Is Judgment an All or Nothing?

From A Course in Miracles:

In the end it does not matter whether your judgment is right or wrong. Either way you are placing your belief in the unreal. This cannot be avoided in any type of judgment, because it implies the belief that reality is yours to select from.

You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment. When you recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in any way is without meaning. In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging them. All uncertainty comes from the belief that you are under the coercion of judgment. You do not need judgment to organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize yourself. In the presence of knowledge all judgment is automatically suspended, and this is the process that enables recognition to replace perception.

I had a good, long meditation after reading that, let me tell you. I discovered a belief that enlightenment means to judge correctly all the time, which is impossible. There is no such thing as judging correctly, it cannot be real because judgment comes from perception which has no basis in reality. Perception is a position that cannot stand against truth any more than an opinion could lean against a tree. To judge someone is to defend the ego in the form of an attack, utterly fear-based.

A little more from the book:

God offers only mercy. Your words should reflect only mercy, because that is what you have received and that is what you should give. Justice is a temporary expedient, or an attempt to teach you the meaning of mercy. It is judgmental only because you are capable of injustice.

The distinction between "knowing" (knowledge) and "knowing of" (perception) is an important one. Only what is based in reality can be known, therefor perception is incapable of knowing truth because it is based on a positionality. That's not to say you cannot perceive correctly from time to time, but you have no way of "knowing" for sure by the very nature of perception.

At first it may seem frighting to think that you cannot fully grasp truth without..well.. thinking about it. Instead I find it liberating, a real load off my shoulders. By accepting that judgment has nothing to do with knowledge, I can safely focus on letting it go more and more each day. I can work to be more humble, knowing that my perceptions are no more or less real than anyone else's.

My new mantra when I am in a position to judge will be "I don't need to have an opinion on that." I expect they'll still come up from time to time as I live in a world full of opinions, but I'll do my best not to get too attached to them.

Change Is All The Proof I Need

Because most of us still think we live in a dualistic world, it's difficult to accept that the workings of our ego/mind are not reality. Short of sitting with a realized being or experiencing for ourselves, what inspiration is there to push forward? What Proof?

Look no further than your own thoughts and perspectives. I notice that as I read different books my perceptions of the world shift accordingly. For example, during the time I spent reading nothing but David R Hawkins my views of the world began to match his. If you buy into kinesiology as a universal response, which I did for a time, it's a natural to take all these calibrations to heart. Through Power vs. Force, The Eye of The I and "I" you'll find a lot of great spiritual stuff but you also encounter a lot of his own views on things like politics and different world organizations. Mine matched steps with his until I read Truth vs. Falsehood.

This is a book dedicated to calibrating as many different areas of life as possible such as artists, movies, countries, world leaders and a lot more. As I read this book a picture started to develop of a perception at work here that seemed slanted towards a point of view rather than universal consciousness. Namely, the point of view of someone who completely believes his own local response calibrations are universal. I can't tell you what truth is in any case and he could be right but for the moment, I'm moving on. All the society study and observations speak to an agenda that doesn't seem to have much to do with spiritual growth.

So my perceptions shift constantly. I am not completely at peace with my mind so what I take in from others has a direct impact on what I believe and feel about life. No more proof seems to be needed that my mind can inspire the ongoing search for truth, but it cannot grasp it. Otherwise, why does it keep changing?

Back In The Saddle

I flew out to LA two weeks ago today and due to the nature of the trip I had no time for meditating or reading or even much contemplation. I got home four days later and got knocked out by a cold that ran its course over about four days. I'm still feeling it a bit but I'm almost back to full health again.

With the trip and then the cold I ended up not meditating for about ten days or so. I have a hard time sitting down and doing breathing exercises when I'm plugged up so that was a part of why I wasn't meditating. If I'm being honest with myself, I enjoyed the excuse to get away from the daily commitment and immerse myself into the world of illusion for a while. Notice I said I enjoyed the excuse, the actual experience wasn't quite as much fun.

I don't like being at the mercy of my mind gone haywire, I don't enjoy regretting all the little decisions made throughout the day that aren't life supporting or loving. This break has been a great chance to remind myself what it's all about and why I try to read and meditate every day. The quality of my experience when I'm really consistent is both subtle and profound, I love it so much. I appreciate it even more when I'm not doing it, if only by comparison.

So it's back in the saddle again starting tomorrow, a good long meditation or two through the day and some reading. I think I'll be putting David Hawkins' Truth Vs. Falsehood aside and diving into the A Course of Miracles. There's a lot of text to read through before the course itself begins. The language is heavy and it doesn't pull a lot of punches when referring to "God" and "Him" and some of the more Christian word choices most North American spiritual gurus try to avoid so they don't scare anyone off. God to me is no longer separate from my own true Self, so I'm ready for it and perfectly willing to accept that what we call "God" is just the easiest way to convey something that is beyond words.