Non-Judgment

Click one of the Icons to post to your Social Media.

Some of us grew up in homes, cultures and religions that taught us to “Judge not that ye be not judged,” but out of the same mouth these same people taught us to be judgmental of and look down on others who believe differently than they do.

This is the same terrible game that school children play when they start a rumor about one of the students saying they have fleas. This causes a division amongst the children in which the one that is accused is ostracized and avoided by the other children.

God’s plan is unification of mankind, but Satan’s plan is to “divide” and conquer. Only through division of people can Satan win. If you are judgmental of others, this may be a wake-up call for you personally.

People can only make judgments upon the available evidence; that, which they see, hear, smell, taste or feel. If vital evidence is withheld in a murder trial for example, one might be found guilty though innocent, or found innocent though guilty.

Therefore, without knowledge of the soul and the cycle of lives, we make judgments based upon what we know or more accurately, upon what we think we know and often miss the truth entirely.

Blind Men and the Elephant ~ John Godfrey Saxe, American poet (1816-1887)

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral:

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

This poem, “The Blind Men and the Elephant” was based upon a fable that was told in India many years ago. It is a good warning about how our sensory perceptions can lead to misinterpretations.

Anything less than 100% true is false and humans tend to make judgments depending upon what part of the elephant they touch. This is why we see so many religions. People grab onto a scripture or scriptures and based upon their interpretation, create their own “philosophy” of what they think is true and preach loud and long about how wrong the other religions are.

This ultimately translates into “my God is bigger than yours” and leads to “holy” wars where more people have been killed in the name of God than all other wars put together.

“And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come. And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning. The Spirit of truth is of God.”

Truth “sets us free” from judgment. Judgment always comes from an accumulation of facts, or more truthfully, what we consider to be the facts. It is impossible to make judgment when you know the truth. Truth is knowledge of what is and what isn’t and therefore when you know the truth no judgment can be made.

I have a friend who had a wife that in his opinion was irrational. She did things that bothered him to the point that he went for psychiatric help. His psychiatrist told him a story.

There was a man who was going to buy a new suit and he invited his best friend along to help him pick out a tie. It was a beautiful blue suit and after much deliberation, his friend brings him a very loud orange tie. The man with the blue suit says to his friend, “Are you kidding?” Pick me out a tie that matches.

The second tie his friend picks out is green and yellow and the owner of the suit is now getting perturbed. This time he tells his friend to quit playing games. The third tie is even worse and the man says cuttingly to his friend, “What, are you blind?”

His friend responds back, “As a matter of fact, I am; I’m color blind.”

The psychologist went on to tell my friend that his wife was also blind, but just in a different way. What one person sees clearly can be completely not understood by another. This can be true in matters pertaining to business, marketing, social skills, science, math, relationships, etc., etc.

For example, we often see people who are genius inventors, who can’t get to first base in bringing their inventions to market. I have known some of these people personally. They are simply blind in that area, even though many of them think they know how.

Most believers, including religious leaders are spiritually blind, if we believe what Christ and his apostles had to say. But like the blind men of Indostan, they prate loud and long about things they really don’t understand.

Understanding that ever person has “blind spots” in one area of life or another, can help us to be less judgmental. If the man knew that his friend was color blind, he would have reacted differently. And if each of us could begin to understand that we have blind spots of one kind or another, we would perhaps be more opened minded to hearing the truth.

As an example, I was raised in a Christian home and was basically taught that “karma” is a dirty word. In fact, many Pastors teach their congregations to run away from anyone who even mentions it. But as a Christian Pastor, I can show you where this and other “Eastern” words exist in the Bible. Karma simply means “sin” that becomes a yoke around your neck until you make restitution for it.

The truth sets us free and knowing the truth about the meaning of karma can set us free from be judgmental of those who believe in karma. In fact, such a person is less likely to take advantage of you than someone who doesn’t, because they know they will have to “pay” if they hurt you.

When a person lacks knowledge, it is not possible for that person to understand the significance or the meaning of the events of this life, nor understand the effects of their reaction or responses to them. For this reason, they often fall into the trap of being judgmental of things they know nothing about.

