Topic:   Judgment of Systems and Individuals

Ask the Author: Question and Response

In working on releasing judgment, an ongoing process for me at this time, I am currently aware that I tend to be accepting of people as individuals, in general. However, my judgment about systems currently in place is often great. I work as a clinician in a mental health clinic and find individual psychotherapy to be my rewarding purpose. But the obstacles presented by systems which are focused on paperwork details and oriented to ruling people out rather than helping them makes me frustrated. I find myself complaining along with my colleagues in a manner that my wiser self knows is error. I know that I am just resisting releasing the blockages, but wonder if there is any difference between judgment about systems rather than people?

- Linda, Washington, USA
 

To answer your question directly, there are no differences between judging yourself, your brother and sister and that of judging systems.  All judgments have separation as their goal.  Judgments, regardless of who or what they are directed to, wound you.  Understand the following: You are connected to God. Your brothers and sisters are connected to God. Therefore, you are connected to your brothers and sisters. Thus, what you do to your brothers and sisters you do to yourself.  Systems, no matter their size, are supported, sustained and maintained by your brothers and sisters. Therefore, when you judge their systems, you judge them and wound yourself. You unconsciously wound yourself. You feel wounded, yet you do not understand where this wounding is coming from. This creates confusion.

The action of separation causes confusion. Confusion may be defined by innumerable ego names such as anger, sadness, feeling trapped, frustration, aggravation, hatred, etc. All these are the ego’s goals and answers for you. When you are separate from your brother or sister, you only have the ego to lean on for support, and this is where it wants you, subdued to its demand.

Yet rejoice my friend, for a new day is at hand - a day where a simple reinterpretation of reality will bring us all closer to peace and union.  For we can only judge and criticize other people and systems so long before we finally understand and experience the pain and fruitlessness of our actions. We will reverse the thinking of the world by choosing understanding instead of judgment, compassion instead of condemnation, and love and unity instead of fear, confusion and separation. 

Rejoice for even through the ego’s efforts there are great lessons to be understood and remembered. For you will follow the ego’s path and instruction book only so far until you get that it is getting you nowhere you want to be. You will continue on its path only until you tire of experiencing its results. Then one day, you will decide this road is not the one you desire for yourself or for your children.  You will finally stop and say ‘there must be a better way.” Then the fog will lift, and you will not curse the past or the ego for where you are, but you will realize that because of it that you have finally reached a place with enough clarity to see. 

There are truly only two expressions, love and a call for love. If you answer a call for love with judgment and attack, you will not find peace regardless of how ‘in the right’ you perceive yourself to be. If you want peace you must abandon judgment and attack.  Those who have failed to learn peace and union need teaching, not attacking. To attack those who need teaching is to have failed to learn yourself.  God’s son is guiltless.  Every time you see a brother, sister or system as guiltless you will be remembering your own innocence.  This circle has no end, and the more people you bring into it, the safer and more at peace you will feel. Peace will come to those who choose to become teachers of peace.

Again, every judgment wounds you. Imagine eating ice cream vs. salad, or even some fast food compared to a healthy meal.  If you’re in the moment, paying attention, you can immediately feel what it does to your body. If you’re in the rat race, not attuned to your body, not paying attention, you might not notice the difference, at first. Yet over time, you will see, feel and understand the difference.  The same goes with judgments. A judgment here, a judgment there, no big deal - you say. Yet over time, you will see, feel, and understand what it is you are doing to yourself.  The more knowledgeable and in the moment you are, the quicker you will choose to stop putting poisons into your body. And I’m here to witness that judgments, as little and insignificant as they may appear, are as poisonous to the body as the fast foods that most of us choose to consume.

So you ask me, “is there any difference between judgment of systems rather than people?” and my answer would be, is there any difference between a Big Mac and a Whopper?

If you’re very aware and in the moment, you can experience them both (fast food and judgments) affecting your energy and body. If you are not in the moment and aware you might not see them changing you, but sooner or later you will be forced to deal with your attitude, actions, reactions, and their effects. 

The corporations and people on this planet will awaken; I can promise you that. Our choice now becomes - how much damage will we do to ourselves and others before we choose a healthier and more peaceful lifestyle?

