Judgment & Non-Judgment-1*
A Five-fold Perspective
Bill Bauman
5/10/20244 min read
We human beings seem to be quite good at evaluating, interpreting
and judging our world’s events, circumstances and personalities.
We all participate in this practice. In fact, we’re usually expected to do so.
Most conversations include these traits; newscasts are filled with them;
decisions get made based on them; and world events unfold because of them.
But is this usual style of evaluating life our only tool of perception?
You and I, it seems, have come to expect something more of ourselves.
We’ve invited ourselves to be bigger, better and freer vis-à-vis our existence.
My guess is that we have even invited ourselves to be “non-judgmental.”
From my quantum perch outside of creation,
I’ve come to perceive each of us as hosting a five-fold perspective on life—
five differing lenses through which we can look at life
and everything around us, including ourselves.
Journey with me as I apply these five personal perspectives or lenses
to this pervasive human habit of being judgmental.
1. First is the traditional “human” lens that I described in the first paragraph.
We hold a cadre of values, beliefs and feelings to which we feel quite loyal,
amply using them to label certain persons and actions
as good or bad, positive or negative, fair or unfair, right or wrong, etc.
Because everyone does it, we unconsciously fall right in line,
often not realizing the internal stress, anxiety and pain that results.
2. Conveniently, you and I have a second lens at our disposal:
our more “spiritual” one.
Looking at the same situations or persons through this light-filled lens,
we tend to witness the bigger picture of life’s events and persons;
we see the above-the-forest meaning of what’s happening.
We even apply our heart’s love and compassion to what we’re viewing.
We experience the underlying beauty and preciousness of each person.
We experience a sense of oneness with whatever that we’re witnessing.
Duality and its evaluative judgments seem mostly to have fallen away.
3. Beyond the range of our spiritual light lies a third lens,
one even more powerful, albeit more simple.
It’s the lens through which we look while sitting in the viewing box
of a unique state of consciousness: a “state of being.”
This is where our ‘essential self’ lives.
In this pure state of “is-ness” consciousness,
duality and dualistic thinking are nowhere on our radar.
In their place, everything simply “is.” Every action “is what it is.”
We’re free to accept and embrace everyone and everything
for who and what they are, period.
No interpretation, no evaluation, no judgment.
As we peer through this clear lens of is-ness,
without the clutter of such evaluative thoughts,
something else smoothly takes its place within us:
a deep state of inner peace—
in regard to, well, everything in life,
including ourselves.
4. As if these three lenses weren’t enough, there’s yet a fourth lens
for us to consider. Let’s call it our “quantum” lens—
the lens of pure quantum consciousness.
Present deep within our personal depths,
our quantum eyes view everything in creation
not at all through dualistic, moralistic
or even spiritual perspectives.
Rather, we see each and all them as unique ‘possibilities’—
make that, countless possibilities—
each one being expressed—and therefore valued—uniquely.
Viewed quantumly, creation might look like a vast playground
on which innumerable intangible possibilities appear palpably real,
experiencing themselves as tangible, real-life expressions.
Through this unique view, perhaps the very purpose of creation
may be for each of these possibilities to experience
and express themselves as fully as possible—period.
As the ‘quantum you’ views the creation, then,
you just might find yourself in a state of wonder and awe
as you experience the uniqueness of each of these expressions.
5. Are you ready for yet another lens that sits at your disposal?
A fifth one?
This is the lens of the “quantum void”—yes, complete nothingness itself.
Referred to in some Buddhist traditions as a state of pure emptiness
and labeled by mathematicians as a realm of absolute zero,
this zero-dimensional lens also observes possibilities in action.
But it also comes with a magical, mystery-filled, creative twist.
What’s this quantum twist?
When we look through the eyes of pure emptiness,
all we see is endless nothing-ness, complete emptiness.
Yet, as our quantum eyes peer more deeply into this empty void,
we are gifted to perceive a seeming ‘something else.’
We see imagination. Quantum imagining.
In fact, we see imagination in action (what we humans call creation).
Rather than seeing these possibilities as tangible or real, though—
space, time, matter, energy, light or even is-ness, for example—
we see all of them as imagined fantasies, creative fairy-tales,
enticing phantasms, magical dreams, wonder-filled illusions.
We see ourselves dreaming possibilities as if they’re real,
imagining nothingness as somethingness, alive and active.
Understandably, peering through the quantum void’s eyes,
there’s nothing there to evaluate, nothing to understand, nothing to judge.
There’s only a creative movie for us to be engrossed in,
an inventive dream for us to be captivated by
and a make-believe fairy-tale for us to enjoy—
all of them as dynamic entertainment.
Again, in this absence of morally evaluating our human dream,
we’re left with an inner state of awe, wonder and mystery.
There you have it:
Five unique lenses through which to perceive life!
Five states of consciousness in which to be amazed!
Five styles of experiencing creation to be embraced!
Five specialized ways of experiencing the enticing story of creation!
And all of them at your and my human fingertips!
All available to us! All at our beckoned call!
Now, imagine what life (creation, you, me, everything) might look like
If and when we look through these five lenses at the same time.
Simultaneously. Five lenses unified in a single vision.
That’s when our human creation starts to look more-and-more magical
and we experience ourselves, our lives and everything else
with a surprisingly well-deserved sense of wonder.
I welcome you to this wondrous adventure
into the different-looking worlds that lie beyond judgment.
(In the ensuing blog post, the one that will shortly follow this writing,
I’ll offer you a suggested personal practice—
a semi-tangible way to implement this 5-fold approach in your life.
Please feel free to check it out).