I once went to my mother, a person who, at 39 realized she had some real problems, and so she went into therapy for herself, then eventually became a
therapist as well as one of the first women ordained ministers in Canada, and spent the rest of her life until her passing at age 63, in 1998 or was
it 99.., helping people. Anyway, as you can tell, she meant a lot to me, and I'm very proud of her, Kay her name was - and I said to her, in real
anguish, about my judgemental tendancies "Mom, I just can't DO this anymore, this judgmentalism I have towards people, it's gotten so bad now that I
can judge a person, or think I can, at 200 feet away (or more!), and I don't even KNOW these people, and it's killing me, please help me to get over
this!" and so she just get's all compassionate (her secret to being a helpful therapist) and looks at me and then exclaims in a soft innocent sounding
voice "Why Bob, didn't you know that all judgement is nothing but a judgement about yourself, that it has very little if nothing at all to do with the
other person", as if this is the most natural and self evident thing in the world! This drove me nuts, for quite some time as you might imagine, but
it was so helpful.
M. Scott Peck MD, wrote in "The Road Less Travelled, a New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth" that "we are all of us
mentally ill, to a greater or lessor degree, lacking in perfect mental health and well being", and some are just sicker than others.
AA (alchoholics anonymous) has a prayer, when we enounter people who provoke a strong judgemental reaction in us "this is a sick person, God save me
from being angry, let thy will, not mine, be done". And some, like Hitler are or were VERY sick. Peck also wrote another book called "People of the
Lie" in which be posits the idea that human evil is a sickness.
It's not an absolute thing, functioning on some sort of cosmic good/evil duality ie: where we "need" Hitlers so that Mother Theresas can exist, that's
absurd and bad Buddhist theology, and represents a complete misunderstanding of karma.
It is in our capacity and willingness to recognize that "life is sorrowful", that we may find the joy on the other side of sorrow and suffering sin
and evil.
Thus, reacting in judgement towards anyone, in the form of a condemnation, does not serve the cause of love, and any good we might try to do simply to
help balance the scale is work spent in vain. The sickness of evil can never justify the good, that's dualistic thinking.
Hitler represents self will and hatred run riot on a grand scale, but there were forces at work in the world which generated Hitler as a possibility.
And of late we've kind of seen the re-emergence of a type of ghost of Hitler, for a brief period, by the "White Hatted Guys" of all things, another
duality, projected against the evil without, fighting evil with evil.
This can never work.
The resolution I think resides in our capacity to hate evil so much, that we are willing to become the solution to the problem of evil.
Part of the problem we have in the world, is the failure to recognize, at the most fundamental level, that we are either part of the problem or, part
of the solution, and judging AGAINST evil, isn't the least bit helpful.
"Resist not evil" said Jesus, and he of course did not mean to embrace it, or permit it or condone it, not in the least, but to recognize, that which
we resist, persists, and we are WAY more "at cause" in the whole sphere of karma than we might realize.
We all contributed to, and fostered the rise of Hitler, at some level. But in the words of Winston Churchill, that war was, like most wars, an
"unneccessary war".
What gives me hope, and bright optimism, in the face of the whole damn mess we're in, is that "the idea" is now becoming dominant, something that even
the " evil PTB" cannot escape from, anymore, a new light of awareness is beginning to shine, both within and without, scanning.
"Let vengeance be mine sayeth the Lord"
We have to let this go, to be free and at cause in something helpful, in whatever way however big or small, however fast or slow.
There's another way, and it takes a lot of courage, but it's totally worth it. Jesus understood it perfectly.
"Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you"
now THAT is where the rubber REALLY hits the road with torque and goes somewhere fast and far and wide.
if only we had access to all his teachings wherein he described the process of precisely HOW to do this, but maybe it's just like I said, seeing how
to be somewhat at cause in the end of evil, by being at cause in the beginning of love, even in the face of the worst evil.
it's all part of the Great Work of the Ages, and this generation is up for the task and if not this one, the next or the next, but the evil is a house
divided which cannot stand, and all suffering eventually leads to conscious suffering, unravelling itself in the process.
so it would seem that the problem is that we're not quite ready to give up all evil yet, until we've had ENOUGH!
So when is enough enough? That's the question, and of course, if we want to change the world, then we must be that very change we seek outwardly.
So in short, this type of judgementalism, and I've been there done that too, and still do, from time to time, although much much less than I used to,
is ineffectual and not the least bit helpful, even part of the very same sickness, albeit on a much smaller scale..
P.S. The quote in my signature about sinners and saints I also got from her, and she became a real and authentic saint in her later years, a master.
But she said one thing I still can't quite grasp, and that was "sin with courage". I think it means something akin to self acceptance, and that we are
still a work in progress, and not to get locked up in perfectionism, something like that.
edit on 12-12-2010 by NewAgeMan because: (no reason given)