Power to Judge (Revision) Part 2
Hi EveryOne,
How is your reviewing of our Power to Judge going? Considering Judgement as a power, I’m reminded of the amazing effect this virtue has when used accurately. As I mentioned in Part One, judgement is often used to disempower and therefore seen in a negative way. But Judgement has such amazing potential when we consciously use our intellect, to weigh up our own thoughts, words and actions, as a means to transform ourselves (not to berate ourselves or others). When we are too busy sitting in judgement of others, or ourselves, we are unable to make clear rational choices and decisions – creating a path of frustration and insecurity that leads to more judgemental behaviour. When we take this path we be driven by justification and rationalisation. We won’t be able to transform our own attitude but instead, our filters of the world become narrow and blurred.
Interesting, I often hear people say “I’m not judging, but…” Did you know that as soon as we say ‘but’ we are already on the judgemental path? Noticing what someone else should or should not be doing and being negatively affected by it (as opposed to observing without inner or outer comment) leads us away from self transformation and leads us towards disempowerment. Who am I to judge how fast or slow another should talk… Or walk… Or eat… Or breathe… Or live! Lets not waste our precious time on earth judging others, instead, lets use our time to return to our essence of love and peace – which the Power to Judge can help us with. Being judgemental closes any pathway to work on ourselves – leaving frustration and anger to build that leads to more judgements – meanwhile love and peace remain a faraway dream. Jealousy is a subtle form of being judgemental, as is arrogance and fear. When we fear something or someone (usually because we haven’t afforded time to educate ourselves on the situation or person) we judge. So using our understanding of our virtue of patience, lets live and let live, and judgement will automatically become a powerful tool for self transformation.
Questions to churn on:
– Do I judge when I don’t understand?
– Do I get jealous when others succeed?
– Do I ever say “I’m not judging, but…”?
Lesson: Life is too short to waste on being judgemental. The more I focus on what others are doing or not doing, the less time and energy I have to transform myself. And if self transformation is your goal (as it is mine) then we must stop giving our energy to others! When I think of others (be it good or bad) I am not thinking about what I need to do, or not do, to change myself 🙂
Here are 10 Quotes to help with this Power:
1. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment ― Will Rogers
2. When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself ― Earl Nightingale
3. The man I am will always raise a protest against the man I want to be and the two will live together to the end, but the man I want to be will be the one on whom judgement will be passed ― Julien Green
4. The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence ―Jiddu Krishnamurti
5. We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate ― Erica Jong
6. People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves ― Albert Camus
7. Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up ― Jesse Jackson
8. You don’t have the right to hold somebody accountable for standards you refuse to apply to yourself ― Stephen A. Smith
9. No one truly knows what they will do in a certain situation until they are actually in it. It’s very easy to judge someone else’s actions by what you assume your own would be, if you were in their shoes. But we only know what we THINK we would do, not what we WOULD do ― Ashly Lorenzana
10. The chains that keep you bound to the past are not the actions of another person. They are your own anger, stubbornness, lack of compassion, jealousy and blaming others for your choices. It is not other people that keep you trapped; it is the entitled role of victim that you enjoy wearing. There is a familiarness to pain that you enjoy because you get a payoff from it. When you figure out what that payoff is then you will finally be on the road to freedom ― Shannon L. Alder
I look forward to receiving your contributions 🙂 Much love, Annemarie