Judgment and Discrimination

As spiritual people, we do not practice judgment. But before this is understood meaningfully, it is vital that we understand what "judgment" is. For some superioristically-inclined people believe that it is "judgment" to disapprove of anyone or anything! To say, for example, that torture is evil, they say, is "judgment." But does this counter-intuitive claim make any spiritual sense?

This is an unhealthy extreme, for it leaves you without any reference-points, lost in the world of everyday reality. It is true, as a spiritual principle, that everything is God, and so, everything is absolutely good. But we do not live in an absolute world-- a world of pure interiority. For the mystically enlightened recognize two worlds: The everyday world of "twoness" (duality): In this world of ordinary, everyday life, many activities, actions, events, situations, things, and even people can be "evil," "unspiritual," and even "antispiritual."

In the world of pure Mind, there is no real or absolute "evil." But, it is not superspiritual to say that you have nothing "negative" to say about anyone. For this attitude of being "nonjudgmental" tends to lead to spiritual pride, the opposite of spiritual progress. Is it really "just as good" to torture babies as to help the needy? Is it really equivalent to be a "satan-worshipper" as to worship the Lord of Love? Is it really irrelevant that a man rapes a woman instead of loving her?

People are brought to states of complacency and apathy by the idea that these warped and twisted attitudes represent "nonjudgmentalism." Actually, these noncaring and nutral ideas do not represent the high spiritual state of nonjudgment. Instead, they represent a very low state of moral relativity or moral neutrality-- a very low state of illusion, masking as something higher, even admirable.

Love is the opposite of complacency. So, no person of Love is ever apathetic towards suffering. She never lightly dismisses the suffering of others, shrugging and saying, "It's just her karma." No, for love always demands action to aid, comfort, and help any living creature under any conditions!

"Judgment" is not the formulation of opinions. It is not the ability to tell right from wrong. This is discrimination, also called discernment.

Without this ability to tell right from wrong, a person does not become a "master," as certain proud people of moral neutrallity snobbishly view themselves. A person who is neutral about everything has fallen into one of the most subtle snares of illusion, and has been thoroughly deceived. She has managed to miss the entire point of this life.

The world of everyday reality is a cosmos created by God to be dualistic. This is to test us, to present opposites so that we might choose between clear alternatives. The everyday world is supposed to be, is created, this way. Ultimate and absolute reality is monistic, not dualistic. That is, It is all good, and contains no "evil." But, as people on earth, we must, we need to, recognize the difference between good and evil.

Without this spiritual discernment/discrimination, we are not "spiritual geniuses," or "superior"; we are simply interiorly blind. We have truly lost the way.

So, what is "judgment"? It is the declaration that any person or condition is irretrievable to the core. It is the statement that any person or situation is absolutely bad, irredeemable, containing no good.

When, for example, a fundie sends a person's soul to "Hell, forever and ever," though it is done in only the mind,that is "judgment." But to say that Adolph Hitler was evil, bad, or foolish is not the error of judgment; it is discernment, and common sense, besides. When a person declines to become a neo-nazi or satanist because these encourage evil, she is acting from wisdom, not ignorance! To argue otherwise is absurd!

Spiritual people consider no person or situation unsalvageable, or without a trace of merit or goodness within. We deny that "evil" has absolute existence, but this is by no means the same as saying that evil does not exist! In our world, and several million others, evil does indeed exist as the enemy, and opposite, of good! So, we do not practice judgment. But this does not make us foolish, or blind, unable to discern the gulf between good and evil.

But spiritual people are marked by a passion for good, and so, this is symmetrized by an equal passion against evil-- defined as any factor designed to harm sentient (selfaware) beings.

Truly spiritual people are never just gray, colorless, neutral, or apathetic. In fact, they are blessed with clearer awareness and stronger feelings than average about justice, compassion, environmental sacredness, and a list of other issues. This is their incentive and motivation to act. Even the purest Taoist is no "bump on a log," for she will always stand up to defend the helpless and the innocent. (It was in Taoism, in fact, that defensive Kung Fu was developed for precisely this
fine purpose.)

The spiritual being does not attack others, but is allowed to use even physical violence in a purely defensive manner. In the same way, she can defend truth against lies, against falsehoods, and against misunderstandings. She can, in all good conscience, follow the commands of Love to expose evil and untruth wherever she finds it.

Lightyears from being a bored and boring non-actor in the play of life, claiming to be "above it all," with a sneer, the enlightened person uses the "props" of the "play" to help others find liberation. To use the props means that she recognizes relative good and relative evil, and uses these, too, to help liberate others. This is the assignment of even the bodhisattva.

Discerning what is good from what is evil provides helpful gidelines to keep us from falling into paths of darkness. Early Christians had a group among them that recognized the "allgood" universe, that everything is God. But it was not long before these self-styled "enlightened" people began to rationalize that lying, torture, murder, rape, and stealing were also "God." So, they said, in their deep spiritual disease, any behavior was acceptable. (A group called the "Frankists" among the Jews made the same discovery, and the same mistake.)

Enlightened people are never morally neutral; they know better. For she who falls into moral neutrality is quickly taken over by the lower nature of greed, lust, violence, and apathy. These all betray deep ignorance, even while masking as "superior wisdom" or "deeper spirituality." These people fall away from Love (God) into the demonic (fear); and on this path, it is possible to be lost and confused for centuries, even millennia.

Basic common sense (anything but common) alerts us to the common-sense observation that certain behaviors and actions are evil (antiagapic or contrary to Love). Mysticism upholds the real and selfevident fact that there are many activities that are indeed antiagapic; these lead to interior "hells" of darkness and ignorance.

Never be fooled, then, by the simplistic pretense that you must be neutral to everything evil; the mystical truth is the opposite. It includes a proagapic (Love-supporting) and agapogenic (Love-generating) lifedesign.

Without discrimination, one falls. The old cliche correctly reminds us, "She who does not stand for something will fall for anything." She who does not stand in defense of Reality will fall for any illusion.