Mr. Amin Dezhakam: Well, I’ll speak for about six or seven minutes, and then we’ll have a “question and answer” session.
Hello friends, I’m Amin, a companion. Thank God, I’m happy to be here with you, and I hope you are all doing well and that you have been successful in the ongoing treatment and recovery of your loved ones.
The issue of judgment and ignorance is one of the most fundamental issues we encounter throughout our education and treatment process. I can say with certainty that if a person has not learned—or does not learn—when to judge, how to judge, and when not to judge, then I can say that they will become completely stuck in their own development, or will actually begin moving backward. It acts exactly like a very strong, impenetrable barrier.
In the CD titled Judgment, this issue has been discussed to some extent. If you have listened to that CD, you will understand what actually happens as a result of judgment.
Judgment (Ghezavat), in fact, means issuing a verdict, and the word “Ghezavat” (qezāvat) comes from Arabic. In Arabic, it essentially means the issuance of a ruling. When the issue of a ruling comes into play, it means carrying out a command that we ourselves have issued, after which we must wait for its consequences and results. It certainly has consequences. In other words, through judging, we set an action in motion, although this action may exist only within the realm of our thoughts.
In reality, a person issues a verdict, and in our eyes, another human being is then considered a sinful person; another person is considered an offender or an aggressor; or someone else is considered a good person.
Certainly, whenever we judge anything, we arrive at some kind of conclusion. Then, as a result, we assign a particular quality or characteristic to that person, group, or system. From our perspective, certain [people or characteristics] are rejected while others are considered acceptable.
So, in reality, by judging, we assign a particular quality or characteristic to a person or a group. And what does this naturally lead to? The very first thing it creates is a feeling.
When a person judges someone and decides that this person is sinful, that this person is a thief, or that this person, for example, consumes ill-gotten wealth, we carry out a series of analyses in our minds. We make comparisons; we have certain pieces of information—whether that information is complete or incomplete is another matter. We examine all of these things. We draw on things we have heard; we use information we already have. In short, we weigh everything up, analyze it, process it, and eventually arrive at certain conclusions.
Once those conclusions become certain in our minds and we have assigned that person a particular characteristic, that is when judgment takes place. And usually, immediately afterward, a feeling arises within us:
“What a despicable person they were!” That “what a…” is actually the reflection of the feeling that our judgment has created within us. Until we arrive at the conclusion that he is a “despicable person,” that feeling of “what a…” does not arise either. “Did you see what so-and-so did?”
The phrase “what did he do?” actually means: I know what he did. He did something very bad. For example, he stole; perhaps he behaved lewdly; or, he committed some act that goes against our values. That “did you see?” or that “what a…” is the feeling that arises within us. So, destruction begins right here, for several reasons.
Mr. Dezhakam also spoke about this in his remarks yesterday, and it was very clear that a judge is someone whose specialty is judging, whose job and profession are to judge, someone who has studied for it and received training specifically for this work—has spent many years preparing to reach that point.
Such a person comes with a whole range of support personnel who gather information for them. They may bring the judge information from the police investigation department, from the judiciary, or, I don’t know, from a private investigator. Information comes from various sources—sources whose own job and expertise are to collect, process, and distinguish accurate information from inaccurate information.
All of these people and institutions—effectively several large organizations—come together to deliberate over a person who, for example, has been accused of committing an act. They hold meetings; they set aside time; consult with one another, a defense attorney comes in; the prosecutor comes in. In some places, they even have a jury.
And what does having a jury mean? It means that apparently all of these people were still not enough. The judge, the defense attorney, and the prosecutor were not enough. Now there also has to be a panel to oversee and evaluate their work. All of these people come together and work on the case for months, and in the end, the wrong verdict may still be issued, and an innocent person may be punished.
So, if we look at judgment for what it really is, we see that it is an extremely, extremely sensitive task. It requires precision, energy, expertise, and many other considerations—and even then, mistakes can still be made.
But the interesting point is that human beings often do this [judge others] very easily. In other words, a person gathers all the information themselves. A person themselves becomes the entire judiciary; this person becomes the police station; the police investigation department; the Ministry of Intelligence. And eventually such a person puts everything together—in other words, this person plays the role of all these organizations at once.
