When you think something is wonderful or when you think something is awful, both are judgments. Praise is no less a judgment than scorn. When judgments are set aside, then life is not stopped and started. Then life flows.
If a river flows by your house, what is the debate? If someone wants to drink from the river and you do not, have you become the marshal of the river to persuade or dissuade another? You are simply someone by the banks, as they are. They have their right to choose, as do you. Your right, however, does not supersede theirs.
When you see life as a question of right or wrong, you make yourself a dispenser or withholder of life.
Beloveds, how many times have you changed your mind? How many times have you been sure one path was the right one, only to be sure later that another one was better? If you can be mistaken, is it possible that another may not be? Is it possible that it doesn’t matter what you think? Is it possible that you were not set to be a sentry of the world? Is it possible that it is not for you to regulate the flow of the river?
Every adult has the right to take his own steps regardless of what you think . If a person steps upon a step, it is then his step. Even if you see the step as loose, it is nevertheless another’s right to use it.
When you do less judging, there will be less for you to judge.
By what authority do you feel you must warn another?
No one has to think the way you do. They are entitled to their own thoughts, and their own likes and dislikes. It is not for you to talk anyone into anything nor to talk them out of something. The world is not your jurisdiction, beloveds.
With matters of the mind and heart, you will not be heard, or, if you are heard, you will be heard askance. It is not for you to interfere with what someone wants to study, for example. You have your preferences, and they have theirs. The most you can have is an opinion. When were your opinions worth their weight in gold?
Your tastes change. Today something is the best, and tomorrow it is not. It has been replaced. In these matters, look to your own life, beloved, and leave others to theirs. Live your life, and allow others to live theirs. Save your breath, beloveds.
If there is someone’s thoughts you want to change, change your own. That is your right and privilege. Chances of changing someone else’s thinking are slim. Anyway, do not attempt to alter the course of another’s life.
What someone else chooses is his business. He does not have to have your beliefs. He does not have to have anything of yours. You would steal his opinion from him. True, you would wish to leave something in its place, but that does not absolve you from blatantly entering his house and trying to take something away in his presence. Let others live their lives without your permission. Enter your own house, beloveds, and move things around any way you want.