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Are you a Din Meister?
Meister = Master. For example a master of all trades.
Din = judgement
A Din Meister (I invented that phrase) is someone whom judgement follows around. Someone always has something negative to say to or about the Din Meister. If there's no one, them s/he say it to himself. Examples of Din Meister behavior:
* Din Meister walks with her kids outside. As soon as Din Meister notices that someone has taken notice of her, or soon after someone greets her, she becomes very self conscious and critical of her kids -yelling at them for slouching, harshly straightening out their clothes, etc.
* Self flagellation
* When something not positive happens to Din Meister, she thinks "it figures" (i.e. "yes, that is the way its suppose to be, the way it's expected..")
* When things are going great, Din Meister waits for the turn of the tides. She thinks its inevitable and just.
* People tend to find things to criticize Din Meister about. Constantly.
* When Din Meister does something any ordinary person would do, its viewed as wrong, bad, evil, out of place, etc.
Well now, how to remove this din, this constant judgement, from DM's life?
Here are some ways I heard about:
A) Tell others of your pain that they may pray for you
B) Charity (monetary or physically helping people)
C) Crying out to God
D) Changing one's name (Abram to Abraham; Sarai to Sarah; Joshua to Yehoshua, etc)
E) Improving one's conduct
F) Rebuke a friend for/with the right motive (Assuming the friend actually needs rebuking)
G) Not succumbing to dispair or depression
H) Repentance
I) Not making the suffering public knowledge (just a close friend or two to pray for you)
J) Visiting a Tzaddik (a holy person)
K) Psalms
L) Humbling one's self
M) Fasting
N) Accepting embarrassment
O) reciting Song of Songs
P) Being merciful to others
I'll say something else. At times I have felt like a Din Meister. But I chase the din away with laughter or lightheartedness. If I see someone looking and I'm feeling self conscious, I joke with my kids and we both laugh. Or if I'm alone, I think a pleasant thought or say some good (or thrilling) news. That usually puts me in a better disposition. Usually the person talking to me critically or looking disapprovingly ends up smiling as well. Joy has an amazing healing and rectifying power that I don't think the western world has tapped into yet.
One interesting sign of of peace and calm is when there are not many businesses going on. Everyone is of one will. Businesses have to convince people that they are lacking. With so many businesses out there, all needing to have a good profit in order to stay in business and grow, they need to get a wide consumer base. Its an unfortunate need to convince folks that they are lacking something. However, I think if folks should be aware of this. Otherwise, they will always feel lacking and not know why; or walk around with a feeling of incompleteness. At any rate, less "stuff" makes for more breeze-y room which will hopefully lead to clarity and relaxedness and calm.
There is another way...
The holiness of dancing:
When someone hears wonderful news, they jump for joy! When they get good tidings, they do a dance and a skip! There is a holiness in dancing. Somehow people know about this subconsciously but I don't hear or read about it anywhere. Well, according to the Likutey Moharan (Lesson 41), dancing -moving the left leg and the right leg- towards good, for a holy reason, for good news, for good, holy thoughts, etc. this also dashes evil decrees in heaven, chases away din /judgement.
Dancing to lewd music, jumping and moving because someone got hurt, or some such reason is akin to the story of Nadav and Avihu. They wanted to bring a fire offering to God, but it was not done in the appropriate fashion. As a result, they were swallowed up by the fire.
In summary, at times din surrounds a person. Things go wrong, even the person himself or herself feels entitled to the wrongs occurring. But there are ways to chase that air away. Mainly reconnecting to God, charity, reading Psalms (out loud), and dancing. Basically, anything that takes you out of your usual way, or helps you to rise above your "horoscope."
