judgment

(photo courtesy andy54321)


What is it about judgment that we all find so compelling?

Is it a way to place ourselves in the world, and in our culture, even in our family and our individual life? A way of saying this is who I am? And if so, are we then defining ourselves by outside circumstances?

Or is judgment a way of feeling good about ourselves in a constantly shifting world, and within our own shifting ethics and perceptions? Is it a way of feeling morally superior? Do we really need judgment?

As Yeshua says, judgment is not the same as discernment. I can discern something as not appropriate for me without judging it as good or bad.

And how do we know something is inherently bad or good? Slavery used to be accepted behavior; it was "good" for the economy. In the Old Testament a 'just' God sanctioned rape. Many "evil" acts have been committed throughout history that ultimately created a greater good, by waking-up a people, or a nation.

Much of our humanity and compassion is only experienced and shared in response to a tragic or 'bad' event. We experience just as much growth -- perhaps more -- via a 'bad' experience as a 'good' one.

What judgment fundamentally does is separate us from each other, the world, and divinity. When we judge something or someone we are pulling ourselves out of the moment, we are saying that I am not that.

But the truth is we are. There is nothing we judge that we have ourselves not committed at some point, in some form. "I have never murdered," you might say. A vegan or Buddhist might disagree. "Well, I never never murdered a human." Perhaps not in this lifetime, but most assuredly in a past lifetime. And there are many ways to 'kill' someone. A brutal verbal attack can be just as devastating to a person. Many suicides are pushed over the edge by an personal attack. Is that murder?

And if there is only one of us, quantum physically-speaking, then isn't what one person does to another, what we are doing as well? Didn't Yeshua say, what you do to another, you do to me?

By saying "judge not lest you be judged," Yeshua didn't mean we'll be judged and punished by some higher power. He meant that everything we judge we do so because it is an outward reflection of an inner conflict within us; it is on our personal 'radar screen'. When we judge something or someone, we are judging ourselves as good or bad.

Within the center of our own ethical core, we can discern that something or someone is not appropriate for us, and we can simply walk away without judgment.

Perhaps the world is in the state it is, and we are in the various states we find ourselves because of the energy of judgment. All of our western religions were born from and feed on judgment: we will never be good enough; the world will never be good enough. And so we separate, we point fingers, we fight, we destroy. Certainly most of us as young children were judged by our parents and schoolmates as being lacking in one way or another. Judgments we then passed on to others. We can't feel bad about ourselves all the time so we have to find an outside source to direct our own judgments toward, so we can feel better about ourselves, without having to look at our own issues.

We should all try living without judgment for a day and see how hard it is, but notice when we do view something or someone without judgment that we find ourself fully in the moment, and that moment in turn becomes filled with peace and love and compassion.