Judgement

Imagine if we were so clumsy one day that after spilling our morning coffee, dropping our keys down a drain then breaking a delicate ornament with our heavy touch, we were so cross with ourselves we decided to do something drastic…we decided to cut off the offending hand.

How likely is it that we would come to this decision or that we would actually go through with the act?

Does it seem preposterous?

We are so quick to judge others. We observe their thoughts, their actions, their words, as outsiders, loaded with expectation, criticism and opinion.

If we consider it a ridiculous proposition to chop off our own hand for the actions we deem inept, why then are we so quick to judge harshly the actions of others we deem inept?

Why should the rules we govern ourselves by be different to the rules we govern others by?

We are all the same, there is no better or worse than us, we all have the same capacities for good and evil, whether we act on it or not and if someone does act, who is in a position to say their actions are good or evil?

Everything is relative, everything is culturally determined, there is no universal law except what our own intuition and heart tells us, and even then we are all biased by our upbringings, the country we live in, the education we have had, and any number of other factors.

The best we can do is learn to love ourselves, freely and without condition, just as we would love a child, and to extend that love to all we meet, as they are us and we are them.