And Sally thanks for your post to me too! :+)

Since the subject of judgment has come uP I want to send a draft about this subject for an uPcoming newsletter I put out.

It’s not necessary to comment, but I’d appreciate any comments insights from either of you, or others. Hey I’m learning too!

Thanks in advanced.

Judgmentalism by Marko

We really seem fearful of having judgmental feelings of any negative sort, let alone express them honestly.

Folks we have judgments and make judgments all the time.

“WoW she’s fat!,
Good Lord that man is short! Look at the boobs on that women!” etc. etc. etc.

Now I have these above judgments and I’m OK with them!

That doesn’t mean I disown them, it does mean I’m even more OK with transforming them.

So while I have my initial unconscious judgment on someone, I often then ask myself ok that was my initial judgment, I wonder what’s really going on?

So while I have my judgment, I can also suspend it somewhat, not take it too seriously either.

My next step is, I bless that person. Doing so I bless a part of myself that I may not like to recognize within another, even if it’s in a much lesser or perhaps greater degree.

(By the way I am a Master. That is, a Master Appreciator and working and playing to be a Master Blesser too!)

So now after I make my judgment, of which I don’t take too seriously unless I do, and usually I don’t. I bless that person.

I bless the person who is smoking and whom I may for a moment think is a “fricking idiot” for doing so.

It’s called transition.

I transition from unconscious temporary reaction judgment to stretching the judgment (like stretching putty) to suspending it, to wondering if there is more to the picture than my little petty judgment to blessing it.

All this is done within moments, seconds, perhaps even nano seconds.

Comments, questions, disagreements, accolades? Take your pick. :+) (laugh)

I am now reminded of something I once heard. It was like this: “When we are fully enlightened, it won’t matter what we are doing.”

Oh, Gloria, how I love these words: “The truth of my life is that I spent most of it outer-directed, and now I’m not going to have anyone tell me what to do and when to do it etc.!!!!” I have always vehemently rejected any form of outer-direction. And you know what? My inner-direction was the extreme of outer-direction. And now i’m not going to have Jochen or anyone tell me what to do and when to do it etc.!!!!

Sandy and Randy never said they feel the way I do. They said only that they thought I might enjoy the book. It IS a good read. Thoroughly enjoyable. I am recommending the book!

I forget who it was — someone famous — who said he disagreed with everything a certain person said and he defended to his death the person’s right to say it.

Is this judgment on my part? I don’t pretend I am yet without judgment. But if I say I choose the root beer lollipop and someone chooses the grape, is it a judgment? It’s true that grape is my least favorite! What can a body say that is not judgment!!!

I would not (and did not) drop everything in my life and do everything or anything the author did, yet I certainly can understand it. I can even envy his ability.

That the author finally chose an extremely regimented life and happily does everything by the book day and night — I am simply not able to relate to it.

I am not saying that there isn’t beauty and merit in following the Hassidic path. There is. Hassidism raises every daily aspect of life above the mundane. There is a blessing for every aspect of daily life.

The author spent so much of his life being inner-directed.

The truth of my life is that I spent most of it outer-directed, and now I’m not going to have anyone tell me what to do and when to do it etc.!!!!

I love your posts, Marko! Keep them coming!

Reading this it seems you both seemed attached to a certain path that appears to be freedom of a certain kind.

The kind Gil lead early on that is.

This man may be seeking another kind of freedom in the form of disciplines that you feel are not freedom at all. That seems to be a judgment on your part no?

Also, perhaps by understanding the extremes of total freedom to total rigidness he sees the larger picture and truly understands it because he has experienced it all. Or much of it.

From here he may help others decide from that vantage point (if one cares to accept and be receptive to that vantage point) the better options that people desire since he’s explored them all including extremes in a way most others don’t.

Maybe this is preparation for an uPcoming future lifetime.

Chocolate coated blessings.