Then the person becomes the defense attorney, the prosecutor, the judge, and the jury, even conducts the court session without any prior notice or appointment. The only thing missing here is the defendant himself. In other words, the court is convened [in the person’s mind], but the defendant is not present in this court, because in our minds, there is no place for the defendant to appear and take part. We simply set all of these proceedings up ourselves.
What is very interesting is that if a court session lasts for an hour or two and they do not reach a conclusion, it is postponed to another session. They even take recesses in between. Ten sessions may be held to come to a conclusion and verdict; however, in our own internal court of mind, we issue a verdict within the space of a single recess about a particular person: “He’s such a despicable person,” “He’s a con artist,” “What a thief he is!” And the result is the feeling that arises within us.
Well, I also talked about this issue in the Judgment CD. I said that there are things that occur in the visible aspects. For example, if you slap someone on the ear, their ear becomes red, they may lose their hearing, they may be taken to a forensic medical examiner, and compensation may be determined. Or they may react to you immediately. These are things that occur in the visible aspects.
But the events that take place in the invisible aspects are far greater—perhaps ten times greater. When you slap someone on the ear, it can be seen, and they react. But when you issue a judgment about someone and condemn them, it cannot be seen.
The same example that was given in that CD illustrates this. It is as though you launch a missile from here. You press the button, and the missile travels and hits the middle of the territory of a certain country. Nobody here has seen anything happen. You are sitting here, and nothing appears to have happened to you, while everything has happened over there.
Now, what does the other side do? Does that mean they do not realize where the missile came from? Of course they respond in exactly the same way. They send their own missiles, or they send a fighter jet and bomb me. But none of these things are visible.
Look at it this way: there has been no dialogue between you and that person or that group. Not a single word has been exchanged. Yet you can see that enormous destruction is taking place. This is the same kind of thing; these events are occurring in the invisible aspects.
Suppose, for example, that a person hates a particular government ministry. But this is not a justified hatred; in fact, hatred itself is not right. There is no valid reason for it, yet the person carries this negative feeling.
Whenever this person goes to that ministry, their work is constantly delayed. His file gets lost. It is mistakenly sent to someone else and remains in the archives for three months. Then it eventually comes back out. A thousand different problems happen to him, but he does not know where any of these things are coming from.
This is the judgment the person is making about that ministry in the invisible aspects, and that ministry, in the hidden realm, is likewise bringing the same kind of trouble upon him. As a result, something that should take one month to complete becomes entangled for three years and never gets resolved or moves forward.
Therefore, the power of judgment is beyond our imagination. If this truly becomes clear to a person, they will no longer have the courage to judge.
For example, sometimes you say, “I slapped him on the ear. Come on, it’s nothing; nothing happened.” But if you slap someone on the ear and they impose a 500-million-toman compensation on you, if you knew how costly it was going to be, would you still dare to do it?
Many times, people do all kinds of things simply because they do not know what the price is. They do not know what the cost or consequences will be. If a person knew the cost of an action, they would not do it.
What is the difference between advanced societies and societies that are primitive in terms of thought, understanding, and social justice? In primitive societies, people stab one another over the smallest issues. They get into physical fights over the slightest problems. What is the difference between them and a society that can resolve its biggest problems in the easiest possible way?
The difference is that primitive societies do not know how much the things they do will cost them. They do not understand the price and consequences of their actions. That is why they recklessly plunge into waters [situations], and then the current sweeps everyone away.
Do you know what recklessly plunge into waters [in Persian, bi-godār be āb zadan] means? Have you heard this expression?
Large rivers have places where they are very wide and places where they become narrow. Where a river narrows, the force of the water becomes very strong and the water becomes very deep. Where the river widens, the water becomes shallower and the force of the current decreases.
In the past, when they wanted to take an army or a caravan across a fast-flowing river, they could not simply cross anywhere they wanted. They would look for a godār—a shallow crossing, a place where the river had spread out and become wider. When the army entered such a place, the water might reach their knees or, at most, their waists. They could easily hold on to one another’s hands and cross the river in a chain.
But an inexperienced person might simply enter the river at some random point where, for example, the water was three meters deep, and the current would carry away ten people, twenty people, or everyone, simply because he had no understanding of the situation. That is why when a person or a society is intellectually and mentally underdeveloped, they do things without knowing what the consequences will be.
That is why you may see people apparently living alongside one another, yet they are not feeling well. Because, if you have listened to the CD titled “Paradise and Hell, Spaces and Places”, you will understand that there is an energy associated with a group or a system of people who are together.
