***POPULAR QUESTION***
I am starting to get good at seeing the ego-based patterns in
people; detecting ‘energy vampires’ and people who are not
trustworthy, not fundamentally honest and integrous.
This makes me worry that I am becoming judgmental.
>>>COMMENTS:
Discernment and judging are decidedly not the same thing. To
know that a certain chemical is poisonous does not mean one
has to attack or vilify it, but simply avoid it via the
wisdom of caution. Similarly, a lion will gladly kill and
eat you; this does not mean one needs to judge and condemn
all lions as “evil.” A lion is simply being what it is.
Discernment is clinically-detached and has compassion.
(Compassion is the refusal to suffer based on incorrect
notions, limiting beliefs, fallacious ideologies, and
dualistic perception.)
Discernment does not condemn others, people, places, things,
etc. — it simply avoids them out of humility and the
respect for one’s life.
If there is a crack in the sidewalk or a hole in the ground,
discernment simply walks around the hole, while judgment
yells at the hole and tries to get it to become a ‘non-hole’.
Discernment accepts others as they are, while judgment
rejects, resists, condemns, hates, and seeks revenge.
(Judgment wants to “win”, be “right”, and gain “good
feelings” in the process.)
Discernment simply Witnesses and Observes quietly, standing
back to silently appreciate the beauty; it refrains from
getting over-involved in things or with people on a ’solar
plexus’ or emotionalized level.
Discernment is inclusive of the Totality of All That Is,
while judgment tries to exclude.
Discernment accepts that the infinite field of
consciousness/awareness loves everyone equally, for
consciousness and love are one and the same thing; judgment
holds onto and clings to the kindergarten notion that
unconditional love is “not fair.”
Discernment can observe the ego’s in others and be thankful
that one is being shown the true nature of one’s own ego.
Judgment represses one’s own ego, pretends that it isn’t
the same as the ego of others, goes into denial about it,
and then projects itself out onto others.
Judgment arises out of the guilt and shame of having
an ego.
It believes the ego/mind/personality/intellect and
associated animal-instinctual drives are ‘the me’ and
therefore personal. It then condemns itself and others,
using labels such as “sin”, “evil”, “wrong”, or “immoral.”
Discernment simply Witnesses the collective animal ego from
Compassionate understanding, rather than condemnation or
guilt. As guilt dissolves, there is no more need to project
one’s “dark side” out onto the world or to try to change
the world “out there” because, when seen for what the
ego/mind really is, the world itself is really “in here”
(i.e., perception).
“There is no need to change the world, for the world you
see does not even exist.”
–Ramana Maharshi
“Judgment is Mine, sayeth the Lord.”
–Scripture
“To choose chocolate does not mean one must then hate and
attack vanilla.”
–David R. Hawkins
“It isn’t fair that God loves everybody equally!”
–The Human Ego/Mind
Discernment is one thing; judgment is quite another. The way
to get off judgmentalism is to simply accept that your own
ego/mind is inherently ‘animalistic’ and therefore greedy,
lustful, paranoid, prideful, and ignorant. By accepting the
downside of the ego and refusing to identify with it as
‘the me’, it then becomes like a cute (and highly
entertaining) pet.
Many Blessings,
Stephane Hemon
