Jesus and Judgment

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them,” Mother Teresa.
“The truth is that the Spiritual Man is already Perfect, no matter what the appearance may be,” SOM text.

Contemporary American society is big on judgment. We are overwhelmed by judgmental commentary in the media, and reality TV couldn’t exist without judgment. Our culture is saturated with judgment.

Yet spirit calls us to non-judgment. We are invited to turn away from the judgment in our culture, to a place in our hearts and minds where judgment is irrelevant. Finding and staying in this place is a challenge, but worth the effort.

When we judge others, we are denying their, and our own, divinity. Focusing on externals, makes the externals - appearances and temporary conditions, rather than our transcendent, timeless reality as spirit, real. Judgment distracts us from spirit’s truth and binds us to the ego’s illusion.

Consider the example of the master teacher, Jesus, who did not judge. He routinely saw through appearance and behavior to the essence of people whom society judged lesser beings. In his eyes, all were as divine as he was. The difference was that Jesus knew it and they did not. He was awake to his reality as spirit, they were not. He saw through the ego’s dichotomy and illusions to the truth and the continuum and they did not. But the good news Jesus brought was that at any moment they too, could choose to awaken, choose spirit and see through the ego’s dichotomy and illusions to the truth and the continuum as he did. Jesus was the great example, not the great exception.

Releasing judgment doesn’t mean tossing out common sense. Rather it means catching ourselves when we start to judge, pausing, inwardly affirming the spiritual truth and reality of everyone and everything, releasing judgment and going with inner guidance. In doing this, we go forward from the place of divine inner connection, rather than the place of the ego’s fear, anger and judgment. Practicing non judgment affirms our own reality and spirit as well as the spiritual reality of everyone and everything.