You go into a house and say, “Wow! What a wonderful place!” Sometimes, for example, someone comes to our house and simply does not want to leave. We have to practically kick him out—just joking—because he is enjoying himself so much.
But sometimes you go to someone’s house and you keep saying, “Let’s go. We have things to do. We have an appointment.” You just want to escape and get out of there. What is the reason?
The reason is that the space has negative energy. And why does it have negative energy? Because the people in that space are constantly judging one another. They are constantly fighting with one another, but it is not visible.
That space is a battlefield. When you enter a battlefield, who would want to go and sit in the middle of Katyusha rockets, missiles, and tanks, put down a thermos of tea, sit there playing a board game, and even make some kebabs? Who would do such a thing?
Nobody would be willing to do that. A person wants to go somewhere peaceful, somewhere with nightingales, flowers, candles, perhaps beside a river. That is where they want to go and rest. The invisible aspects of some spaces are like gardens; some are like plains; some are like forests; and some are like battlefields. A place where people are constantly judging one another is exactly like a battlefield. Nobody wants to stay there. And if someone does stay, they are forced to stay. A soldier is forced to remain there; if he runs away from the battlefield, he will be court-martialed.
A workplace can be a battlefield. A classroom can be a battlefield. A family can be a battlefield. Why? Because everyone is sitting there pressing the button and constantly firing missiles at one another.
The moment someone says something, they judge the persona saying, “What a selfish person! What a money-hungry person! He isn’t willing to give us even a single coin! What a backstabber!”
All of these things have a cost. But because they are not visible, we pay their costs without hesitation. And the result is the destruction that takes place.
So, if you look carefully at this matter, what is it that keeps people together? Really, what is it? A person must receive something so that they come together. Either they have to be given money, or they have to be given a position, a job, a title, a livelihood, food, water—something has to be given to them. Or they have to be given a good feeling.
Someone has to pay me some money so that I can say, “All right, I’ll come here and stand here. I’ll put up with the difficulties, and then I’ll take this money and go somewhere I like and enjoy myself. Or I’ll buy something I want with it. I’ll use it to travel to a country I want to visit.”
Or, alternatively, instead of money, that environment has to give me a good feeling. If that good feeling is not there, then, for example, here at Congress 60, nobody is paying anyone. We do not receive salaries. There may be spiritual positions or statuses that a person attains, but there is no financial payment.
Now, suppose that in this representative branch where we have come and are sitting here, that good feeling were not present. What would happen? Imagine that you spend all this time, leave your home, your work, and your life, and come here. You sit in a session for two or three hours. You come at noon, when everyone wants to take a nap. You sit through the meeting when you would rather have lunch and lie down afterward—and on top of all that, you do not even feel good. Well, then you would only come because you were forced to. You would say, “I have to come so that my child can be liberated from addiction.”
But what if your child is not liberated from addiction? Or if your child completes the treatment and you will no longer come here. So, what brings people together and keeps them together is that the place where they are together must give them a good feeling. In order to have a good feeling, we need to have a good environment. We need to have a good sense of security.
And in order to have good security, a person has to do two things. One is that we ourselves create this environment. How do spaces become good? Through healthy actions, positive deeds, serving others, doing the right thing, and actually taking action and getting things done.
When one person mops the floor, another makes tea, another goes and stands there to take responsibility for the sound systems, another collects the cigarette filters, and another comes two hours early to clean the hall. Someone else stays two hours longer to clean the hall. These are actions; these are deeds.
When these things are done, someone comes and gives their time to share their experiences with us and becomes our teacher. These are all actions, and when they are carried out, the environment we are in gradually becomes better and better and better, until it becomes a lush green garden—a garden filled with different kinds of fruit.
If we liken Congress 60 to a garden, some of its trees are “guides”, some of the trees are border-guards, some trees representing second-travel members and veterans, each bearing its own fruit. All these trees together form a garden, and because each tree bears its own fruit, you enjoy coming to this garden, sitting among the trees, and benefiting from what it has to offer.
So, first, carrying out the right actions at the right time causes that environment to take shape properly. It causes the space to flourish, these actions transform the barren land into something cultivated, and turns it into a good place.
But [the second point is that] every garden, every good place, requires just as much effort—and perhaps even more—to preserve it as it did to build it in the first place.