Take a look at our friends at Kentucky Fried Chicken (my grandmother’s favorite, before she passed away with heart disease). After 50 years, they have finally stopped cooking their chicken will trans-fat oils. On June 12, 2006, the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) filed a lawsuit against KFC over its use of partially hydrogenated oil - the chemically altered, trans-fat laden oil that kills roughly 50,000 Americans per year. On October 30, 2006 (after two years of testing), KFC announces an end of trans-fat cooking oil use. In study after study, trans-fat oil has been proven to increase the risk of heart disease. A typical 3 piece extra crispy combo meal with potato wedges and biscuit has a staggering 15 grams of trans-fat, more than an individual should consume in a whole week. Kentucky Fried Chicken or as they wisely and slyly changed their name to KFC, the world’s most popular chicken chain restaurant, serving 8 million people a day in 80 countries, finally has changed the partially hydrogenated soybean oil with a new low linolenic soybean oil. Now the interesting part is that they will be doing this in all 5,500 USA restaurants, but, there is no mention when or if they will be doing this in their other 6,500 restaurants outside the USA.    

Let’s continue on this subject and work through an example - McDonald’s. In September of 2002, McDonalds said it was voluntarily changing to cooking oil with less trans-fat and that the change would be completed by February 2003. However, McDonalds encountered ‘operational issues’ and the oil was not changed.  How can we assist McDonalds and KFC internationally to change their oil without involving ourselves in judgment’s energy?

There is a difference between judging, cursing and making McDonalds and KFC the bad guys (the ‘if you aren’t with us you are against us’ mentality) or that of having a passion for public health, and the idea that corporations should not be putting trans-fats into their products, especially products that are so strongly marketed and available to our children.   

Remember the main goals of the ego-self and the Godself. The goal of the ego-self is separation through judgment. The goal of the Godself is union through compassion and understanding.

Think about how you wake up your kids in the morning. Do you just push them out of bed, or do you slowly and lovingly invite them to awaken.  Sure, that gentle invitation does not always work the first time, and so you lovingly increase your persuasion until they get that it’s time to awaken. So too with corporations and systems, which are truly just a group of individuals sharing and supporting an idea or thought system.  You look to rationalize with them. You pray for them. You invite them to see the logic of your argument. You show them the scientific results and the popular demand polls. Then, if they still won’t listen or change, you lovingly and courageously use public awareness, and if necessary the court system to settle your differences. Do what brings you peace. Nothing more is asked of you in order to have and live a peaceful life.

Little by little, as you wake your child, you might increase the tapping on his or her shoulder. So too do we see this with companies like McDonalds. Little by little, through public awareness campaigns, parents are awakening to the understanding that trans-fat is hurting them and their children.  Little by little, you see the public understanding the way food affects them, from schools starting to take soda and candy machines out of their corridors to fast food restaurants changing their menus in response to public understanding, awareness and interest. McDonalds now, because of public pressure and demand for healthier choices, includes salads on the menu, and soon because of public pressure and demand they will stop serving trans-fat oils. There are parents that may need to shake their kids a little more to wake them, but that does not mean that these parents love their kids any less.

If you so desire, consider including the following suggestions into your daily practice and lifestyle:

1. Attitude is a choice. The attitude you choose to take will determine what energies, thoughts, feeling and emotions will invigorate or pollute your body. On a moment to moment basis, you choose what kind of fuel powers and flows through your body. You can be passionate about an issue and still be compassionate and cooperative instead of confrontational and combative.  The choice is yours.
    

2. Analyze the pollutants you have been putting into your body. Write them all down on a piece of paper.  Write down the individuals, systems or events where you chose to react with judgment. Then take that paper in your hands and pray that love, light, peace and understanding surround and engulf you, and these beings and systems. With all your heart, pray for all these parts that once brought judgment, stress, anger and anxiety. Ask God to send his love through you to them.  Then thank them for they are assisting you in seeing what you once met and carried with judgment and pain, you now handle with compassion and understanding.
    

