The One who knows everything about a situation, does not judge it.

But you who are bounded in time never can know everything about a situation; you are always being surprised by some new development or piece of information. Knowing this, decide now to eschew judgment: you are not equipped for it.

That you judge at all only betrays that you don’t know everything.

 

Knowing this, do not judge

 

Each judgment is a piece of binary code inserted into your mind. If you designate something as disappointing, the whole world is then divided into two categories, disappointing or not, and everything has to fit into one of these two. The creator of a judgment observes the infinity of creation chopped up into categories. Everywhere you see evidence of your judgment, but nowhere do you see new information.

 

Judgment is limiting

 

If you decide someone is irresponsible, your world arranges itself into categories based on this. You see all people as either responsible or irresponsible, and all acts arrange themselves into one or the other. You observe this arranging because you called it into being. So are you forced to watch and consider examples of irresponsibility, and spend time thinking which are better examples than others. And on and on.

 

Judgment is circular

 

As soon as you, even inwardly, designate someone as irresponsible, or highly strung, or divorced from reality, that person feels it and finds it impossible to act naturally in your presence, as he must always be proving one thing or another. Your judgment stops you from ever knowing this person.

 

Judgment is blind

 

Let me eschew all judgments that I would make with my human mind. Let me no longer tease myself with who is a good parent, who is successful, smart, or hardworking. Let me put behind me all the rankings and gradations of worth that we like to make constantly. Let me lay aside all comparisons, which do no one any good. Enough. There is no end to these games. 

 

The only way to win is not to play

 

Judgment admits that there can be more than one kind of anything, that creation wasn’t already perfect. If it be valid to judge, then it follows that there can be more or less, before and after, better and worse, and every other aspect of a landscape which is constantly shifting, changing shape and appearance, in which one thing is measured in relationship to some other thing, which is itself constantly shifting.

 

Judgment is impossible

 

It is impossible to know objectively of anything. All you can know of a thing is what you think of it, since you created it yourself.

You created the meanings of all your words. “Faith” will have a different meaning to you, with your experiences, beliefs, and mental furniture, than it will to any other being on earth.  “Sophisticated” means something different to everyone who uses this word.  So it is with all the words you use.

 

 

The entire world you live in is your own creation, constantly mirroring and molding itself to you, trying to make itself a perfect fit to your stated wishes, your feeling states, your mental pictures.

Knowing this, if you would still judge, judge for perfection. You do this by giving thanks.  To give thanks for any person, thing, or situation, is to admit that it is already perfect, given to God and therefore touched by God. Be in the feeling state of gratitude, and watch with wonder and joy how your world mirrors and molds itself to you.

Judgment keeps you focused on the imperfect; it is the exact opposite of giving thanks. Refuse to be limited by judgment.

It begins with me