And for this garden to be preserved, judgment is a vital issue.
We can build this garden, and then the next day someone can come, pour oil over it, strike a match beneath the trees, and set everything on fire. Well, this garden that we have worked so hard to create will be destroyed.
When you sit around bad-mouthing a guide everywhere you go, it is as though you have poured oil or gasoline around a tree and set it on fire.
What happens? Maybe five, ten, or thirty people receive energy from that guide. But you keep going around speaking badly about that person. Because when a person judges, they themselves are satisfied with that judgment.
When you judge someone, it is like taking a burning coal out of a furnace. Can you hold that coal in your hand? Do you have the guts to keep holding it? You cannot hold it. Because if you were capable of holding it, you would have had enough wisdom not to take it out of the furnace in the first place. But now that it has fallen into your hand, you have to keep passing it on to other people.
It is like those cartoons where someone lights a stick of dynamite and keeps passing it from one person to another. Eventually, it explodes in someone’s hands.
Usually, it even explodes in the hands of the very person who started the whole thing. You pass that dynamite to others through gossip and backbiting. You have reached the conclusion that, for example, Mr. Reza is a bad person, that he is deceitful, that he behaves this way or that way, and you start gossiping about him. You keep passing that dynamite from one person to another until, eventually, it explodes somewhere.
Here is the place where the action takes place. You are definitely beginning to set that tree on fire. You may damage it for some time. As you are causing harm, you contaminate and poison the environment. You damage the feelings of people who trust that person. Someone who comes with hope, sits down, receives strength from that person, and finds peace may suddenly begin thinking, “What if this person really is a despicable person? What if what so-and-so said was actually true?”
You poison that person's mind. What is the result of this destruction? The garden begins to wither and deteriorate.
Who has to pay the price for it? First and foremost, the person themselves pays the price. For a while, the water becomes muddy; for a while, the environment deteriorates. If that whole structure [of the person who had been harshly judged] is fundamentally sound, this person will eventually recover and find their balance. But the actions [of a backbiter] accumulate, come back, and eventually strike the backstabber. When they do strikes the backbiter, they no longer have the strength or capacity to remain there.
So, there are several points here:
1) In order for our garden to flourish, we must carry out healthy actions. We must make an effort and work hard.
2) In order for our garden to be preserved, we must understand judgment. Judgment is appropriate when it is exercised in its proper place.
3) The consequences of the destruction we cause eventually return to the person themselves.
If a person looks at the matter this way, then we can understand what is meant by the words of Master Ra’ad: “Ruined constructions and wastelands are restored by wise people.”
If there is a ruined place and a number of wise people are there, [they will build the ruins, but] who is a wise person? A wise person is someone who knows where to judge; someone who knows what healthy actions are and what action needs to be taken, and where.
A wise person DOES NOT come along for their own personal benefit and, instead of using the dam that has been created to irrigate each of our individual fields, divert a large channel of water toward their own garden so that their own garden can flourish.
A person who uses everything for their own benefits and interests is not wise. This person is someone who is pursuing their own personal interests. Eventually, at some point a flood will come and wash away everything this person has accumulated.
Wise people begin to restore and cultivate places that are damaged and ruined. But ignorant people, even if you give them the most prosperous and well-built structures, will not take long to turn them into ruins and places that are uninhabitable.
This is because ignorant people seek conflict. They are constantly trying to place their own weaknesses on the shoulders of others because they do not have the capacity or tolerance to see their own shortcomings. That is why they begin destroying and judging.
Wise people, on the other hand, seek peace. They seek tranquility and want peace and calm to prevail. Because wise people know that everything is built through peace and tranquility. But nothing is built through war. War creates destruction.
Of course, a person must always be prepared for war. We must be prepared for a crisis situation. You may find yourself entering a scene of war and be forced to take charge of that war and bring it to peace.
But you must not seek war. You must avoid war. In other words, as much as you possibly can, you should prevent conflict, judgment, destruction, and negative feelings. That is when you can reach peace and tranquility.
When pressure is placed on a person, they may unconsciously want to relieve that pressure from themselves, or they may intentionally want to make the other person suffer—to put them in their place. This state may arise within a person, and at that point, they may unconsciously begin judging. In any case, that is the overall picture, and we have to practice.
Judgment has its proper place. For whom is judgment acceptable?
