Posted by Diane on 6/2/2004, 2:46 pm An article that is free for sharing. --- This article is aimed at people like myself who in having moved The more I have awakened, the more I have come to face the paradoxes In the spiritual community I have met many wonderfully open-minded In the mid-ground, before judgmentalism of judgmentalism, is a whole Okay, most people aren't that outwardly blatant, but I am just When I come to look at this type of 'refined' judgmentalism in
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Hi all, got this in my morning mail and felt it had some good reminders and thoughts..Diane
Overcoming Spiritual Competitiveness
by Story Waters
beyond such fundamental judgmentalism as prejudice, may have without
even realizing it, have come to refine their judgmentalism into the
finer aspects of the polarity that could be described as 'evolved-
unevolved', most commonly felt in the thought that you are
more 'spiritually evolved' that someone else. I believe that
spiritual superiority and elitism is something that needs to be
addressed in the spiritual community. That said, the ultimate form
of non-judgmentalism is to not judge judgmentalism, and the ultimate
form of that is to not judge yourself for your own judgmentalism. So
if through this article you find judgmentalism in yourself please do
not be shamed, that is not my intent. I am just presenting ideas for
your discernment.
that exist in reality. One truth that I am personally very certain
of, is that there is no 'One Truth', that all paths lead to
enlightenment. Put another way, I believe that everyone is exactly
where they need to be at every moment and is fulfilling the path
they have set for themselves. I find I react strongly to people that
proclaim they have found the 'true' path. People who say they
have 'The Answer', and that those without this knowledge are lost.
In fact it is probably true to say that I look upon them as being
the ones that are lost as they are so in conflict with my truth that
there is no one truth. In doing this, unfortunately for me, I step
on my own point. I have stated that their 'one truth' viewpoint
won't lead them to 'evolve' when I myself am stating that all paths
lead to enlightenment. I have fallen into judgmentalism.
people that don't seem to have a negative word to say. They are
always looking for the 'good' in everyone. However when they are
faced with someone being judgmental a different side of them comes
out. At worst they may become hostile, but more often they start
coming out with statements that clearly label the person
as 'unevolved', statements of superiority, and not to mention the
statements that start out "What you need to do is." when the person
has not requested any help with their viewpoint at all.
area of people expressing judgment over others who for example: show
anger or negativity, are into things others consider whacky or
fringe, smoke or dabble in drugs, eat meat, or the greatest sin of
all, people who didn't connect at all with our most beloved
spiritual book. "You didn't like the Seth Material! Oh shame, it is
quite high level. You can't have understood it. You probably aren't
ready for it yet." Inside we have written them off as only someone
who can learn from us, and not someone we could ever learn from. We
think that maybe, if they show willing, we can teach to them what we
know.
trying to convey the point. I really do believe however that nearly
all of us, including myself, use this evolved-unevolved
polarity/scale in our heads, and whether we mean to or not upon
meeting someone we very rapidly give them a score and interact with
them accordingly. It is my contention that in doing this we not only
do them a disservice, but we do ourselves a disservice. We cut
ourselves off from what they could teach us. To throw in another one
of my 'truths', I believe that everyone on this planet is unique,
contains uniqueness, and therefore everyone has something to teach
us. If someone appears in your life then you put them there, for a
reason.
myself a pattern soon emerges. What I am in fact doing is saying
is "How similar to my own beliefs are this person's beliefs?" I
consider myself 'evolved' and therefore the more of my beliefs of
mine they have the more evolved they are. If they are in
disagreement with my beliefs then they are less evolved. If they
hold my core beliefs and then teach me something then they are more
evolved than me. Here I keep using the word 'evolved' you may
personally have a different word, the polarity can be expressed in
many ways such as pure-impure, good-evil, right-wrong, saved-
fallen, 'found the light' - 'lost in darkness'.
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