Hello, friends. The world seems like a very intense and somewhat crazy environment at the moment, doesn’t it? The old paradigms you knew for so long and that served you well are falling apart. This is a good thing, you know. Your first reaction may be, “How can this be a good thing? People seem to have lost all decorum and respect for one another. Racism is emerging again with a newfound confidence. The world economic system seems to be teetering on the edge. Violence against innocent people appears to be on the rise. Natural disasters are happening with greater frequency. And displaced people are seeking refuge all over the world. How is any of this a good thing?”

First, we invite you to just relax. Take a deep breath and feel your body around you. Feel into your hands and feet and feel your feet grounded to Gaia (earth). Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Feel yourself in a neutral space–a space of non-judgement.

Do you know what it means to be in a space of non-judgment? For many, you think it means you don’t judge others to be lesser than you. Or looked at another way, it means you are accepting of everyone and all that they have to offer. You allow them to be who they are. Many of you pride yourself on your ability to be open minded and accepting of other people’s faiths, sexual orientations and lifestyle choices. You wear it almost as a badge of honor. And, indeed, your open-mindedness and acceptance are a good thing. But do you see how they can also place you in space of judgment?

Are You This or Are You That?

You see, friends, anytime you define yourself as one thing—when you say, “I am this”—you are also saying, “I am not that.” And “not that” is judgment. So, for example, you may say “I am someone who honors everybody’s sexual orientation and gender identification.” You know that this open-minded acceptance of others is a desirable thing because it creates more benevolence in the world. It makes those who’s orientations are outside the dominant paradigm feel more at ease. And in that regard, it is a higher-vibration way of thinking and being.

But the question is whether you hold that same attitude toward those who are vocally opposed to inter-racial or same sex relationships, transgender people, or welcoming refugees. Are you accepting of the person who opposes those things? Do you honor their point of view and show them the same love and respect? Again, relax and breathe. We don’t often say that when we give these messages, but we know that this one is going to push many people’s buttons, and it may be difficult to accept. So, we ask you to just relax and try to be in a neutral space with it if you feel yourself getting fired up.

Now, let’s deconstruct what is going on here for those who find this challenging. Let’s go back to the beginning. Everyone is raised with biases of one form or another. As we have often discussed, your biases stem from the beliefs you were given by those people of authority in your life as you were growing up—parents, teachers, siblings and peers. But as you gained more life experience, you started to question what you were told by others. Things you previously knew to be true gradually started to seem less so. It’s as though you were given a suit of clothes that fit you for a while, but then you grew out of them. What was once quite comfortable started to feel constraining, and so you went looking for a new outfit that fit you better.

You may have grown up with one set of beliefs about race relations, gender equality, or political orientation. Those beliefs may have seemed like absolute truth for years. And then through experiences you consciously chose, as well as through experiences that seemed to be thrust upon you, those truths no longer seemed true. So, you went seeking other truths, trying to get at the TRUE truths. Humans are oriented that way, you know. You all want to find the core TRUTH – that which is irrefutable. And then when you come upon and adopt a set of beliefs that is more open, accepting, forgiving, and compassionate toward entire groups of people, you think you have found TRUTH. In fact, you know you have found it because it feels right. Benevolent and loving attitudes toward others just feel so much better because they are inherently of a higher vibration than attitudes of exclusion. It all makes sense.

But these new, better-fitting attitudes and beliefs can be a double-edged sword that also hold you back. How so? Because they can also keep you in a place of judgment that is so comfortable and self-satisfying that you never move beyond it. The people you now judge are all those who still wear the ill-fitting clothes of open judgment—even hatred—of the ones you have come to accept. Do you see the bitter irony here? You are so convinced that you have found a more enlightened attitude—and you have—but you remain in judgment of all those who have not yet reached that space.

The Comfort of Familiarity

Let’s make this very practical. Two friends grow up together from an early age. They are raised in similar households, with similar beliefs, in a small rural town. Both families have guns in the house, which are seen as a practical and necessary form of protection and are also used to hunt game. Both go to the same church. There they are taught, among other things, that same sex marriage is offensive to God. And most of the people in the town are of a single race. On the rare occasions when a member of another race comes to town, they get a lot of sideways glances. The people of the town are hard-working and rugged, and it’s generally acceptable to settle their differences with heated words and the occasional fist fight. The strongest one is the “right” one.

In the minds of these two friends and their families, this is just how the world works. And neither one of them questions what they know because everyone around them believes the same. They are comfortable with each other and their surroundings. It all seems to make sense. They love each other as two best friends do, and they love their families and their neighbors.

