Our judgment addiction

I guess with judgment day approaching fast everyone is getting their practice in now. And sure why not. Judging others is such a fulfilling past time - filling the multiple objectives of creating boundaries (she has no manners), defining self (thank goodness I'm not like that) and distracting oneself from the task at hand (our own shortcomings, sadness and pain). Most insidiously, judgment seems to be partnered with the need to discuss, analyse and share. Our individual judgments of each other aren't good enough. We need to spread them around too.

Of course I'm judging now. See. And a few weeks ago I had the lovely experience of being judged by one of the most judgmental people I've ever known. Which was a really enlightening experience because that was the moment that I realise that the entire practice of judgment was yet another completely and totally waste of time habit (like living in the past, what if ruminations and freaks out about the future) that we humans seemed to have accidentally adopted to great effect.

Our judgment of everyone and everything keeps us properly bound and tied in our little isolated worlds. There's no need to talk to anyone, reach out, bake a pie for your neighbour or try something new. Why bother when we've judged all road as leading in a less satisfactory direction.

Judgment has led all of us in the west to an unhappy stalemate. and not a peaceful one but a festering, angry, bitter one. and no one is really free of it. because we're all in it. we're all a part of it. We've all got our view on "other" even if other really is ourselves. I wonder what's going to happen on judgment day. No need really for someone else to show up and pronounce judgment on us. They can just leave us sitting around in a big room waiting and judging each other. GOD knows that'll be hell enough for eternity.

What we see in others is ultimately the universe mirroring what we see in ourselves. But like seeing yourself, seeing yourself, seeing yourself in a mirror the only way to escape this infinite mirroring of each other to each other is to rise above it and completely remove yourself from it. For many of us this will be like quitting smoking. But its got to be done. Judges: STOP. Find something else to do. Take up golf or basket weaving. Get a job. Get a life. If you don't like someone don't see them. If you don't like something don't do it. If you don't like somewhere move. Otherwise, if you can't think something nice, don't think anything at all.

Giving up judgment will be hard for all of us but the curiosity of what lies behind those mirrors is incentive enough for me to start right away. See you on the other side.

the calm before the storm

Is it me or does it feel like the calm before the storm. There has been too much disruption lately to assume that a storm is not in fact about to ensue. Oh sure - a cleansing, purifying monsoon burst of energy - but yes. a storm nevertheless.

the flow is disrupted.

why does this happen. Before I got here I always thought that the zone - the flow, the deep - was always smooth. that life just floated by as a series of meadows with me running through it in a flowing cotton skirt (organic of course).

but transformation doesn't exactly work like that and there's no where like the deep for witnessing transformation at its rawest, most efficient best. No noisy distractions here.

the seeds in the pod mature and mature. the caterpillar in the cocoon grows and grows. the water pressure behind the ice gets bigger and bigger. until suddenly in one seriously not very flowing way - there is what scientists call a step function change. Do the lemmings know just before they hurl themselves off the cliff? Does the tree know before it suddenly bursts into fits of blossoms?

I guess they do. Intuitively know. As much as a tree can. But in the case of us humans those of us who are bothering to listen surely know that change is coming. Individual lives are being effected by this energy everywhere.

Synchronicities abound. Inside our head neurons are connecting more and more rapidly as new data and environmental stimuli construct the networks and connections required to gain the clarity we need in the midst of all this confusion and uncertainty. For many this is happening at light speed.

On the earth people all over the world are connecting to each other - from movements of solidarity and occupation to friendships on social networks, cross border customers to far away family. And as we are connecting so simultaneously millions of people are twigging to the realisation that quite a lot is not right. Again, networks and connections are being forged at light speed and again confusion persists.

It is not until sufficient time and muddling around has passed that clarity begins to emerge. Dr. Suess calls this the waiting room. Coffee calls it percolation. Science calls it gestation. But make no mistake. When the clarity emerges the knowingness will too and that and only that is all that anything or one needs to take the next step required for transformation of any size or shape. And that is to ACT. And act I, we and they will. Because that's how my brain, and our brains and the planet and everything works. We're hardwired to change, to mutate and in doing so to survive.

The flood gates of transformation

The other day I met with a lovely small businessman grappling with the difficulties of a problematic employee. The scale of the problem was small but could have easily become a sickening cancer. The writing was on the wall long before I showed up. Our discussion revealed plenty (and I mean PLENTY) of evidence which over a medium term had pointed to the only potential solution: major surgery. And yet the surgery had not been completed. By the time we met the level of conflict avoidance was so high that it was clearly causing this gentleman considerable problems. And yet he had not acted. He had written testimony from experts in the field. He had a strong intuition that something was wrong. He had feedback from customers. Still he had not acted. By the time I arrived the avoidance, denial, lack of confidence - call it what you want - had reached mammoth proportions. Distress had set in. And yet he had not acted. Chaos had ensued.

I wondered whether to share my own intuition or not. It really wasn't my business. And I didn't know the parties well. But he asked for my opinion. Twice. And so. with the best possible intent I gave it.

Suddenly something clicked. Twenty four hours later, the cancer had been removed and the flood gates of relief, realisation, order, understanding and knowingness were blown wide open.

We are globally experiencing a similar kind of situation. One or more cancers lie deep in the heart of the critical political, financial and corporate structures on which life is built. Everyone knows they are there and knows they probably need to come out. But avoidance is high. Things are starting to get chaotic. And still we wait. The pressure is mounting. Its all good.

Soon something is going to give. the flood gates will open. and transformation can begin.