Once a division of the Japanese army was engaged in a sham battle, and some of the officers found it necessary to make their headquarters in Gasan’s temple.
Gasan told his cook: “Let the officers have only the same simple fare we eat.”
This made the army men angry, as they wre used to very deferential treatment. One came to Gasan and said: “Who do you think we are? We are soldiers, sacrificing our lives for our country. Why don’t you treat us accordingly?”
Gasan answered sternly: “Who do you think we are? We are soldiers of humanity, aiming to save all sentient beings.”
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Judgment is one of those things that humanity seems to be good at and yet sadly it is that very thing which keeps us from seeing clearly.
How can we truly know anothers path or anothers worth, how can we truly know anothers contribution. We are not them, we are ourselves, we have not lived every moment of their life, we have no idea what divine plan they contributed to.
Even Jesus is reported to say “Judge not lest ye yourself be judged”.
But the issue of “Judgment” is not an external one, it is an internal process.
We as a humanity constantly judge ourselves, and more often than not, as unworthy. You only have to look at teenagers on our planet undergoing plastic surgery to enhance their looks, dieting themselves to death or otherwise injuring themselves because somehow they feel they don’t measure up.
We are all individuated expressions of existence, each one of us perfect for the moment, life is no more complicated than that.
Drop your judgments, you never know what you will find.