Don Miguel Ruiz Jr spoke at my church this morning. He was excellent, deep and a fascinating speaker. Much of what he said resonated with me. I loved this on judging, especially. He said that when we judge someone we are evaluating them for conditions that they never agreed to.
What that means is that, we have created "opinions" and "beliefs" in our mind which are the conditions. Our conditions are not necessarily someone elses conditions. And yet, we look at others and judge them by our conditions.
We all have free will. We are free to decide which experiences we want to have and which ones we don't want.
If we look at our lives here like a trip to Disneyland we can see that not everyone wants to ride on Space Mountain. It's too fast for some people. Some people just want to do the River Boat Cruise. They like slow. They want to take their time and enjoy the sunshine. It's dark in Space Mountain and the lights flash by in a jarring way. On the River Boat Cruise you can listen to the sounds of birds in the trees. You can watch the patterns the boat makes in the water as it passes through.
Who's right? Is it the guy that likes fast, dark and scary Space Mountain or is it the one who prefers sunny, slow and peaceful River boating?
Of course, there's no right and wrong here. We all get to choose our own adventure. That's why we're here. We choose an adventure and we learn some things along the way. Our pathway and our learning is our pathway alone and no one elses. We're all heading toward the same ultimate place, but how we get there is determined by each of us individually with our own free will.
Let's not judge anyone else's choices. If they want to be the loud one, or the hairy one or the stubborn one, or the beautiful one or the deep thinking one, just let them be. They never agreed to be a part of the group that thinks that beauty is important. They never agreed to be a part of the group that loves to fight, or the group that likes living in the desert, or the group that wants to save the rain forest, or the group that thinks tattoos are cool. Those aren't the conditions they adhere to.
They are learning just as we are. Let's not judge what they choose to learn or how, where and when they do it.
What can we possibly know about why someone else chooses what they choose?
It is when we begin to see that underneath, in mind, we're all the same anyway. Strip away the loud, the hairy, the beauty and all that's left is mind. Or we're all just alive, as Don Miguel Ruiz Jr liked to call it. In essence we are only that life, that energy, that thought, that creator and nothing more.
We are not our bodies, our stuff, our professions, our skin color or any of our preferences. We are all merely spirit, love, Divine. Just the Divine having a little adventure here on earth.
What that means is that, we have created "opinions" and "beliefs" in our mind which are the conditions. Our conditions are not necessarily someone elses conditions. And yet, we look at others and judge them by our conditions.
We all have free will. We are free to decide which experiences we want to have and which ones we don't want.
If we look at our lives here like a trip to Disneyland we can see that not everyone wants to ride on Space Mountain. It's too fast for some people. Some people just want to do the River Boat Cruise. They like slow. They want to take their time and enjoy the sunshine. It's dark in Space Mountain and the lights flash by in a jarring way. On the River Boat Cruise you can listen to the sounds of birds in the trees. You can watch the patterns the boat makes in the water as it passes through.
Who's right? Is it the guy that likes fast, dark and scary Space Mountain or is it the one who prefers sunny, slow and peaceful River boating?
Of course, there's no right and wrong here. We all get to choose our own adventure. That's why we're here. We choose an adventure and we learn some things along the way. Our pathway and our learning is our pathway alone and no one elses. We're all heading toward the same ultimate place, but how we get there is determined by each of us individually with our own free will.
Let's not judge anyone else's choices. If they want to be the loud one, or the hairy one or the stubborn one, or the beautiful one or the deep thinking one, just let them be. They never agreed to be a part of the group that thinks that beauty is important. They never agreed to be a part of the group that loves to fight, or the group that likes living in the desert, or the group that wants to save the rain forest, or the group that thinks tattoos are cool. Those aren't the conditions they adhere to.
They are learning just as we are. Let's not judge what they choose to learn or how, where and when they do it.
What can we possibly know about why someone else chooses what they choose?
It is when we begin to see that underneath, in mind, we're all the same anyway. Strip away the loud, the hairy, the beauty and all that's left is mind. Or we're all just alive, as Don Miguel Ruiz Jr liked to call it. In essence we are only that life, that energy, that thought, that creator and nothing more.
We are not our bodies, our stuff, our professions, our skin color or any of our preferences. We are all merely spirit, love, Divine. Just the Divine having a little adventure here on earth.
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