After-note: As I write this note I just finished a very wordy criticism of an economics guy who’s very stuck-in-his-head, you know; it was a very wordy book and I could have written about it too much. I don’t think it was too vitriolic or anything, but it was probably a little repetitive and the length may have given the impression that I was trying to fight him. I actually don’t think I’ve become more judgmental recently, though, actually I feel like it’s drawing off a bit, so maybe I’ll talk about that here. I mean, basically, I think I just want to do less with history, politics, and sociology, although that stuff served a purpose for me in the past and I’m not cutting it out completely. Sometimes history—banging the drums—can just be little boy crap, not really evil or anything, and it can be a release from the sorta spiritual philosophy of say a Leonard Jacobson (like a slightly less popular style of Eckhart Tolle); for the record I don’t think that Gabby is in that philosophy style, you know, and actually it’s a relief to get back to this—light and air, and even without the heavenly philosophic knowing, you know, just the real bits. I actually think that sometimes economics or whatever—the science, not the nature of money, if you follow—can drag you down and give you reasons to be judgmental, even if plenty of ordinary people can act in much the same way with different reasons, just spinning their wheels, you know. Oftentimes they think that the person with advanced degrees is just better than they are, you know. Then they go looking for somebody who’s beneath them. Like, you’re the cracker that can keep a truck on the road—look over there! A cracker who can’t keep a truck on the road! And here’s a song about a truck on the radio! Turn it up, so he can hear!

Yeah…. Anyway.

Anyway, I always have judgments about something, at least over the course of a whole day, right—but I notice a gradual (partial) loss of interest in the most judgmentalism-generating topics, even if there’s still a little beat-the-drums little-boy crap, you know.

………….

Reading—or in Gabby’s case, writing—a book about giving up harmful judgment is an excellent exercise, but I think we should always remember that it’s difficult, but not complicated. What feels better—honoring yourself and others, or putting yourself above/below others (separation)? It’s not really complicated, sometimes. Of course, sometimes you have to say, I don’t know, that “white people are the best; denying this objective verity is racism” doesn’t need equal time in your life, with, well—anything, really! If I could pay the newspapers to put the Mets on the front-page instead of Trump or somebody demanding to be hated, right! Because here’s the thing: some people demand to be hated, but nobody ever wants to be taken up on it: and it also doesn’t do you any good, either.

So, there is discernment (another article on Trump? Let me think about this before I dive in), but don’t do condemnation/judgment (when I was a kid I loved bombastic historical drama, you know: Conscript Fathers! I propose a formal motion. That Gaius, Julius, Caesar, should be declared an Enemy! of the Senate and People of Rome!and that it should be the duty! And the obligation! Of every good Roman: to do him harm…. Or to kill him! If they are able….” /Caesar gets tackled by some fishmonger wives and dockworkers, right/ 😹…. Talk about bloodshed, and pompous self-righteousness…. And then there’s you, rehearsing judgment for no reason, and nothing’s even happened to you yet! Gotta get ready! Might have to attack; might have to condemn….)

And, you know: certainly loving all people doesn’t mean waiting for people to like you. People don’t like other people, quite often; and that’s fine. They get to think in their mind. But understand: giving up judgment means you have to dissent from the (informal) world-system, you know, the thoughts of the world. The system will never give you permission to take yourself out of its judgment-making, anymore than everyone will like you, you know…. You just have to silently, perhaps wordless bless them, and not wait up for them, right….

…. And it is really is love, you know; you don’t need a new strategy and a new choreography for each “new problem” in your life; really it is all love, and all One.

…. It’s a good book. ‘I shelve this thought, and choose again.’

…. Maybe her friend Jack that she had a fight with is really C.S. Lewis, right. 😸

I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry you guys; I’ll see if I can get through the rest of it without anything else. 🦁 😸

…. Gabby, like a lot of people, even spiritual teachers, seems to be still trying to resolve her own karma or whatever (if you really had no karma you’d probably just meditate in silence all day and answer any question, You say that I am—you know—I guess unless you took somebody else’s karma on you, what a trip! But that’s rare, I think, even for spiritual teachers), but I think she’s much more teachable and open/trusting in her stance towards the Universe, than most people (if you’ll forgive the term, right)…. Maybe that aspect of her modeling is the greatest lesson: just that she knows that she has bedrock, whereas most people spend most of their time trying to disguise the fact that they aren’t conscious of bedrock…. There are things you can do to release anger, but maybe the lesson can be just to have the anger, and to know that it ends, right. To hold bedrock for yourself, and even for the other person, to the extent that they exist in your mind.

…. (ACIM quote) “Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing.”

Which frees you up to do something productive, incidentally, or just to have fun. But if you really want the cosmic light and nothing else, you just have to…. do nothing, basically! The cosmic light is everywhere!

…. I know she doesn’t really do the Bible or the Torah, that much, but I’m always reminded of that verse in Exodus, that superficially most un-meditation-y of documents, that goes—this is right before the title event, the big, Bob Marley, ‘exodus’, you know—God will fight for you; you need only be still…. 14:14, that’s it.

…. A lot of crime ultimately happens because of our desire to punish people as soon as they step off the path. (“Got to keep the loonies on the path.”) It’s very unnecessary, and in that sense perhaps it would be correct, if you like, to call it “evil”.

…. And what a great song that was: got to keep the loonies on the path…. I just started listening to Pink Floyd’s first, 67’s “Piper”, since I’ve only ever listened to the two that are real famous back when I didn’t even like albums of music—Dark Side of the Wall, you know—and eventually I’d like to cycle through all of it. Pink Floyd is weird stuff—far weirder than we know….

…. Forgive, if you can’t think of another reason, because it’s good for business. Random chaos fighting isn’t good for anything really, including business. There’s just no good reason we have to let the market get derailed by all the things we let it get derailed by….

I won’t judge another’s path, even a potential partner. Hell, if I had to, I could even date a murd—ah, a meat-eater. A chicken-killer. (Mister Downfall: A random person I don’t like is one thing…. (camera pans out to the hall where you can still hear him) But date a chicken-killer! A chick responsible for the deaths of little baby chickens! Little baby male egg-laying-variety chickens! I’ll have that bitch arrested on Brandon-ed up charges!)

Would I rather be right or kind—right. That’s my early childhood conditioning. I figure if things go bad, I can always eat my parents’ brains, you know. After all, they say that zombie is legal now, and, according to the “paper of record”, The New York Post, so is eating brains, you know.

Ok, book’s over. Go home. Or, keeping scrolling, or whatever. Lol. Choose again! Right!, that’s life.

Risible blather. ( )

I am judgmental, a grudge-holder. I strive to be more compassionate with myself and others. This book gives six steps that, when practiced, lead one away from judgment and towards live.

While I’ve not begun my own judgment detox, having read this book over the past week, I plan to go back and follow the steps. Journaling and meditation are two practices I’ve long wanted to do successfully, and tapping has interested me after hearing about it over the past year or two. Bernstein’s approach - giving real life examples, then easy to follow instructions - makes this an accessible guide to the reader.

Thank you to NetGalley for a review copy of this book. ( )

#GoodreadsGiveaway ( )