Exploring God's Secrets

#3 Non-Judgment

In a series of posts I've been describing an approach to God that is both practical and accessible. God is widely believe in by the vast majority of people, but for all intents and purposes we live as if the divine is irrelevant to the duties and challenges of everyday life. I felt that a change of attitude was urgently needed, which led me to write a book, The Future of God, where this new conception can be fully laid out. What would make God useful isn't found "out there" in the rituals, dogmas, and orthodox beliefs that most people focus on when they approach religion. "In here" are aspects of consciousness that connect us to our source, and that source is God.

Therefore God is human insofar as we are connected through our own sense of self; God is divine insofar as he (or she) has infinite scope--cosmic consciousness pervades everything, whereas individual consciousness doesn't. But rather than getting into any abstractions, the essence of the connection between human and divine is pragmatic. If God can't help with life's daily challenges, he is unlikely to have a future in our increasingly secular world.

One attribute of God or cosmic consciousness, is non-judgment. If consciousness is everywhere, then there is only one consciousness. As it expresses itself through each human being, there is an appearance of separation. What you think about politics, for example, or about family, religion, your career, etc., isn't the same as what I may be thinking. But we both draw upon the infinite reservoir of consciousness, with its unlimited creative potential. If you can see that this is true, there is no need to judge other people. Non-judgment is a divine attribute, not because God is a nice person, but because consciousness is a level playing field from which all of us draw purpose, meaning, values, desires, etc.

Cosmic Consciousness: Conversation with Deepak and Kyra Phillips

Courtesy of YouTube/The Chopra Well

There are many levels of judgment that people try to defend. If I am different from you in race, gender, income, status, IQ, success, maturity, or simply age, these qualities can be leveraged into judgments. When you are on the receiving end of a judgment, you can feel how unfair and arbitrary it is. The civil rights and feminist movements owe their success to a realization that denigrating judgments need to be abolished. But if God is to be taken seriously, the whole game of judgment needs to be abolished. Once the game is over, walls and barriers come down, along with war and violence. Us versus them thinking is seen as pointless, and therefore so is tribalism and nationalism.

The individual seems small and insignificant when speaking of such lofty goals, but actually, no one is insignificant in terms of consciousness. If God represents love, compassion, understanding, acceptance, and all the other facets of non-judgment, then aligning yourself with those values should improve your life. That's the point of the divine connection: it works. If it doesn't work, there would be no advantage to non-judgment in the first place. It would remain an empty ideal. This means that each individual is a testing ground. Having decided to align yourself with a deep attribute of God, what difference does it make to your daily life?

Here are some behaviors that allow you to test if non-judgment leads to a better life.

• Accept others as equals, not superiors or inferiors.
• Hold off criticizing others.
• Entertain ideas that aren't identical to our own.
• Don't try to improve other people, imposing your own notions of morality or correct behavior.
• Stop making others feel wrong.
• Offer encouragement and approval, which are the positive results of non-judgment.
• Tend to your own shortcomings instead of focusing on the shortcomings of others.
• Avoid using tags of race, gender, politics, and religion.
• Drop wholesale judgments against 'those kind of people" and look instead on each person as unique.

I've stated these behaviors in broad terms, yet if you consider each one with a little careful attention, you'll see that daily life is permeated with moments where you can decide to judge someone else or not. You are presented with a choice. The same goes for the most damaging form of judgment, which is self-judgment. Judgment against the self is what makes you feel inferior, flawed, insecure, weak, vulnerable, victimized, or worthless. At the opposite extreme, being afraid to examine your self-judgment is what deludes you into thinking you are invulnerable, perfect, dominant, superior, a perpetual winner. Judgment is tricky that way.

The solution isn't to shift from the "I’m so awful" position to the “I'm so great" position. In both instances you are trapped in the game of judgment. The only solution is to walk away for the game, refusing to participate. It is possible to do this if you apply yourself consciously. Having decided to stop being judgmental, you open the way for a divine attribute, and once it is allowed to enter your inner world, life begins to change in a positive direction. That’s how it works with all aspects of the divine. You are responsible for opening the door. God is responsible for making the choice worthwhile.

Graphic credit: Gabriela Rangel

Deepak Chopra, MD is the author of more than 80 books with twenty-two New York Times bestsellers. He serves as the founder of The Chopra Foundation and co-founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing. His latest book is The Future of God.