"She should not be wearing that."
"He is such an ass."
"I am flabbergasted at how she acted."
"How could he really do that?"
All of these display your judgment. Actually much of what we say and think does.
Even though almost every form of spiritual approach or religion has some core belief based on “only God shall judge", it is still such a predominant practice in our day and time. In fact, we invest great amounts of energy into this daily. Why is that?
Judgment is a defense we use internally for those things that we are not willing to accept or do not yet understand.
Let’s look more deeply at the root, rather than sticking to surface understandings.
We judge others when we feel offended or threatened by something about them. Otherwise we wouldn’t feel irritated. We’d simply look at them with compassion. We’d perhaps even help to guide them beyond this opportunity for growth that we can so easily see, out of love.
However, that is not the usual approach we take. Instead, we criticize their way of being. We decide we are greater than that and we’d never do that. We may feel extremely annoyed that they are this way and how it affects us. We may even laugh at their lack of understanding in that area and be thankful that we aren’t "that way like them".
Why would we react like this?
This thing we are judging is actually a divine bread crumb. It shows us a beautiful opportunity to grow and accept more of our wholeness. For whatever you judge in another, is something you still have yet to accept in yourself. When we can accept these things, we can be a greater force of love - to ourselves and others.
Non-acceptance and judgment are wonderful opportunities to expand love. When you love something, you accept it as it is. You love it for being it, just the way it is. For example, a three year old who doesn't understand how to use the right terminology yet may warm our heart with their cute sayings. We can easily love this about them. When you cannot love something, it’s bothersome to you. A fifteen year old who is rebellious needs that same love. However, it may be more challenging to find that love in your heart for someone you feel should know better or who may more directly challenge your ability to love in certain conditions.
If we judge, and can’t stop doing it, shouldn’t we at least learn from it?
I don’t expect all of us to become Mother Teresa, but one or two steps in that direction would be very healing for us all. It would impact the world greatly. So please, start with yourself.
Begin with NOTICING how much you judge. Let's at least be aware of how much we use this coping technique. That would be a giant leap in consciousness alone.
Then open to it. Why do I need to judge here? What can I learn? How can I grow this negative feeling into love?
Remember - judgment is an indicator for love!
In Love,
Comments
Post a Comment
Please share your experience... Thanks!!