My children see judgment as a means to a good end. Those who judge you mean to improve you. They mean to bring you over to their way of thinking which they are sure is right.
Even if yesterday they thought something different, they want to bring you to their way of thinking today.
Judgment is an imposition. It is an intrusion. You would never impose. You would never intrude. And yet you judge. Whether you keep it to yourself or not, judgment does its work. It damages a heart. On some level it presses down the judged one's heart.
When you judge, it is like you paint a black mark on another's soul. It is not a little thing to judge. It is a huge undertaking that has many ramifications.
It is not even yours to judge those who judge.
You may not like the word "judge", but perhaps you can apply the word "criticize". Catch yourself, and you will avoid the act of criticism.
Even praise is a judgment, and who are you to judge up or down?
Only boundaries can be presumed accurate. Something stays within a line, or it doesn't. A dish is put in the sink, or it is not.
Judging adds a superceding point of view. If something does not stay within a line, then something wrong has been done. If the dish is not put into the sink, someone is careless. A judgment is something added to the equation that tips the scale.
The opposite of judgment is not tolerance. If you are tolerant, you have judged and decided to be bigger than your judgment, but you have judged. You still think you are looking from above.
Judgments are shifty. Judgments come and go like styles. Judgments are not so sure as they would like to think they are.
Judgment is an act of comparison. Something is more than or less than. Eyes that look with love do not compare. They see what is. They see what they see and make no conclusions about it. It is neither good nor bad.
But in judgment, there is grading.
So long as you grade, you will not be happy.
It is an easy thing to find fault. You will always find it. Better not to look for it. Look for something else instead. Look for the energy of the person whose act or word provokes you to judgment. Look to their beating heart. Look to what they have overcome. Look at their attempt at keeping their penmanship within the lines. Look at their having a pen. Look at their having something to say. Look into their eyes, and your fantasy of judgment will fade in the light of their eyes. Awareness dispels judgment.
All struggle alike. And struggle is nothing more than judgment. Judgment says something is not the way it should be, even though all is exactly as it is. In the next moment, it may change. Judgment has to do with before and after. Judgment is stuck in time and space. Judgment is a bog. You can get stuck there.
Every time you, you, My child, make a judgment you have stuck a pin into the effigy of another. You disrupt their aura. You break their energy.
It is not a little thing to make a judgment.
It is fine to go towards what attracts you and away from what does not. You can choose to eat chocolate or not, but it is not your choice to sneer at chocolate or those who eat it. You can choose to turn at this corner or another, but the route another chooses is his route to choose. In judgment you are trying to choose routes for another, and that you cannot do.
Judgment comes from the past, and you must leave it there. Once and for all, dispense with judgment. Judgment does not serve you well. Mistakes are made, but you do not have to continue them, not in thought or deed. You have come to the end of judgment at last.