Judgment, Discernment and the Noggin
Judgment is the conditioned mental reaction to what we perceive. It is a function of the noggin or brain or mind. I prefer the word noggin. So judging is our noggin's reaction to what our outer senses are picking up from our environment. We see an apple and our noggin reacts according to all the judgments it holds about apples. These judgments have accumulated through time from both our past experiences and what we've been taught.
We may have once bitten into a sour apple and reacted negatively with the judgment, "Yuck!" But then throughout school we were taught that apples were healthy and we probably heard, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," hundreds of times so we've been conditioned with the judgment, "Apple - good."
So anytime something comes into our field of senses our noggin quickly brings up all the judgments we've ever made about whatever that something is. And usually our reactions to that something is based on that databank of judgments stored in our noggin. We react according to the accumulation of judgments that our noggin quickly produces. There is the perception of the something then there is the judgment of that something and then there is our reaction to that something. First perception then judgment then reaction. This is how we normally function but it's not the only way.
Instead of reacting we can respond. And no, those 2 words are not exactly synonymous either. Reacting is taking action based on judgment. It is noggin-based action. (And there's nothing wrong with that. It's how we've been doing things our whole lives.) Responding comes from a different place than the noggin.
Most of us are stuck in our noggins and we think that is who we are. We are consciousness and we think our consciousness is located in our noggins but it's not. When you step back away from your noggin and OBSERVE your noggin working, who is that doing the observing? It's you! It's the consciousness that is you. It is this YOU that responds rather than reacts.
So step back from your noggin a minute and observe from the place of your true self, your overall consciousness. An object approaches and you can see your noggin immediately come up with judgments and then you can see yourself react based on those judgments. From this observer mode you can choose to not react according to the noggin's judgments and instead respond with discernment, which is taking action not based on conditioned judgments but rather action based on a greater and wider perception of what is taking place. From this observer mode you can take the filter of judgment out of the equation.
All judgment is duality-based. We judge things as good/bad, right/wrong, rich/poor, black/white, safe/threatening, big/small, fat/skinny, smart/stupid, hard/easy, evil/loving, etc. Those judgments have been conditioned into our noggins throughout our life and most all of our reactions are based on our most prominent judgments. In this way our noggins run our lives. We hardly do anything without first judging.
But there is a one-ness that permeates all of duality. This is where our true self and whole consciousness is. But we have been trained to use and rely solely on our noggin and have thus lost contact with that greater consciousness. That greater consciousness can perceive far beyond what our sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste perceives. Our noggins take in the stimuli from our senses and reacts according to conditioned judgment but our true self in the observer mode responds not only to much greater perception but also to what it sees our noggins doing. It is able to discern instead of judge and respond instead of react.
So there is the limited perception of our noggins and the greater perception of our overall consciousness. Using only our noggins we react through judgment but getting into the observer mode of our greater consciousness we can respond with discernment.
We may have once bitten into a sour apple and reacted negatively with the judgment, "Yuck!" But then throughout school we were taught that apples were healthy and we probably heard, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," hundreds of times so we've been conditioned with the judgment, "Apple - good."
So anytime something comes into our field of senses our noggin quickly brings up all the judgments we've ever made about whatever that something is. And usually our reactions to that something is based on that databank of judgments stored in our noggin. We react according to the accumulation of judgments that our noggin quickly produces. There is the perception of the something then there is the judgment of that something and then there is our reaction to that something. First perception then judgment then reaction. This is how we normally function but it's not the only way.
Instead of reacting we can respond. And no, those 2 words are not exactly synonymous either. Reacting is taking action based on judgment. It is noggin-based action. (And there's nothing wrong with that. It's how we've been doing things our whole lives.) Responding comes from a different place than the noggin.
Most of us are stuck in our noggins and we think that is who we are. We are consciousness and we think our consciousness is located in our noggins but it's not. When you step back away from your noggin and OBSERVE your noggin working, who is that doing the observing? It's you! It's the consciousness that is you. It is this YOU that responds rather than reacts.
So step back from your noggin a minute and observe from the place of your true self, your overall consciousness. An object approaches and you can see your noggin immediately come up with judgments and then you can see yourself react based on those judgments. From this observer mode you can choose to not react according to the noggin's judgments and instead respond with discernment, which is taking action not based on conditioned judgments but rather action based on a greater and wider perception of what is taking place. From this observer mode you can take the filter of judgment out of the equation.
All judgment is duality-based. We judge things as good/bad, right/wrong, rich/poor, black/white, safe/threatening, big/small, fat/skinny, smart/stupid, hard/easy, evil/loving, etc. Those judgments have been conditioned into our noggins throughout our life and most all of our reactions are based on our most prominent judgments. In this way our noggins run our lives. We hardly do anything without first judging.
But there is a one-ness that permeates all of duality. This is where our true self and whole consciousness is. But we have been trained to use and rely solely on our noggin and have thus lost contact with that greater consciousness. That greater consciousness can perceive far beyond what our sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste perceives. Our noggins take in the stimuli from our senses and reacts according to conditioned judgment but our true self in the observer mode responds not only to much greater perception but also to what it sees our noggins doing. It is able to discern instead of judge and respond instead of react.
So there is the limited perception of our noggins and the greater perception of our overall consciousness. Using only our noggins we react through judgment but getting into the observer mode of our greater consciousness we can respond with discernment.
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Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.
More On Judgment
When we judge something we are labeling it and holding fast to that judgment and basing our actions upon that. That's how we operate and that's one reason why it seems so hard to change our reality. We greatly limit our reality by our judgments. It is only when we step out of our noggins that we can expand our perception and go beyond the limitations of our judgments.
Some bearded, long-haired famous guy once said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." This hints at the energetic impact of our judgments. When judging someone we are facilitating an energy exchange and when it comes to energy, what we put out comes back to us. When we put out nothing but unconditional love then that is what comes back to us. When we put out judgments that is what comes back to us. Judgments are very limiting and dualistically confrontational and dis-empowering. Unconditional love is unlimited, it brings us all together and it is extremely empowering. Unconditional love transforms all things! Judgment puts everything into little boxes and keeps it there.
Another quote that I've always liked is one by the entity known as Philip who said, "We become that which we judge."
Does that mean that if we judge someone as fat we must eventually become fat in order to experience our judgment? Maybe not in this lifetime but another? Of course, it's easy to dismiss that by merely claiming a disbelief in past or future lives. But think about it. What if we really did have to experience every judgment we made? How inclined would you be to judge others? Every judgment we make sends energy out into the world and that energy eventually comes back to us. It's the nature of energy. When we send out unconditional love (which is free of all judgment) then unconditional love is what comes back to us. When we send out judgments that is what comes back to us.
Judging is a habit. We've been doing it for so long we're not even fully aware of it. It's like when we find a cigarette in our hands and we think, "When did I light that?" We've been doing it for so long that we think it is natural.
But there is another way. We can step back and observe how we habitually judge everything From this observer mode we can make a discerning choice to love instead of judge. That is what it all boils down to: We can love or we can judge. Instead of reacting in judgment we can respond with love. And, since unconditional love transforms all things, when we do this our lives will radically transform and when enough of us do that the planet will transform as well. But we can't do that if we are stuck in our judgment-addicted noggins. We must step back into the observer mode of our true infinite consciousness. That is where our power is.
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Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.