Judgment creates the sense that the imposter self is ‘me.’ Judgment is the “I know” and “I’m right” mind—the resistor.

NTI Romans teaches two practices as the antidote to judgment. Those two practices are acceptance and surrender.

Why does NTI teach two practices as the antidote to judgment?

NTI teaches two antidotes, because there are two types of judgment.

One type of judgment divides everything into good and bad, liked and disliked, desired and not desired, etcetera. That type of judgment creates the appearance of many things.

Yesterday, we saw that acceptance (existence-loving-existence) is the antidote that undoes the many things and collapses them into one thing, which is experience. When this collapse occurs, only two things remain, the experiencer and the experience.

The second type of judgment is decision-making. Decision-making creates the sense of ‘me who decides.’ Surrender is the practice that removes the sense of ‘me’ as the one who decides.

You might remember that NTI teaches there are four stages on the spiritual path: The Search, Purification, Service and True Perception. The third stage is the period of surrender. NTI Acts 22 says:

“The third stage on the path with Me is the stage of guidance or service. This is the time when the merging will occur. … This is how the merging occurs. It is through your own willingness to surrender to Me. … What seemed to be separate gradually becomes one, until it is evident that “separate” never was.”

Consider this related quote by Ramana Maharshi:

“Surrender is giving oneself up to the original cause of one’s being. Do not delude yourself by imagining this source to be some God outside you. One’s source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.”

When you are not surrendered, there is a feeling of “me” making “my own decisions.” As you fall more deeply into surrender, you lose the sense of “me deciding,” and you experience everything as one ongoing flow of happening. You cannot separate yourself from the ongoing flow of happening. You know only one flow, one existence, one consciousness.

The Loving All Method and Surrender practiced together undo both types of judgment—the judgment of good or bad and the judgment ‘I decide”—so both the experienced (the many things) and the experiencer (the decider) are undone, and only non-dual (not two) consciousness remains.

NTI Romans, Chapter 2 calls judgment the “building block of illusion.”

What is judgment?

If you look very carefully at judgment when it appears in your mind, you will see it is the “I know” and “I’m right” mind. It is the resistor, the antithesis to truth. Whenever you give believing-attention to judgment, you are identified with the imposter self.

NTI Romans teaches two practices as the antidote to judgment. Those two practices are acceptance and surrender. Today, we will look more closely at acceptance. Tomorrow, we will look at how surrender undoes judgment.

Acceptance is the decision to accept every experience exactly as it is without judging that it should be different. The deepest form of acceptance is love. Therefore, a key practice that undoes illusion and disengages from the “I know” and “I’m right” imposter mind is The Loving All Method.

Let’s look more closely at how The Loving All Method works.

At its most basic level, illusion is the appearance of two things, the experiencer (you) and the experience (everything else). You are the “I” that experiences everything else, which is “not I.”

The “not I” or the experienced appears as many things, some things that are judged as good or desired and other things that are judged as bad or not desired. The Loving All Method undoes the judgment that creates many different things and collapses them into the current experience, sometimes called the ‘now’. Through Loving All, you come to the experience of “I” loving consciousness/existence. A Course in Miracles refers to this stage as “the happy dream.”

Look at the room around you. Notice that the mind sees many things. Let the mind tell you what it likes and doesn’t like about what you see. Or, look in a mirror. Consider standing naked in front of the mirror, and let the mind tell you what it likes and doesn’t like about what you see. Or look at another person, and let the mind tell you what it likes and doesn’t like about that person.

As the mind tells you what it likes and doesn’t like, notice the sense of difference or division that happens. Watch the mind as it creates many things.

For example, while looking at the room the mind might say, “The picture of my family is very nice, but there is too much clutter on the furniture.”

While looking in the mirror, the mind might say, “My arms look strong, but my waistline is too fat and flabby.”

While thinking about a friend, the mind might say, “She is very generous, but she talks too much.”

Notice that in each case, judgment is  the sense (or feeling) of “I know” and “I’m right.”

Notice how judgment gives you the distinct feeling of being ‘me’ separate from whatever or whoever is being judged. Feel the strong sense of ‘me’ that is present in judgment.

Notice the hardness (firmness) in your way of being whenever you believe a judgment.

Judgment is to the ego like air is to a balloon. It inflates the sense ‘me’ and many things that are ‘not me.’

After examining judgment closely, close your eyes and simply appreciate existence. Don’t think of the many things thought says you like about your life. That is still judgment. Simply appreciate existence itself.

Within each of us, there is a love of existence that is so excited by existence that it loves every experience simply because it emphasizes existence. Leave the mind behind, and find the love of existence in you. (People often experience this love in nature, but nature isn’t needed to experience it, because love of existence lives in you.)

After spending a few minutes appreciating existence with your eyes closed, open your eyes. Pick up something and hold it in your hand. Don’t think about what the thing is. Just feel it. Appreciate existence experiencing this existing experience.

You can practice existence-appreciating-existence with any experience. If you look in the mirror and feel self-hatred, pause and appreciate existence experiencing emotion. Or look at the part of the body that mind says it hates, let go of everything you’ve learned about how a body is supposed to look, and appreciate existence experiencing a body.

Existence-appreciating-existence is  the Loving All Method. It is accepting experience exactly as it is and loving it as existence. It is consciousness loving consciousness as manifestation.

Practice existence-appreciating-existence as a way of life. Whenever you notice yourself hardening into judgment, notice the distinct feeling of ‘me,’ remember your desire to be immersed in truth, and shift into existence-appreciating-existence with whatever  is being experienced now, including the feeling of believing judgment. Make no exceptions in your practice. Appreciate existence in every experience exactly as it is.