Many spiritual traditions caution against judgment. It is certainly not consistent with being loving, much less unconditionally loving. In a way it suggests that we know what something or someone should be or do—and we never have the whole context of what God’s plan is or what anyone else’s process and evolution is.
Judgment goes beyond evaluation in that is locks the person or thing that we are judging into a kind of frozen place in time and eternity that doesn’t allow for change or growth or evolvement. It is not just about behavior—it is about who or what it is. In a way, by judging we add to the negativity by holding that lesser picture of what is rather than holding a Vision of what the person or situation can be. When we don’t hold the vision of the person as a soul or a situation as only a step in the evolution of mankind on the planet, we reify them/it and add energy to the current state rather than holding a vibration of love and goodness to which they/it can evolve.
More than that, our againstness hits against what is—it is stuck energy. It can’t go anywhere—it can’t contribute to the motion or evolvement of the thing we evaluate as bad or evil or wrong.
When I look beneath the judgment I am holding, I almost always find that there is a vision underlying the judgment. It is often my love for and valuing of that vision which can generate an attachment to the judgment. I feel that if I give up the judgment, I am denying or abandoning the vision.
In fact, it is just the opposite. When I focus on the vision that underlies the judgment I have, instead of directing my energy against the thing/person I am judging, I can instead do a kind of aikido move and direct the energy, even just as an intention, towards the vision instead. I can hold the vibration of the vision I want to see manifest. I can direct my actions to creating that in my life or in the world. The energy can now flow freely towards something. I can experience that freedom instead of the frustration of the energy not going anywhere.
In addition, I can examine the judgment and see if there is anything about what I am judging that I may be projecting. That is, what part of me does the person, situation, behavior reflect that is part of me—and a part I may be rejecting and not owning. It may show up in a microscopic way or what I think of as a homeopathic form. It may be something that is much subtler than what I am disapproving of in the world—but it is still part of me. And it is a part of me that I can embrace and re-own and learn to love—another way that I can learn to increase my loving for myself by incorporating that shadow self.
Sometimes I may judge something that I don’t do —that I don’t even allow myself to do. Do I resent when someone always tries to grab center stage—because I am afraid to be seen or have too much self-doubt to ever be the center of attention?
For most people there will often be things in ourselves, in others and in the world which are not to our liking and that we think could be more loving, uplifting and harmonious, peaceful. When we focus on the vision of what we want more of and align our intentions and actions towards that, we can not only maintain those same qualities within ourselves but can direct our energy in a way it can flow to manifest that vision.
This article was first published on www.soulmusings.org.
