by Jen Aldrich
March 16, 2022
In this post I’ll be talking about judgment in the manner of ‘seeing things rightly’ vs the ‘fault-finding, critical’ judgement; also see Matthew 7.
One of the things that really struck me about my dualism research for my Sunday teaching is the discovery that Jesus didn’t throw out the judgment piece, the recognition of the law, but he went beyond it.
Without first recognizing the problem — and then choosing to respond from the mindset of non duality — you’ve just got mushy thinking. And paltry grace. And that doesn’t mean much—and it doesn’t stand under pressure. When that old problem starts yelling at you again, you’re right back in it. The mush.*
*Mush is different than the messy middle, which is a place you bravely step into, not avoiding the discomfort of tension.
As someone who used to jump too quickly to mushy grace, or just live my life as a follower of whatever spoonful I’m fed, it an important next / first step for me to rightly see and judge a situation. Call it what it is.
And then…move beyond it into the non dualistic place.
Understanding this (or at least exploring it as maybe true) has been quite freeing for me. I feel terribly guilty when I hear myself being judgmental / dualistic. But if I can see it as a stepping stone toward something more, then I can dig in and get somewhere. Don’t stop at what’s wrong or the black and white of a situation, but say ok what’s next then. What’s my next move here. Or, can we explore this together?
