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.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link