In Jude 1:10 it says that many people “speak evil of those things which they know not” and by doing so corrupt themselves. And for this reason, Michael the archangel (chief of all the angels) “durst not speak evil against the devil.” Yet we see almost every modern minister rail against the devil, “corrupting themselves” in the process and teaching their parishioners to do the same.

This is perhaps how far we should take the subject of non-judgment. Apparently God was serious when he said, “Judge not that ye be not judged.” However, most of us read the Bible with rose-colored glasses and an air of self-righteousness and we pray, “Thank God that we have the truth and are not like those other folks.” Christ rebuked those who prayed in such a fashion and called them hypocrites!

No less than 14 Bible verses speak of restitution and explain that anything we do or allow to be done that hurts another individual, must be restored. There is no time limit and death does not cancel the debt.

For example, a personality that takes advantage of others creates an imbalance of energy that must be righted by the experience of being taken advantage of by others. In the absence of repentance, “justice” will require that person to be taken advantage of by others and payback is hell.

A person, who does not understand that the experience of being taken advantage of is the effect of a previous cause, will usually react from a personal point of view, rather than from an eternal perspective. He or she may become angry, vengeful or depressed for example. He or she may lash out, grow cynical or withdraw into sorrow. Each of these responses demonstrates that he or she has not completed “that lesson” and in order for the soul to progress, all lessons must be “passed” before moving onto the next grade or level of development.

When a person learns to be non-judgmental in the face of trials, he or she demonstrates that no future lessons are necessary in that area of his or her life. He or she can now graduate from kindergarten so to speak and move onto the first grade, or whatever the next level of advancement may be.

If a child dies early in its life, we do not know what agreement was made between that child’s soul his Creator, or what healing was served by that experience. Although we are sympathetic to the anguish of the parents, we cannot judge this event. If we or the parents of this child do not understand the impersonal nature of the dynamics in motion, we may react with anger towards God or towards each other, or we may have feelings of guilt if we feel that our actions were inadequate. All of these reactions create more lessons to be learned.

In order to become whole, the soul must balance its energy. It must experience the effects that it has caused. The energy imbalances in the soul are the incomplete parts of the soul that form the personality. Personalities in interaction are souls that are seeking to heal. Whether an interaction between souls is healing or not, depends upon whether the personality involved can see beyond itself and that of the other personalities they are interacting with.

Perception of this fact automatically draws forth compassion. Every experience and every interaction with other people provides you with an opportunity to either look at your circumstances from a physical or from an eternal perspective. What does this mean in practical terms? How does a person begin to look beyond himself to see things from a spiritual point of view?

Since we don’t know what is being healed through each interaction and what lessons are coming to conclusion, we cannot judge what we see. For example, when we see a person sleeping in the gutter in the winter, we don’t know what is being completed for that soul. We don’t know if that soul was at one time uncharitable and is now experiencing the same dynamic from an entirely different point of view. It is appropriate that we respond to his or her circumstances with compassion, but it is not appropriate that we perceive it as unfair, or judge it to be so!

There are personalities that are selfish and hostile and negative, but even in these cases we cannot fully know the reasons why. These are hidden from our view. That doesn’t mean that we can’t recognize negativity when we see it, only that we cannot judge it. To judge is not our place. “Judge not that ye be not judged.”

If we intervene in an argument, or break up a fight, it is not appropriate that we judge the participants. Of one thing we can be certain: a person that is engaging in violence is hurting deeply, because a healthy and balanced soul is incapable of harming another.

Judgment is a function of the personality and when we judge, we create more lessons to learn. When we say of another soul, “She is worthy,” or, “He is not worthy,” we create more lessons for ourselves. When we say of an action, “This is right,” or “That is wrong,” we create more lessons. This doesn’t mean that we should not act appropriately to the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

It is not however appropriate that we allow our actions to be motivated by feelings of indignation, righteousness or victimization. These feelings are the result of judgments about ourselves and other people; assessments through which we see ourselves as superior to another being.

If we act upon these feelings, not only do we increase the lessons for our soul, but also, we are not able to enter into these feelings and learn from them. Feelings are the means through which we can discern the parts of the soul that are seeking to be healed, and through which we come to see the action of the soul in physical matter.