For the guide. A guide’s judgment of their own traveler—whether that traveler is progressing properly, whether they are following the path well, and whether they are carrying out healthy actions—is necessary.
What I have said does not mean that judgment does not exist. No!
Judgment is necessary and vital when exercised in its proper place. But its proper place must be clearly defined.
Perhaps 95 percent of the issues in our lives—or the people in our lives whom we think about and judge—are unnecessary and invalid. They drain the energy and strength of each and every one of us, and we need to move in a direction where we avoid these matters.
Master Amin’s remarks before the participation starts (where the participants begin sharing their own experiences on agenda)
Let me say this as well: In participation section, you really should not worry about who the Master is. When you are about to speak, do not think that “What a difficult situation this is! I have to be extremely careful and precise, and I have to make sure that everything I say is perfectly accurate,”—no!
The best participation is when a person speaks freely and simply describes what they have experienced. You may share an experience you have had with judgment that turns out to have a tremendous impact because of the result that came from it. So, speak freely and participate comfortably.
Thank you.
Dear friends who have not participated so far, participation is very important. You may feel embarrassed about doing it. If you are afraid, definitely participate. If you feel anxious about it, if you are worried or uncomfortable, definitely participate, even if it is very brief. It does not matter how you do it.
Let me say something about where judgment actually is acceptable. Judgement is meaningful in positions where we are responsible. In areas where we are responsible, we have to judge; we have to issue a ruling. For example, suppose I am a street cleaner and I want to clean this place. I have to determine whether this place is dirty or not. Once I have determined that this place is dirty, I am obligated to clean it.
So, I absolutely have to judge the area I have been assigned to clean and determine what needs to be done with it and collect its garbage. I have to make that judgment.
But whether the municipality, for example, has stolen money, or whether its deputy has made some kind of deal or secret arrangement with a particular person—that has nothing to do with me. It is outside my area of responsibility, and it is not my place to judge it.
So, within our own sphere of responsibility, where we are actually responsible for something, judgment is necessary and obligatory. But knowing where we are responsible is itself a very important issue. Because sometimes a person thinks they are responsible for everything, while in reality they are responsible for nothing.
That is when other people may say that very familiar and rather amusing sentence to us: “It is none of your business, who do you think you are?” And that may really offend us. But if I had already asked myself, “Who do you think you are?” then I would no longer make that judgment.
Anything that throws a person out of balance creates that same example of the merry-go-round, whether the issue is drugs or money [i.e. Drug abuse or negative contemplation and thoughts can put a person on a merry-go-round, causing them to become dizzy and see and perceive things that do not actually exist.]
A person whose only measure of success in life is accumulating wealth, and who pays no attention to anything else, is exactly like someone riding that merry-go-round. There are a few points I would like to mention.
According to the discussions we had with the border guards and guides, it was decided that this is a Companions’ meeting. Of course, our dear Guardians usually like the meetings to be lively and well attended, and when they invite veterans to be the Guest Speaker of the meetings, that is very good. It is a worthwhile practice because we should not become a closed system.
However, we should always look for a point of balance. Preferably, even as a trial, out of every seven meetings for which the guardian is responsible—I am not an outsider in this regard; I am among you, I am a veteran, but I am also one of the male Companions [the male family members of a traveler who help him liberated from addiction]—we can have veterans, instructors, or Didebans [Watchers] participate in two of the seven Companions’ meetings.
But five of the seven meetings should be conducted by the male Companions themselves. This includes me, as well as those dear members who have completed their second journey and can come forward and experience this position for themselves.
We should not become dependent on outsiders. In other words, we should become self-sufficient while still maintaining our connections with the outside.
That was the decision that was made.
The other issue is that it has been officially confirmed by the Council of Didebans (Watchers) that, in general, we do not have such a thing as a one-day outing at any of the Congress 60 branches—whether for male Companions or male Travelers, or for female Companions or female Travelers.
This rule was introduced about one or two months ago.
Therefore, dear friends in the Legion, please do not insist that your guides organize outings for you.
The only meetings we hold outside the branches are the meetings in the parks. Each guide is permitted to hold one meeting per week in the park. These meetings are held outdoors, in pleasant surroundings, with mountains and nature around you.
You can bring corn and grill it there, make kebabs, or do whatever you like. But going somewhere such as someone’s private villa is considered part of the sanctity, principles and rules of Congress, and we must observe them.
Translated by Elahe
