“Judge not, lest you be so fearful of judgment that you can hardly breath.” Paul Williams
The judgement of others is a powerful human weakness. The more roots it grows, the harder it becomes to cure.The problem with judging others is that it never has good results.
It’s a powerful weakness in a weak body and it expresses itself mainly through words, but it can also install in one’s heart and work from there.
In my opinion, these are the best solutions against judgement.
1. Don’t tie friendships with gossipers.
This is the place where the fight needs to start. If you hear people gossip about others, run away from them. Be careful not to fall in the pit while you’re running away from it… don’t judge people who judge. Hate the act, not the people who do it.
2. Abstinence from gossip helps.
When you hear some rumours about someone you know, don’t go to him and say “someone is talking this and this against you”. When the words have the gossip characters, ignore them. Apply the principles from this story.
3. Hold your tongue.
If your heart is starting to nurture bad feelings against someone, if your mind is trying to tempt you into judging a person, try to crush these feelings. If you can’t crush them, at least hold your tongue and don’t spread it out to more people. If you keep it within yourself, the results are limited by the borders of your heart, but if you tell other people what you think, the effects are devastating. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
4. Look at your own faults.
Altough we may like to think we are better persons than the rest of the world, we’re not. It just our pride talking.
5. When you see someone do wrong, don’t regard him as a bad person.
Try to see things from his perspective, put yourself in his shoes and think about what would you have done in the same circumstances. Don’t judge people for making wrong decisions, help them fix the outcomes.
6. Judge yourself.
This is the best advice. The whole art of it consists in watching and judging your own actions and appreciationg them correctly. Take a look at yourself as an outsider and I’m sure you’ll find more than enough things to judge. Probably the most important part of the process in not to be merciful with yourself.
