Judgment: Rejecting What “Is”

Judgment: Rejecting What “Is”

What are judgment ‘I’s? When I ask myself this question, I can sense a reluctance to reveal how frequently and mechanically I judge situations and other people. The surge of judgment ‘I’s sound something like this: “How could she do that to her colleagues? I would never behave that way. That child should not be allowed to dominate an adult conversation. They drive like they own the road. He talks incessantly about himself. Her false eyelashes look ridiculous. He is addicted to his cell phone. The cleanliness of their house is unacceptable. They always break their commitments. He is late for work every day and his manager should discipline him, etc.” Perhaps you hear endless, similar chatter in the shadows of your mind.

At the root of my response when judgment ‘I’s are circulating is a rejection of the moment as it “is.” Judgment assumes that circumstances or people could and should be different than they are. It is a solidified, habitual attitude which protects my imaginary picture from the myriad contradictions that come into my awareness as impressions.

A recurring judgment that is activated in me and happens frequently in conversation with a friend of mine, is why they are not able to listen to my emotional idea, rather than inevitably picking out and focusing on a word I used that was not quite accurate. If I apply understanding, awareness and the tools of the Work to this circumstance – on a more objective level – I see that the friend I am speaking with is using their Intellectual Center and I am using my Emotional Center. Neither perspective is right or wrong, it just “is.” Shining light on this interaction without judgment, helps me observe a part of myself that was hidden.

When we name things correctly, we comprehend them correctly, without adding information or judgment that are not there. — Epictetus

Just like the food we eat, which is digested and feeds the physical body, so to, are impressions “consumed” and feed the psychological body. The experience of judgment blocks out impressions and keeps me functioning in an ordinary way rather than using psychological thinking and developing new attitudes based on the Work – taking in impressions with self-remembering and thinking in a new way. How could I possibly believe that I have surveyed and understand all points of view and that I somehow possess an unlimited ability to pass judgment on nearly everything? Sleep is, indeed, all pervading.

If impressions come in and ring up the usual place there can be no digestion of impressions at all. — Maurice Nicoll

To be receptive to impressions with detachment, simply being open and recording what “is” in the moment, releases me from the incessant judgment that is mechanically activated when something happens to challenge what I thought to be true or important. If I align my daily impressions in relationship to the Work with an aim of digesting and transforming them, then when I see someone angry I will realize that it is not the person’s fault, but that as machines without consciousness we cannot be other than stimulus response. We become compassionate and our whole relationship to other people changes.

Schools would not be schools if they judged life. — The Teacher

When I succeed in filtering the world of impressions through the Work, it does not mean that I will eliminate judgment ‘I’s but that through self-remembering and presence I will observe them and transform them into refined fuel for Higher Centers.

Judge, not with preconceptions, but by the reality of the Now. The truth is in the present. — Ibn Arabi

Join the discussion

Phryne before the Areopagus Court in Athens, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1861