3. Do what brings you peace of mind and harmony. Trust that God desires you to have peace of mind, joy, meaning and fulfillment in your life. Trust this, and let your actions be an extension of this desire.  On a day to day, moment to moment basis, focus on these attributes and your physical environment will begin to reshape itself to support this realization.  These attributes are expressions of your Godself, and consciously or not you desire a greater expression of them in your life. Do what brings you peace and then trust God; that’s all that is asked of you in order to experience peace of mind in your life.
    

4. With patience and compassion develop understanding and consensus between your colleagues.  We are all, from deep within, asking for more joy, peace, meaning and fulfillment in our lives.  Day by day, little by little, give them a greater voice. As you do, you will begin to see your physical environment, and all its manifestations shift to support them.
    

5. Partner with God or whatever self-actualized being or energy you pray to in order to bring more clarity to the issues you are dealing with.  Continue to ask for understanding and clarity; do not be afraid to ask.  You don’t ask for too much, you ask for too little.  He but waits for you to join Him. Take some quiet time during the day or before bedtime to bring your issue to light. Let your heart guide you through the process. Then sit for a while and listen. Invite Him into your dreams. Invite Him to bring clarity and peace into your life.
    

6. You can change your environment through grace and kindness. For example, in the trans-fat area you can go to websites like bantransfats.com and inform and educate yourself on the issue. Then share your knowledge with your friends and neighbors, especially those with kids. Maybe print out material that helps you and them make healthier choices. If you desire, you can financially assist these websites in getting the word out. Talk to your children using age appropriate language and share with them what you know.
    

7. Everyone teaches and learns all the time. You have taught what you think you are, but you have not allowed what you truly are to teach you. Peace of mind, love and joy return you to your true essence.  Expand what is within you - outward. Determine not to deny what has been given to you by God. Serve as an example to others of the truth within you all.
    

8. What you invest in judgment, you withdraw from peace.  “I know that I am just resisting releasing the blockages, but...”  You’ll resist releasing the blockages until you find them too heavy to carry.  You can release them before your legs, heart and mind start to tremble from their weight or, you can wait until you actually physically feel their overbearing weight. The choice is yours to make. Bring your judgments to the surface and allow light to shine on them. Take a moment to see and understand which direction you’re headed in.
    

9. Frustration can only be felt when you’re misinterpreting the moment. “But the obstacles presented by systems which are focused on paperwork details and oriented to ruling people out rather than helping them makes me frustrated.”  Frustration, as defined in the ego world, brings about feelings of limitation, restriction and constraint.  The Godself sees frustration as a call to action, a call for healing, and a call for greater trust.  Every situation, regardless of how you have been taught to see and react to it, is a gift. Every situation offers the opportunity for peace and healing.  The true goal and gift here would be to find peace where you once did not, and then extend this peace and understanding into the world.  Frustration, worry and stress are all systematic of a lack of trust in God’s plan. Again, from a place of understanding, compassion and love, do what your heart and soul are calling you to do. Then trust. That is all you need do to forever eliminate frustration, worry and stress from your and your children’s lives.
    

10. The possibility for ‘error’ is not within you. “I find myself complaining along with my colleagues in a manner that my wiser self knows is error.” Error and any other words, feelings or actions that in any way put you, or your brother or sister down, are an invention of the ego. Have you actually convinced yourself that if God looked into your eyes he would see anything but His perfect creation being reflected back?  If you were in a park and you saw your young children running toward you, and because of the speed they were going they tripped, fell, then got up, dusted themselves off, then kept running toward you for a hug, would you love them any less for tripping? Would you hug them with any less passion because they tripped on their way to you? Would you see any error in them at all? My friend, do you not see that God’s arms are completely extended in wait for you and all your brothers and sisters? When, even for a moment, you close your eyes and invite Him to hold you, do you not feel perfect love and acceptance embracing you?  Do you think the Father of perfect acceptance and Love sees any error at all in His Children, no matter how many times they perceive themselves to trip? My brother and sister, there is no such thing as error because regardless of how many times you have been told otherwise, there is no such thing as God’s judgment. 

View larger images of front & back cover 
of the great spiritual / self development book You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy by James Blanchard Cisneros.