The path to your soul is through your heart and to engage the viewpoint of the soul, we must cease from judging, even those events that appear to be unfathomable, such as the cruelty of an inquisition or a holocaust, the death of an infant, the prolonged agony of a death by cancer, or a life confined to a bed. We do not know what is being healed in these sufferings, or the details of the energetic circumstance that is coming into balance.

It is appropriate that we allow ourselves to feel the compassion that such circumstances call forth in us and to act upon it, but if we allow ourselves to judge these events and those who participate in them, we create more life lessons that we go through in order to learn not to judge and only by being non-judgmental, can we can possibly participate in the circumstances that are necessary to bring that soul into balance.

You may ask, “If we do not judge, how can there be justice?” Gandhi was beaten several times during his lifetime and on two occasions he nearly died. He refused to prosecute his attackers because he saw that they were doing “what they thought was right.” This position of non-judgment and acceptance were central in Gandhi’s life. Christ did not judge even those who spit in His face and subjected Him without mercy to pain and humiliation. He asked forgiveness, not vengeance, for those who tortured Him. Did neither Christ nor Gandhi know the meaning of justice?

What they knew was non-judgmental justice. Non-judgmental justice is a perception that allows you to see everything in life, but does not engage your negative emotions. Non-judgmental justice relieves you of the self-appointed job of judge and jury because you know that everything is being seen. Nothing escapes God and his justice, and this knowledge brings forth understanding and compassion.

Non-judgmental justice is the freedom of seeing what you see and experience without responding negatively. It allows you to experience directly the unobstructed flow of the Universal intelligence, radiance and love of which our physical reality is only a part.

Non-judgmental justice flows naturally from understanding the soul and how it evolves. This, then, is the framework of our evolutionary process; life in the physical realm for the purposes of learning God’s will for us and for healing and balancing the negative energies we have created through our thoughts and deeds and judgments in accordance with the law of “restoration” (as ye sow, so shall ye reap). Within this framework, we evolve as individuals and as a species, through the cycle of being unempowered to becoming empowered.

Whatever experiences you may have encountered in this process up to this point need not remain the same. Once you pay for your misdeeds and quit making those same mistakes, everything will change. Christ paid for the misdeeds of all who believe in Him and accept of His atoning sacrifice, but in order to be forgiven, you must learn not to judge and also to forgive. (See Forgiveness)

True Story: Sometimes We Entertain Angels Unaware

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, ‘Hi!’ He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray. His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin, as he wriggled and giggled with merriment.

I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man whose pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map.

We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. ‘Hi there, baby; hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster,’ the man said to Erik.

My husband and I exchanged looks, ‘What do we do?’

Erik continued to laugh and answer, ‘Hi!’

Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby. Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, ‘Do ya patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek- a-boo.’

Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk.

My husband and I were embarrassed. We ate in silence; all except for Erik, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skid-row bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.

We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door. ‘Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik,’ I prayed. As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to sidestep him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms in a baby’s ‘pick-me-up’ position. Before I could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from my arms into the arms of this man.

Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their love and kinship. Erik in an act of total trust, love, and submission laid his tiny head upon the man’s ragged shoulder. The man’s eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain, and hard labor, cradled my baby’s bottom and stroked his back. No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time.

I stood awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms and his eyes opened and set squarely on mine. He said in a firm commanding voice, ‘You take care of this baby.’ Somehow I managed, ‘I will,’ from a throat that contained a stone.

He lovingly pried Erik from his chest as though he were in pain. I received my baby, and the man said, ‘God bless you, ma’am, you’ve given me my Christmas gift.’

I said nothing more than a muttered thanks. With Erik in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Erik so tightly, and why I was saying, ‘God, forgive me.’

I had just witnessed Christ’s love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment; a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes. I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not. I felt it was God asking, ‘Are you willing to share your son for a moment?’ when He shared His Son for all of humanity.

The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me, ‘To enter the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children.’ Little children are non-judgmental!

Click one of the Icons to post to your Social Media.