To release judgment requires going “beyond” ourselves. It requires relaxing into a timeless space of wholeness. And in that space, love enters automatically. We are beings of Love. We are the energy of pure Love. Judgment blocks our experience of feeling this love because of the barriers of separation it builds. The love of a new mother for her child as she holds it in her arms. The experience of a wonderful rainbow after the rain. The feeling of “being in the flow” during a sports activity. All these are glimpses of life without judgment. Each Sunday a group of us meet to discuss The Course in Miracles (a text which takes over 1,000 pages to explain how to let go of judgment and separation), and then meditate together. Recently we have been doing a chanting meditation – singing single syllable words over and over. We set a timer for 20 minutes. During the first few minutes, each of us has judging thoughts in our heads. One person thinks about how long this is going to take and what he needs to do next. Another person thinks about whether her voice is smooth and on key. As these thoughts keep coming, each person simply observes them and continues to “sing” the word. Somewhere in that 20 minutes, time disappears. We know it does, because when the timer rings, we are always surprised. We were sitting, thinking about things, and suddenly we were “somewhere else”, because the timer ring surprised us. That “somewhere else” was a place of non-judging. That “somewhere else” was a place of pure love. The more we visit that “other place”, the more we bring back into our world of judging a sense of release, of love. Automatically we begin to react to the events in our lives as neither good nor bad, but with love.
The awareness of Love is not something we have to get from outside ourselves. Love is the core of our being. Only our judgments block it from our awareness. Even in the Bible we find reinforcement that judgment blocks us. “Judge not, that ye not be judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” – Mt 7:1-2. Judgment is what karma is all about. By our judgments we set in motion the energy that reflects back to us. Judgment sets up blocks to love by separating us from our Source, our Core. And when we are separated from our core, we are separated from everyone and everything around us.
The problem is, we live in a world of judgments. We interpret events in our world as either “good for me” or “bad for me”. We are constantly judging ourselves and others without even being aware of it. Judgment involves separation, and a sense of distance from the object being judged. This separation leads to a sense of isolation and to feeling of not good enough that permeate our energy and our lives. When we are ill, we “judge” that a part of us is not good. “My nose is stuffed”, or “My back aches”. When we are struggling on our jobs, we judge others as being helpful to us or being a hindrance. When we are interacting with our families, we judge our husbands, wives, and children as being either supportive or non-supportive. And, when we watch the evening news we judge not only ourselves, but the entire world!
Without judgment, we do what is before us to do, without giving it the energy of bad or unfair or not worthy;. For example, for years I did not like to cook or clean. I judged that I had better things to do with my time. Now I do not even think about cooking or cleaning. When there is cooking to be done, I cook. When there is cleaning to be done, I clean. I no longer waste my energy in judging the worthiness, the goodness or badness of cooking and cleaning.
So, knowing this, find your place of non-judging space and time and visit it frequently. For some, it is a walk in nature. For others, it is in service to humanity. For still others, that space is found in quiet meditation. The more we experience the infinite love within us, the more we can move through our lives in harmony and peace. And, when judgments arise, simply bless the person or event you find yourself judging, and bless yourself for judging it in the first place. That will open the door to the miracles of love to move through you and your environment.