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Author Topic:   No Judgment !!!!
Solane Star
Newflake

Posts: 0
From: Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted September 04, 2007 12:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Solane Star     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
No judgment

Everything in life holds both a blessing and a curse. We deny this when we label the events of our lives as either good or bad. The following old Zen story illustrates this lesson most effectively.

A farmer had a horse but one day, the horse ran away and so the farmer and his son had to plow their fields themselves. Their neighbors said, "Oh, what bad luck that your horse ran away!" But the farmer replied, "Bad luck, good luck, who knows?"

The next week, the horse returned to the farm, bringing a herd of wild horses with him. "What wonderful luck!" cried the neighbors, but the farmer responded, "Good luck, bad luck, who knows?"

Then, the farmer's son was thrown as he tried to ride one of the wild horses, and he broke his leg. "Ah, such bad luck," sympathized the neighbors. Once again, the farmer responded, "Bad luck, good luck, who knows?"

A short time later, the ruler of the country recruited all young men to join his army for battle. The son, with his broken leg, was left at home. "What good luck that your son was not forced into battle!" celebrated the neighbors. And the farmer remarked, "Good luck, bad luck, who knows?"

"Do not judge, and you will never be mistaken."

-- Jean Jacques Rousseau

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Dervish
Knowflake

Posts: 625
From:
Registered: May 2009

posted September 04, 2007 08:46 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dervish     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just for fun, here's part of a chapter I did for a Kim Possible fic I recently posted (just the final draft, I haven't actually posted it on any of the fanfic forums yet in its final form--and note, some who are more knowledgeable about the ninja, shugendo, and "kung fu" might notice some discrepancies, but what I see is intended to match the show more than the reality, though feel free to point them out):

****************

After his exercises, Ron went to meet Yori.

“Hey, Yori,” he said happily, “I seem to be getting better control over my monkey kung fu!”

“Excellent, Stoppable-san,” answered Yori.

“I’m not sure why this is,” he continued. “I’ve practiced on my own and it just didn’t seem to come out except when it wanted to. Other than when I was evil.”

“Evil?” asked Yori.

“Um, yeah. There’s this device that inverts the personalities of anyone exposed to it, at least for awhile. When I was switched to evil, I had no problem using my mad monkey powers.” He blinked and added, “Among other things.

Yori shrugged. “It takes time to master these abilities. And maybe you wanted to be sure Kim saw you as a friend instead of someone to compete against, something you only cared about when you are, as you say, 'good'.”

“Maybe,” Ron said, “or maybe I was just more prone to apply myself when evil.”

Yori laughed. “You have proven yourself very devoted and reliable. And beside, good and evil are both a part of nature. There is good and evil in all things, and in all people. I have a hard time believing any device could dilute either good or evil to the point that it was all that existed. Such a person could not continue to exist as anything natural.”

“I don’t really get why ninjas are so beyond the good and evil thing.”

Yori shrugged. “That’s an oversimplification. We recognize good and evil as both having their place, and the goal is harmony and balance, and being a master of nature—the parts of it, and ourselves, that many call evil as well as the parts many call good—rather than being mastered by it. It’s like technology: we strive to master technology, not be mastered by it, as has happened to the cybernetic invaders.”

“Yeah, but good is good, you know? I mean do you want to live next to someone with a good heart or one with an evil heart?”

Yori nodded. “Point taken. However, there is great evil done by people with the best of intentions, such as the ones invading our world who see themselves as fighting the good fight. And evil people, in protecting their own interests, have proven quite capable of taking care of other evil people, sometimes more effectively than good people because the evil ones can better predict how evil people will act and can fight as dirty as they have to, when a good person or government would be thoroughly confused and incapable of fighting that same enemy using naïve goodwill and fair play.”

Ron shook his head. “So sometimes it’s good to be evil? See, that’s where you lose me.”

Yori shrugged. “It is how the ninja have survived. Our traditions come from religious exiles that have been persecuted throughout the centuries. And more than once, in Japan, samurai have drafted thousands to make war on the ninja. And more than once, the ninja struck directly at the samurai and their generals. The samurai, much more cowardly than they pretended to be, fled when they realized that they could not tyrannize or slaughter my people, and with them went their armies. The armies leaving meant that the conscripted peasant soldiers survived to return to their families, leaving fewer widows and orphans behind, and keeping their numbers big enough to discourage the war lords and nobility from brazenly raping and abusing the women and children. Likewise, assassins in other parts of the world have preserved their peoples from endless warfare by killing the leaders that declared the wars and blood feuds to begin with.”

“Ok, that makes a little more sense,” nodded Ron, though he was still obviously uncomfortable with the concept.

“And then the ninja clans have adopted many orphans. Remember, war and plague once claimed many more lives than they do today, and there were many children to be starved and abused on the streets. The ninja adopted them, saved them from misery and exploitation, which is good. They were then sent to seduce, befriend, and ultimately betray and murder the leaders of the society that the ninjas had saved them from. Is that good, or is that evil?”

Ron sighed. “Ok, now I’m confused again.”

“I was found as a runaway. I was abused in ways I do not wish to share with you yet, and I ran to the streets to escape it. There I found that criminals wanted to enslave me, force me onto hard drugs in order to control me—much like these nanites, now that I think about it—and also to destroy any sympathy I might have from strangers. The government then took to fining such unfortunates, who would have to continue to be sex slaves in order to pay the fines as well as support the pimps that enslave them.”

Ron was speechless. “Yori, I had no idea. I thought you were born into a ninja family. I don’t know what to say…”

Yori continued as if Ron hadn’t spoken. “But I evaded them and survived with cleverness, skill, and honor, and I impressed a ninja working for the Yakuza, and I began to be trained in the arts at the age of 12. However, my scruples were such that I was transferred to the Yamanouchi School. Because of these ninjas, good and evil, I was spared more family abuse, and the rape and abuse that was most likely to have happened to me on the streets, from both sides of the law.”

