Perspectives on Judgment Revisited

By George A. Boyd © 2021

Q: What is judgment? Does it have different facets?

A: There are seven key facets of judgment:

  1. Critical judgment – When you operate in this posture of judgment, you find fault with others, blame them, and point out how they have made mistakes or failed.
  2. Self-judgment – This is you evaluate your own speech and behavior, and the outcomes of your efforts. When you do this, you attempt to be honest with yourself. You may use some type of inventory, assessment, or introspection method to arrive at a measure that is more objective than your own subjective impressions about how you are doing and how you are coming across to others.
  3. Evaluation of alternatives – Judgment at this level attempts to select the best option after gathering information about each option and weighing the pros and cons of each potential choice. This enables you to winnow your possible courses of action to what appears to be the optimal one; this process facilitates decision.
  4. Life evaluation – At this existential level of judgment, you are making decisions about what you want your life to be about and what you want your life to mean—what will you do with your unique human life.
  5. Next steps – When you operate from this platform of judgment, you identify the steps you must take to fulfill different threads of your purpose. You identify next steps for your personal and spiritual growth.
  6. The Silver Onion – This Superconscious level of judgment locates spiritual essences on the mandala-like, concentric circles of the Soul’s consciousness. The Soul is able to discern the content of each nodal point of its spiritual journey from this perspective. It judges where something dwells on the Great Continuum of Consciousness, up to its current level of spiritual development. This type of judgment operates using what we all mandalic reasoning.
  7. Multiple Mandalic Consciousness – As a Master reaches universal states of consciousness; he or she can access the Soul’s consciousness of many individuals. Those who become Multiplane Masters extend this ability even further, to interface with this mandalic wisdom through multiple perspectives.

Q: Is it wrong to judge? What was Jesus referring to when He said, “Thou shalt not judge?”

A: “Thou shalt not judge? This statement says that you should suspend critical judgment until you can understand others’ motivation for their behavior. The attitudes of prejudice, arrogance, and condescension come from making a premature negative judgment, without truly understanding the other person’s viewpoint and the needs they are trying to meet.

Some questions you can ask to probe beneath the surface and get closer to the truth about the other person:

  • Why they do what they do?
  • What are their beliefs that tell them to do this?
  • What lessons could you learn from the example of their behavior, good or bad?
  • Are you jumping to a premature conclusion about this other person without getting more complete information about the person and their situation?
  • Are you aware of their background, the beliefs they hold, and the mindset from which they operate that might influence them to act in this way?

You can also notice if you are distorting your perspective on the other person through projection of you own needs and wishes on them:

  • Are you criticizing others for something you are doing yourself?
  • Are you putting someone else down so you may feel superior?
  • Are you finding fault with them to express your unhappiness and frustration that they aren’t fulfilling your desires?

Instead of reflexive criticizing, self-evaluation allows you to learn and grow from your experience, and reform your character. Judging others is done from an egoic platform; when you stand back from striking out, you can gain insights, understanding, and wisdom.

Evaluating alternatives is a necessary activity for adult functioning in society—and certainly “thou shalt not judge” does not ask you to refrain from making important choices in your life.

Judgment assumes a revelatory, intuitive function when it reveals to you next steps in your life, and shows you the next stages on the Path beyond where you are right now. This insightive aspect of judgment was clearly not forbidden in the admonition, “thou shalt not judge.” Here judgment combines with the discernment function of intuition, and shows you the next layer on the mandala of your life experience and your station on the spiritual Path.

We encourage you to use judgment at the personal level to strengthen the ability to evaluate yourself honestly, to make optimal choices for your life, and to decide what you will do in your life. You may also apply it at the transpersonal level, which grants you the ability to behold the many dimensions of your Soul’s spiritual evolution, and to trace the stages that are to come.

Those of you who are working on the next step in your personal life may benefit from our Life Coaching Program. Those who feel ready to make your next step in spiritual evolution can learn the key transformational methods to journey to higher levels of the Great Continuum of Consciousness in our intermediate courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.