ACIM T. 3. VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem, P 1, 2. The choice to judge rather than to know is the cause of the loss of peace.
ACIM T. 3. VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem, P 1, 2.
1 VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem, P 1
1 We have already discussed the Last Judgment, but in insufficient detail. After the Last Judgment there will be no more. Judgment is symbolic because beyond perception there is no judgment. When the Bible says “Judge not that ye be not judged,” it means that if you judge the reality of others you will be unable to avoid judging your own.
At one time, I asked Jesus to please help me understand how we will always judge ourselves if we judge others. I seemed to experience some resistance to this. (The resistance appeared as not being able to think what to say, feeling tired, and thoughts of not feeling good. None of this is true, and so I rejected each one.) Here is what he said and how I felt.
Jesus: You begin with a thought in your mind, project that thought onto another and so strengthen the thought. You now believe that thought and think it is real, and because you perceive it as in your mind, you believe it is you.
Thank you. I understand it now. Resistance is funny. I had to refute each excuse the ego came up with, and I just refused to accept them. Taking down your words felt like working through molasses, but now that I have done it, I feel like a heaviness has lifted, and I feel light.
Casual Judgments
I have been practicing being aware of my casual judgments and, through this practice, allowing my mind to be healed. I watch my mind as I shop, as I drive, and as I work. So I notice when I think that someone is dressed inappropriately, is behaving badly, or shouldn’t have said something or done something. I notice when I think that woman looks better than me, that one should smile more, or when I think that a man should be kinder to his wife or more patient with his kids.
I often ask the Holy Spirit for a new vision to help me see them as He does. And as I do all of this, I forgive myself for these judgments and let go of the guilt that is my first experience. The ego mind says to judge, and when I choose forgiveness instead, the ego says I am guilty of having judged in the first place.
You just can’t please the ego mind. The ego doesn’t seem to like itself much, and when I feel identified with the ego, I won’t like myself. It starts to become clearer to me how it is that judging others ensures I will judge myself. I use judgment to keep myself separate from my brothers, and I know that can’t be right even if I am not allowing myself to understand why. I feel guilty, and I apply that same belief to myself, and now I am judged.
Projecting Blame
I get the added ego bonus of distracting from my own guiltiness by pointing the finger at someone else. I am, in effect, saying that she is guiltier than I am, and at the same time, I am reinforcing the ego program of guilt in my mind. So, the next time I see someone else as guilty, I will believe the thought in my mind that I am guilty, it is a sin, and I will be punished for it. As I judged, I am judged. It is inevitable, and I do it to myself.
The solution to this ugly cycle is the same as it is for all other wrong-minded thinking. I just notice, without flinching, when I have these thoughts. After all, I know that I am not guilty of them; just mistaken. I ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind. I ask for the Atonement. Then, to the best of my ability at this time, I accept the Atonement in this situation. I continue to do this in whatever form the belief exposes itself. I continue to do it until I no longer believe in it.
2 VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem, P 2
2 The choice to judge rather than to know is the cause of the loss of peace. Judgment is the process on which perception but not knowledge rests. I have discussed this before in terms of the selectivity of perception, pointing out that evaluation is its obvious prerequisite. Judgment always involves rejection. It never emphasizes only the positive aspects of what is judged, whether in you or in others. What has been perceived and rejected, or judged and found wanting, remains in your mind because it has been perceived. One of the illusions from which you suffer is the belief that what you judged against has no effect. This cannot be true unless you also believe that what you judged against does not exist. You evidently do not believe this, or you would not have judged against it. 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.
Reality Is Not Mind to Choose From
The sentence that stood out for me in this paragraph says that I believe that reality is mine to choose from. I think that I can decide that one person deserves my love and another doesn’t. I believe that I can decide that one situation in my life is good and another situation is bad. This choosing what is acceptable and rejecting the rest is the basis of all conflict.
In any group of people, you will find this arbitrary choice of sides. Some people will be vehement that abortion is murder, and others will jealously guard their right to choose for themselves. To some, it will be so self-evident that we need to control the number of guns out there that they think the group that feels threatened by new gun laws is insane. Neither side can fathom how the other thinks.
When countries do this, it leads to war. When groups do this, it leads to divisiveness, hatred, fear, and attack. As an individual within either group, it leads to a firmer belief in separation. Judging is the way we keep the ego belief in place. It is how we build the illusion and make it stronger in our minds.
But How Do I Stop Judging?
One of the things I never understood was how I was supposed to live if I stopped judging, even if I could stop judging. But now I don’t worry about that. I don’t think about how it should look. Nor do I try to stop judging. I just notice when I am judging and ask that my mind be healed.
When I hold onto a judgment, I notice that I feel unhappy, mildly anxious, maybe. There is a part of my mind that knows judgment is out of alignment with my true nature, and I am uncomfortable with this behavior even when it is on an unconscious level. And much of the judgment in my mind happens without me even noticing, but the effect of the judgment is there whether I am aware of where it came from or not.
I’ve been watching some of these issues as they have been discussed on Facebook, and one thing is obvious. The more certain the person is that they are right, a position they came to through judgment, the greater the fear, and fearful people are vicious. When I take a side, I lose my peace, no matter what side I choose and no matter how certain I am that I am right.
Releasing Beliefs
I was trying to think of a current issue that I could use as an example of how it feels to have no opinion, one that I have no judgment about, and I couldn’t think of one. I seem to judge them all and have preferences about them all. Some of them I see from both sides, but I see one side as right, and then, looking at it differently, I see the other side as right. In no case do I see only innocence because when I choose a side, I choose against the other side. To the ego mind, if one is right, the other is guilty of not being right.
I don’t know how to live in the world without judging, but I do know how to watch my mind for judgments. I know that I want peace more than I want to be right about anything. And I know that I can ask that my mind be healed of every divisive belief in it. I know that at any moment, I can ask the Holy Spirit how to see, and I will be given that vision. I can do this instead of deciding (judging) for myself how I should see. And I know that this is my part, and I can do it without knowing any more than that.
If you would like to hear Regina Dawn Akers talk about Forgiveness Made Easy, CLICK HERE.