A few thoughts from Yukimura
 

Happiness sought is never found.

It is better to be a caged man than a freed beast.

Those who judge the world more strictly than themselves are fools. Those who judge the world as they judge themselves are heartless.

Sometimes, the truest expression of hope is the willingness to dive into hopelessness.

In order to achieve balance, it is necessary to be in constant motion.

(And one not from Yukimura.)

"Vanity and happiness are incompatible." -Dangerous Liaisons


(I'll probably keep adding to this as more synapses fire.)

Personally, I'd rather be a freed beast.

A freed beast is instead imprisoned by its survival. Everything it does is to make it to the next day. A man is not necessarily bound by his desire to live and can achieve things greater than existing another day.

I think they are great.

"Happiness sought is never found"

Would you elaborate for me?

I mean that when people seek happiness for its own sake, they never seem to find it. People who want to live well, do things like help others, better the world, spread kindness and love, those people seem to find happiness along the way.

It's just stuff that pops into my head. I'm not trying to say that I'm definitely right.

those who judge the world as they judge themselves are heartless...because...they lack personal warmth? this one confuses me, but it's probably really simple and i'm too dumb to get it on my own.

Lo and behold!

We actually love each other.

looks like I'm heartless...although I wouldn't necessarily call that description inaccurate.

you should read la rochefoucauld's "maxims"
you'd like them, i think.

I am actually not debating, I love that you think like that. It's great! I agree that you find what you're looking for when you are truly not looking:)

By the "heartless" comment, I mean that I cannot really see how it is possible to judge another accurately compared to yourself. There is no way for one to fully understand the circumstance another is in, the full effect of their past and present on their decision making process. So, to judge another as one judges oneself is heartless to me, because it shows a lack of consideration and compassion.

I'll go look for "maxims" right now.

I thought of another thought to add.
-Sometimes, the truest expression of hope is the willingness to dive into hopelessness.

A freed beast, by virtue of not being human, cannot consciously seek happiness. So maybe it will stumble upon it.

A caged man, however, is caged. He can do nothing but seek.

Give me the jungle over the cage any day.

The affect of a beast's life on the world is of a depressingly small scale. Personally, I never want to be so disconnected from my fellow man as all that. I believe that the happiness we can achieve together as a common species is far greater than that of even the happiest beast.

The face of the wind
Proved stronger than expected.
may it never fail.

What other standard do we have to judge the world then by the standards we hold ourselves to? It is the only way we can assess the people we wish to surround ourselves with. We all have things that we are unwilling to budge on. Just because we judge someone as having qualities we don't wish to have in our life, does no make us lacking in consideration and compassion. I have compassion for a lot of people. I just do not wish to have them in my life.

There is a difference between judging a person and judging a quality. Even so, I would venture to say that judging a quality is only a helpful practice as far as that quality applies to one's self. For example, if I see someone that is stealing, I would think, "It is not right for me to steal." I could see how stealing affects me badly and the inevitable consequences that are to follow. I might even share these thoughts with the person I saw. However, I cannot fully understand another's circumstance. Perhaps for them, stealing means survival, or maybe it is simply beyond their control. If I were in the same situation from birth, what would make me think that I would not steal as well? That doesn't mean I would invite them over to steal my possessions. However, if they asked for a place to spend the night, I would hope I had the moral fortitude to allow them into my home anyway.

The simple answer to your question for me is to avoid judging people period.

New thought:
In order to achieve balance, it is necessary to be in constant motion.

A person is the sum of their qualities. To judge one is to judge both.

I disagree. A person is more than the sum of their qualities, or maybe less. A person is deeper than that. A person is a small margin of choice as expressed against the overwhelming force of that person's environment. The full expression of a person's being may seem like next to nil next to the forces of their environment against them. To label a person as the sum of their qualities is to claim that people have absolute power over themselves. In order for that to be true, the person would also have to have absolute power over their environment, which affects them. This is impossible, since many people exist in the same environment, and they do not all have absolute control over it. Therefore, a person's qualities is not the expression of that person's being.

A persons' qualities is the expression of their being. It does not grant them absolute control over there environment, but they DO have control on how they react to it. If someone wrongs them, do they let it slid, or take them to task. If something in their life makes them unhappy, do they just accept it, or do they take action to change it. These are qualities of a person. The things that happen to them and around them are not.

Well, let's start at this point. Do you believe that a person is affected by their environment? If so, we're talking a matter of degree. I personally believe that environment has an immense affect on a person, moreso than any of us really care to admit. Imagine the type of person you would have developed into had your environment been different. Every point of view could change if a simple detail in your early childhood had been changed. The way we develop in our environment could easily change the way we handle something in our lives that makes us unhappy. I do far less to separate person from environment. They are both deeply within each other.

Your point of view sounds like you have much more rigid definitions of person and environment. I assume you take on the perspective that a person's insides are only changed by them, that our environment can only change us if we let it. I agree with that, but I don't believe that there are very many if any people in existence that have the sort of inner strength that allows them to truly function independent of their environment, even in their own heads. Maybe I'm just far weaker than most, but I can think of several times in my life where, had things that were beyond my control gone differently, I would be a different person today, meaning many of my qualities would be different.

From this, I have determined that, at the least for me, and at the most for everybody, environment controls, to some degree, who we are outside and inside. So, to truly control who we are inside, we would have to control that which is outside of us as well. From there, continuing the logic from my previous post works perfectly.

Oh, I agree that environment plays a large part in shaping us. Parents, friends, school, work, etc. All this things play a huge part in shaping us. But like anything learned, a person can unlearn behavior. Growing up, I had a great many traits that now I find to be less then ideal. I was, in many way, a shitty human being. I stopped being those things. I wasn't easy, and it is a process that will never really be complete. But it's one that I know can be done. So yes, environment plays a big part in shaping us. But it can also be over come.

So, if environment does in fact shape us, then judgment of a person would be based on that person's inner strength, their ability to overcome their environment. To me that's something different than what the person is as a whole. I have a hard time being angry at a person for being weak. Environment can shape that too. Were it not for environment, how would we know whether we would be any stronger or weaker in our ability to overcome our environment? In that sense, maybe environment cannot be truly overcome, since it is at least a part of what gives you the ability to overcome as well. Inner strength and outer strength are both limited and beyond our control.

Therefore, judging a person is like judging the series of events that led to who they are today. I take the point of view that, had I been subjected to the same thing, I might be that person exactly. How do I know? So, every time I judge another, I judge myself and everyone else. There is so little that truly separates us.

Our mutual strength:
Individuality.
We've got to like it.

It depends on the action. My ex, for example. She was weak. And in that weakness lead to the worst betrayal I have ever had in my life. I know full well her history, and why these weaknesses are there. Her history, however, does not change that her actions were hers, and hers alone. I judge her, not on her history, which I respect her greatly for getting through, but on her actions at the time. Knowing full well how bad she would hurt me did it anyway.

I have hurt people in the past. Badly. I hold myself responsible for those actions, and have made amends when and where I could. I have judged myself, and try not to repeat the actions of who I was. I have standards and expectations I hold myself to. I expect no less from the people around me. I have known people that have come through worse then she or I did, and are much better people then either of us. They over came. I am trying to over come. She gave in. So I judge. And I do not feel like I have judged myself in anyway.

The only one judged
by an individual
should be their damn selves.

Or those affected by their actions.

My feelings tremble;
my monstrosity unchanged,
why do I love you?