“So they’re more good than evil.”

“Of course, I am trained for spying, combat, manipulation, and trickery. Not all the methods I am expected to use are as honorable as I like. Though Sensei has shown great tolerance for my scruples, I fear that when he is replaced, I will be expected to do things I am most uncomfortable with. Good people like Sensei are very rare, as they usually have no taste for authority, and they are often more vulnerable to the dirty tricks of less principled people who seek to replace them. So, were the ninja good or evil in saving me, and many others like me, from a life that would make death seem preferable?”

Ron shook his head. Finally, he said, “Yori, I can’t call anyone evil that saved you from the alternative you were faced with.”

Yori looked at him intently, and said, “Hana’s parents are alive and don’t know where Hana is.”

“What?” asked Ron. “My sister?”

“Once it was known that Hana was special, a baby of prophecy, Sensei decided that she must be hidden in order to be protected. The family she was born into do not have the skills to care for her, and would be helpless to stop the evil ones who would try to corrupt Hana, steal her powers, or just kill her to make sure she could not grow to threaten them. Sensei did explain this to them and they agreed, hoping to be reunited with Hana when she is old enough to protect herself. But had they not agreed, I’d have likely been assigned to have kidnapped Hana in order to protect her, and I would’ve done so.”

Ron sat down. “I’m used to thinking in terms of good and evil, and there are so many shades of grey. What’s wrong with black and white? Why won’t it work anymore?”

Yori continued with a more abstract point. “And I understand that ‘free energy’ is used by the invading world, and may soon become available to this world. It’s a good thing that fossil fuels will no longer be able to pollute our world, that hospitals will no longer suffer power failure during disasters and the failure of power plants, and that energy can be used by anyone, not just to those who can afford to pay for it piecemeal.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” His tone still showed he was uncomfortable with this, as did his hands that he held over his head.

“But what happens to all those people who work in the oil industry? They will be unemployed, and many industries that support them and their workers will also suffer greatly. Plus, some will use that energy for nefarious purposes. You yourself have stopped Drakken more than once because great uses of energy had been detected. But in a world of free energy, your Wade would not be able to detect it until it was too late.”

“Ok, now that sounds bad!”

“Likewise, many oil barons in the Middle East use their money to fund terrorists, but they will dry up, and the terrorist cells they fund with them. The world will be greener and healthier with far less terrorists killing and kidnapping tourists.”

“Ok, now that sounds good!”

“That is because there’s good and evil in everything, Stoppable-san.”

Ron was silent a long time. Yori stood silently by him. About five minutes later, he softly said, “Our kissing has good and evil in it, too, doesn’t it?”

“Everything does.” Then Yori blinked. “And I almost forgot to tell you. Kim Possible has been captured and cured. She is still recovering, but she is who she once was.”

It took several seconds for that to sink in. When it did, he drove a fist into the air and shouted, “BOOYAH!” And then he glanced at the enigmatic glance of Yori, and said, “Good and evil in every sitch, gotcha. What are we going to do?”

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Solane Star
Newflake

Posts: 0
From: Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted September 04, 2007 08:58 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Solane Star     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Excellent Dervish!!!

Thanks for sharing that here!!!

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Mirandee
unregistered
posted September 04, 2007 10:08 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Star and Dervish

Excellent articles.


With compassion, we see benevolently our own human condition and the condition of our fellow beings. We drop prejudice. We withhold judgment.

Christina Baldwin

For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

Thomas Carlyle

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

Wayne Dyer

A man is not good or bad for one action.

Thomas Fuller

Outward judgment often fails, inward judgment never.

Theodore Parker

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Mirandee
unregistered
posted September 04, 2007 10:25 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
dp

I posted on the wrong thread

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Solane Star
Newflake

Posts: 0
From: Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted September 04, 2007 11:54 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Solane Star     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
No maybe you didn't post in the wrong thread, maybe its the right thread Mirandee!!! LOL!!! No Wrong or right here!!!LOL!!!

I'm laughing at you, not with you!!!


Your so Cute & Cheeky Too!!!

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SattvicMoon
unregistered
posted September 04, 2007 11:56 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
My life itself is a living example...... so be it!

Linda's words kept me going - NEVER COMPLAIN - COMPLAINING TAKES AWAY FROM YOU WHAT YOU WANT! True...... true...... true......
------------------
SattvicMoonz Home Page and Blog

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Solane Star
Newflake

Posts: 0
From: Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted September 04, 2007 11:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Solane Star     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Everything in life holds both a blessing and a curse. We deny this when we label the events of our lives as either good or bad. The following old Zen story illustrates this lesson most effectively.

Doesn't the above also apply for wrongs & rights????? LOL!!!

I'm seeing both sides of the fence and their all starting to look the same!!! LOL!!! Balance!!! True Justice!!!!

Gotta BALANCE those Scales!!!!

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ListensToTrees
unregistered
posted September 04, 2007 01:36 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It's like....when we want something, often we have to give up or compromise something else to get it.

Medicines usually have side-effects.

Too much of anything is bad for you.

Even too much love....it would seem...can be bad, as it can make us selfish (just look at some celebs- totally self obsessed, then they go to pieces when things aren't going well)

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Solane Star
Newflake

Posts: 0
From: Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted September 04, 2007 01:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Solane Star     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Good Point!!!!

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charmainec
Moderator

Posts: 5032
From: Venus next to Randall
Registered: Apr 2009

posted July 26, 2012 02:36 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for charmainec     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

------------------

quote:
Remember, love can conquer the influences of the planets....It can even eliminate karma.

Linda Goodman

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