Judgement

Many who read the following will feel somewhat shocked about a certain portion of what is said below. Spirit conveyed no shock, no judgement. Spirit simply related what is. Seeing the world in a similar way aids the manifestation of spirit. This does not denote approval or disapproval.

Not long ago, I was successful at reducing my Facebook time. The political events of January 6 changed that. Last night, I decided to once again make the effort of reducing my posts. During my morning meditation I heard this from Spirit.

In this case, I am not sure how to define what part of Spirit told me this. My angel was not involved or at least not as I understood the input. This seemed to be a more transpersonal authority.

Items in brackets were implied in the conversation.

Spirit:     You need to stop posting political opinions on Facebook. This does not serve the task before you.

Myself:  I understand. Regardless, are those opinions correct?

Spirit:     No. You do not have enough information to be correct. Neither does anyone else. People do not have enough information, even about those around them, to make correct decisions [hold opinons]. Around you are people that have sex with animals, that engage in [what you would call] depravity, that are thieves etc. You do not know those around you. [Most people do not.] No one has enough information about politics to be correct.

At this point, I am thinking of poor media coverage.

Spirit: So, it has always been.

So, much for blaming the media as well.

Judgement is always putting ourself at odds with others instead of simple seeing what is. Living in that judgement-free place is exceedingly difficult. At the extreme, how can you not judge those about to kill you, as Jesus is said to have done? How can you not judge the person trying to seduce your spouse? While judgement is certainly an understandable response from a human perspective, it does not serve as well as we think. Judgement is a detriment to peace.

Discernment is different. Discernment is the ability to wisely determine compatibility. A person may need to keep her circle filled only with others of her religion, until such time as she is sufficiently emersed to have gained a certain level of understanding. This is discernment. When she reaches a point where that is no longer necessary and branches out, this too is discernment. When a person refrains from spending time with someone who is a physical, mental or emotional threat, this is discernment. Placing a value on that person, is judgement. Discernment does not judge.

The ego is very good at masking judgement as discernment. The ego may see a person as a threat, which he is but that threat is purely to the ego, not the person and certainly not to the spirit of the person sitting in judgement. Still, the ego will rise up in judgement and tell the person they are wisely discerning.

The point is peace. As long as we sit in judgement, we sit apart from that which is. We sit in conflict. Conflict destroys peace. Peace relaxes the mind to hear Spirit at deeper and deeper levels. Therefore, judgement restrains us from Spirit.

The Expression of The Ego

Our behavior, words and actions, is not intelligent. By that I mean the vehicle of expression is mechanical in nature.

The Ego has control over these mechanics using them to express itself. Said ego is always at war, fighting something, convincing, controlling (even in a negative way), game playing, and the like.

As we begin to grow spiritually, the ego is softened because the energy that circulates through it is slowly is purified. The wallflower slowly speaks. The boisterous become less noisy. The crowd pleaser becomes genuine. The ego, still expressing itself, finds there is less to express.

When the higher faculties become active, and having witnessed the proceeding the ego expresses itself in reverse. Internally, it begins to control by stating that anything expressed is of itself and therefore of little consequence, a failure of the spirit to supersede the lower nature. This attempt to control is a final gasp.

Eventually, one learns the following.

The ego expresses itself.

The less ego there is, the less the expression.

The soul overwhelms the ego when the ego has been sufficiently lessoned.

The soul expresses itself then through the vehicle of the ego.

The ego either uses the energy of life or becomes a conduit for it. It’s desire always the former, its true function the latter.  

Spiritual Bypassing

I made a comment on Lon DuQuette’s page and was immediately accused of spiritual bypassing. I had to look it up before I remembered what that meant. So, for those of you that do not know, spiritual bypassing is using spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep personal, emotional ‘unfinished business,’ to shore up a shaky sense of self, or to belittle basic needs, feelings, and developmental tasks.” The goal of such practices, he claimed, was enlightenment.

This is absolutely true. People use all kinds of things to avoid doing deep spiritual work and to continue to live in denial. Spiritual bypassing is like putting a bandage on a broken leg. The leg is not harmed by the bandage but it may be harmed by the lack of needed medical care.

I have seen people dress in a manner they deem ‘spiritual’ and claim initiatory titles they have not earned*. This may be bypassing the internal darkness they cannot face and pretending to some level of spirituality they have not obtained. Or it may be the unconscious stating of goals and aspiration, which is a good thing.

The problem with immediately accusing someone of spiritual bypassing is that spiritual knowledge can sound like bypassing to those that have not progressed past a certain point.

If a person experiences a tragedy and says, “Well, everything happens for a reason,” and suppresses their emotional reactions by glossing over their pain, the denial is usually pretty obvious to onlookers. The person is usually fooling themself. To reiterate, the problem is the statement is true but the speaker does not know that at a deep level. They use the words as a soothing balm and are not expressing spiritual knowledge or experience.

The same statement can be made by a more actualized individual who may feel and be willing to express the loss and at the same time, having seen the machinery of the universe, knows that everything happens to unfold the soul.

If you do not know the speakers or a bit removed from them, it may be hard to tell which is which. The best way to handle that is to not handle it. Simply be there for the person in question in anyway they need. Those on the path refrain from such judgements as often as they are able.

To quote myself, "I have learned that my judgements of other people's spirituality are just as invalid as everyone else's."**

All that said, there may be people that have evolved to a point where the deepest tragedy does not create a sense of loss at all. I have never met one but I am sure that they exist.

*This can be very detrimental to one’s growth. Claiming an unearned title a problematic. Often the lessons associated with that title hit all at once to the point one cannot recover. Other times, it just builds a wall that stops all progress until you drop the title. This is doubly true of very manifest magickal traditions. For example, claiming to be a wandering bishop when you are not may not have a detrimental effect as the benefits of that evolve quite slowly. On the other hand, claiming to be a third degree British Traditional Wiccan when you are not even a first can manifest almost immediately.

** Still very difficult to avoid as you can tell by a statement above.