10. HOW IS JUDGMENT RELINQUISHED?
1 Judgment, like other devices by which the world of illusions is maintained, is totally misunderstood by the world. It is actually confused with wisdom, and substitutes for truth. As the world uses the term, an individual is capable of “good” and “bad” judgment, and his education aims at strengthening the former and minimizing the latter. There is, however, considerable confusion about what these categories mean. What is “good” judgment to one is “bad” judgment to another. Further, even the same person classifies the same action as showing “good” judgment at one time and “bad” judgment at another time. Nor can any consistent criteria for determining what these categories are be really taught. At any time the student may disagree with what his would-be teacher says about them, and the teacher himself may well be inconsistent in what he believes. “Good” judgment, in these terms, does not mean anything. No more does “bad.”
Journal
This is very clear. We think we have to judge and we think we must use good judgment. At the same time, we are very confused about how to do this, or even what the categories good and bad mean. I fully accept this because I have seen how undependable my judgments are. I might make a judgment about someone one day and then feel entirely different about him tomorrow.
How does this happen? Maybe I discovered something different about him, or more likely, he said or did something that I accept or agree with. How can I use criteria so unstable as my opinion to judge someone else? My opinions change all the time, and they, too, are the result of judgments made in the past and who says those judgments are dependable.
No one really teaches us how to judge, and who could do that anyway, since they came by their judgments the same way we do? I tried to teach my children to make good judgments and I doubt I did a very good job and I see in retrospect that sometimes I did a very poor job. This is because I didn’t know how to make good judgments. I was just fumbling around like everyone else.
And yet, we keep trying to judge everything. Right now, I have been thinking about putting some of my writing into book form. There are different ways I could do this. There are things to take into consideration. I have to decide if it would be worth the effort and if I want to use my time like that. There are so many aspects to look at, and even when I do look at them, how do I know I perceive the answers in the best way? That requires a judgment, too.
There are many reasons to question our judgment and few reasons to keep being the judge of all we say and think and do and even more reason to not judge what others think and say and do. This would seem to put us in an impossible situation, but it actually gives us the only solution that works. To the best of my ability, I stop trying to judge and I ask the Holy Spirit to judge for me.
I have no way of knowing what I need to know in order to judge anything at all, but He does. I am a fool not to use His judgment. This is what I decided to do about the book thing. I’m letting go of both, “I want to” and “I don’t want to.” I’m just resting in the idea and asking the Holy Spirit what this idea of a book is for. If it’s to go forward, the idea will begin to grow in me. If not, it will die. Whew! That feels much better.
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