So, it turns out that there is a simple way to salvation: do not condemn others, and you will be saved. At the same time, it does not even require any special and extraordinary feats – strict fasting, night vigils with prostrations, and the like – only non-condemnation is required. It would seem that everything is simple, but, alas, we do not want to go this way, because we love to condemn people too much. We constantly judge everyone and everything: family, relatives, acquaintances, friends, neighbors, colleagues, rulers and bosses. We are so accustomed to condemnation that we no longer even notice it – it has become our second nature, as it were. It is not in vain that the Holy Fathers say that any habit, both bad and good, having taken root in a person through long-term adherence to it, acquires the power of nature, the force of nature. Folk wisdom tells us the same thing: habit is second nature.

If a person is used to condemning, then after a while it becomes a disease, so he can no longer help condemning. At the same time, something changes in the very mind of a person, the mind becomes damaged. The Fathers call this illness "corrupt thought." A person with a corrupt thought begins to suffer from morbid blindness: his mind becomes unable to see reality correctly, but presents it in a distorted form. He always begins to see only the bad in everything, and does not see the good. He sees the bad even where there is none, and does not see the good where it is obvious and obvious to everyone. Elder Paisios of Athos compares this state to a machine that pours bullets. No matter what material we load into this machine, it still pours only bullets - whether from gold, iron, plastic, clay or chocolate. He does not know how to produce anything else. The same is true for a person with a corrupt thought: in any situation, in any person, in any information received, he sees and finds only what can be condemned, for which he can be blamed. He does not see anything for which he can praise and approve. And if you try to point this out to him, try to correct him, then he refuses to admit his wrongness, his mistake and illness. He believes, he is absolutely sure and convinced that he is right, that he sees the truth clearly and accurately, and that others are mistaken and do not see it. This strange deception is somewhat reminiscent of the well-known cheating game of the thimble, when the person in front of whom the cheater spins the thimbles is absolutely, one hundred percent, sure that he knows under which thimble the ball is, but when the thimbles are lifted, it turns out that it is not there at all, and the person loses a large sum of money...

In the same way, the devil, a master of various subtle deceptions, strikes a person's mind with blindness, so that he begins to see things incorrectly. And then a person is completely sincerely convinced that he is right, because his mind with a corrupt thought shows him the world around him in exactly the same way – it shows him in a distorted and false way. It's as if we were looking at the kindest and most beautiful human face through a distorted mirror – of course, it would seem ugly and repulsive to us – not because the face is like that, but because the mirror is ruined.

Elder Paisios says that all people are divided into two categories. The former are like a bee, and the latter are like a fly. How does a bee behave? For example, she accidentally flies into some bad place, say, into the station toilet, where there is a lot of dirt and impurity. But the bee does not seem to notice all this, it flies past and finds a piece of marmalade in the far corner, forgotten by the child. A fly behaves completely differently. When she flies into a beautiful flowering garden, she does not notice fragrant flowers, but flies past them and, finding some filth in the far corner, sits on it...

With all our might, brothers and sisters, we must try to get rid of the passion of condemnation. We must be very careful not to condemn anyone, lest our minds be corrupted and we become sick and unclean flies. Let us not condemn anyone, even in the case when someone's guilt or depravity is obvious and indubitable. One is the judgment of man, and the judgment of God is quite another. Judas was among the closest disciples of Christ and performed many miracles, and the thief committed many atrocities and sat in prison, awaiting execution. But only a few hours have passed, and we see that the thief was the first of all mankind to enter Paradise, and Judas betrayed Christ and went to hell. Where is the righteousness of human judgment? Is not human judgment a lie and an error? Is it not for this reason that we have been given the commandment "Judge not," for our judgment almost always turns out to be incorrect and contradictory to God's judgment, distorting God's judgment?

How can we learn not to judge? Elder Paisios advised us to mentally put ourselves in the place of the one whom we want to condemn. He said that if we do this, we will not condemn even the poisonous snake that hisses at us. In fact, let's put ourselves in her place: the snake sat in a cold, damp hole all winter, and at last summer came, and it crawled out to bask in the sun. And then some people rush at her with a stick or throw stones - wouldn't anyone in her place hiss and bite?

Or another example: it happens that stray dogs pounce on us on the street, although we do not touch them, and it can be very unpleasant for us. However, if we put ourselves in their place, we will not condemn them. It is only necessary to remember that dogs spend nights outside in severe frost, that they are hungry and cold, that the people around them in the city are mostly hostile to them, ready to hit, throw stones, even injure them, that they are crushed by cars, that they are often raided and caught in order to put them to sleep, and if we call a spade a spade, simply to kill them. It is also necessary to remember that the primary and main cause of animal suffering is man. For the animals suffer because of Adam's transgression, before Adam's transgression they did not know suffering. Man also often suffers in this world, but at least he suffers through his own fault, and animals, including dogs, do not suffer through their own fault, but through the fault of man. Is it any wonder after all this that they are sometimes aggressive and throw themselves at people? Wouldn't anyone in their place do the same? Rather, on the contrary, one should be surprised at their patience and generosity, surprised that they do not pounce on people so often. Many, if they were in their place, would behave much worse.