judgement has ALWAYS come back to bite me in the ass eventually. But why? I cling to the proverb “that which you judge, so will you also be judged with the same ferocity.” At first, due my pain surrounding my thoughts on the restrictions of organized religion, I thought this was a threat. Just another sanction imposed by the Roman Catholic Church and the principles of Christianity in order to use emotional manipulation to control their people. That was my thought. And then I was like..well, what the heck would they gain from not wanting people to judge others and saying it is wrong and threatening if they do so the hammer would fall upon them? Didn’t make sense.

It didn’t make sense because this wasn’t a threat as a thought. It was a piece of very valuable information letting us in on a smaller part of a much larger picture. When you are put in a position to judge someone, it isn’t the only other person involved. YOU are also involved. There are many ways you can judge someone wrongly. You can project your own fears upon them. You can perceive that you know how to fix things and start giving advice in that direction. You can feel all high and mighty because you know it all and are not willing to listen to reason. Would you agree? And there are many other ways.

I’ve done this before to others. Sized them up, chewed them up and spit them out feeling totally justified. And then when it comes back to me, and I know it is coming back at me I have to look the Universe (my expanded more inclusive word for God), “why the HECK did you let me do that?”  I have never gotten an answer..until now.

It is not God or the Universe’s job to guide you in a situation like this. It’s ALL you.

When I started in school (kindergarten) I was very young when compared to the other children. Kindergarten was privatized then. Not everyone went and it was not offered in the school system. It was however offered by private instructors. My private instructor voiced her concerns about my age and emotional maturity. She wasn’t sure I was ready.

I proved her wrong. I heard them talking and started drawing with my crayons like they told me too. I thought, “I’ll pass this test, I’ll prove myself to you. Just watch” As I sat there with my crayons I didn’t draw pictures of sunshine and flowers and trees and all that—even though as a child I liked to do that. No, I wrote out the alphabet. Then I wrote numbers from one to twenty with their written name along with the symbols. Then, I proudly took the picture to my mother and my teacher and said, “See, I can do this”

I went to kindergarten that year. My teacher couldn’t say “no” after that. I saw that as a pre-test. A test to see if I had learned what I needed to learn in order to participate in the next lesson.

Now, lets look at someone who judges with the knowledge of WHEN they judge they are going to eventually have that judgement come back to them. Is that just Karma for being an ASS? Well..kind of. But it isn’t referring to JUST judging one poorly. It is also referring to when we judge someone correctly. That will come back to us to. When we are in the position to judge, it is our pre-test. The fact that what we do in the situation will come back to us either way is a given. Now, if we dish out poor judgement we will get that in return and we will realize (hopefully) the error of our own initial misjudgement and adjust. If we dish out good judgement..size things up correctly..then when we are judged in the future we should consider that as confirmation.

The opportunity to judge is the pre-test. What you learn from that time until the judgement comes back to you is the final exam. If we pass or get it right, we probably are not going to encounter that situation again. If we fail, that same set of circumstances are going to come around again. We will have an opportunity to judge. A period in between and then be faced with that judgement coming back again in an effort to evaluate what we learned.

When we judge someone what do we do? We base our opinion on observation, past experience and our personal morals. If any part of that is ill or not useful the universe will do it’s best to strip it away because it is of no use to you in the grand plan. It wants to take that ill part, that defunctioning part and get rid of it. But, you have to let go of it first. When you do, you can choose a better way of observing, a better way of looking at your past experience and a more refined less restrictive set of personal morals. If all of that is in line when we are put to the test NEXT TIME to judge a person in the same set of circumstances we judged a similar situation before..we probably won’t pass judgement at all.

Say you judge something as “just another drug death” inaccurately. You will be judged eventually as “just another…” whatever and it will piss you off because “it just isn’t true” right. Pay attention, because you are going to see “just another drug death soon” and be set with an OPPORTUNITY to employ what you learned from being judged as “just another…” or not. If you have learned something, you will say, “there may be more to this than I know, I really can’t give an opinion yet. I need more information before I decide what is going on in mind” You may never get the information you want. But in making that decision, you have shown you have learned and you won’t be judged as “just another….whatever” again. BUT, if you blow it off again and say, “just another drug death” then AGAIN you will be judged as “just another..whatever.” This cycle will continue until you get it right and those restrictive small minded opinions and mentalities will be washed away. While you continually get it wrong, you will continually be given opportunity to learn. But if you refuse to see that you will be confused, frustrated and in extreme circumstances may spiral to depression, extreme anger and have very destructive feelings that you may never even connect with what’s going on.

So, “that which you judge, so also will you judged upon with the same ferocity” was a clue to the inner workings of the universe. God, or the Universe, is our guiding father. He isn’t here to smack you around when you are bad. He is here to deliver consequences to help us learn, adjust and grow. Those words are not a threat. They are a promise. And now, I understand.