The two friends grow up, and eventually they move away to different cities to go to college or find work. By this time, one of them has a nagging feeling that there is much more to life than what he already knows, and he is excited to explore what that might be. So, when he arrives in his new location, he gradually begins to seek new experiences with people who simply didn’t exist in the town he left behind. He attends a different church, where he is exposed to different ideas about what matters to God. He finds himself introduced to people of other races that he didn’t know before and discovers how much they have in common, while also excitedly learning about what makes them different. He is curious about what others believe, and some of those beliefs he adopts as his own because they just seem like a better fit.

One day he witnesses an act of gun violence very close to home and thinks to himself, “I could have just as easily been the victim there.” As a result, he starts to get involved in activist causes intended to keep guns out of the hands of people who would hurt others. In just a couple of years, his attitudes and beliefs have changed greatly, expanding further away from fear and more towards love and compassion. This new place of openness, tolerance, and respect for others feels very good, and he knows in his own heart that he has reached a higher Truth.

The other friend also goes to a big city, but he finds it more scary than exciting. Everyone seems so different. There are many beliefs, behaviors, ethnicities, and lifestyles around him that are so different from what he was taught is true. It’s unsettling to him, so he chooses to find people and experiences that are comfortable and familiar. He finds a church just like the one he grew up in. He makes friends with people who think the way he was taught to think—with the same biases he was given. And, of course, he keeps a gun in his house for protection because he believes there are so many greater threats here than he even knew at home. Sticking to what is familiar is not only comforting, it’s important for his very survival. Or so he thinks. It’s how he keeps the fearful things from feeling overwhelming.

God Does Not Judge

The two friends eventually go back home for a visit at the same time and reconnect. They share many fond memories of times spent together growing up. They also compare notes about what they’ve experienced since parting ways, and they both see how different they now are. The one who has chosen to go outside the box he once knew now sees his old friend as narrow-minded and fearful—perhaps even bigoted. The one who has chosen the familiar path worries that his friend has been “brainwashed” by all the “crazies” they were warned about growing up. Both believe they are correct.

So, which one is correct? In Truth, they both are. The reason for that, as we have said many times, is that every single human has free will to choose their life as they see fit, and God does not judge any of you one way or the other for it. God, you see, is incapable of judgment. Despite all the rhetoric in your religious traditions about God condemning humans for their actions, about some things being offensive to God, and about the ever-looming threat of the Judgement Day,  it is simply not true. GOD DOES NOT JUDGE. Period.

That does not mean, though, that there are not some choices that are more in alignment with the Nature of God than others. As we have said, those attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs that vibrate closer to the frequency of the Divine Love of God are necessarily closer to God. The person who chooses their thoughts and actions from a place of love is living more in alignment with the Nature of God than the one who thinks and acts from a place of fear.

But here is where so many humans become self-limiting: You discover how much better it feels to live in love instead of fear, compassion instead of anger, and tolerance instead of disrespect, that you then end up judging all those who do not share your point of view. The one who harbors fear and bigotry becomes somebody you look down upon, and perhaps somebody you lash out against. You may even see them as “the enemy”. The friend who came to reject gun ownership may shout angrily at the ones who march in the streets for their right to own a gun. Both sides are now thinking, “How stupid they are! How wrong they are! How dangerous they are!”

Friends, do you honestly think God ever has such thoughts? Does God ever think, “That one knows what I want, but that one is so stupid!” Does that make any sense at all if it comes from an all-loving God?

You see, when you become more enlightened in your beliefs, you can easily make a new prison of that enlightenment. You now find yourself honoring and loving people that previously you feared and avoided. And that is a good thing. But if you then find yourself feeling anything less than that same love for people who still live in the bias of belief you once knew, you are simply flip-flopping who you decide to love and who you decide to judge.

In our example, the two friends loved each other growing up, and they loved their families, friends and neighbors even as they feared those who were different. If one of them decides to love those he used to fear, but he then feels anything less than the same love for the people he was raised with and those who think like them, is he any more enlightened? Not really. He is only trading love for judgment. In so doing, he continues to lower his own vibration. He keeps himself from experiencing an even deeper connection with his Divine Nature.

Do you see how this becomes a trap of your own making? You learn that it feels good to be tolerant and loving and less fearful. Learning equals growth, so you know you have grown, and that feels very satisfying. You can look back and say, “I once was that, but now I am this.” But that growth becomes enough for you. You think you have figured it out. But have you?

The way to find out is to make a list of all those people and groups you fear, resent, or outright hate. Go ahead make that list and see how long it is. Be very honest with yourself. Think about people on the world stage or in your own neighborhood who are expressing beliefs and behaviors different from yours. Does your heart start to beat faster as you think about the things they say and do? Do you clench your fists or your jaw? Does your breath shorten? Do you find yourself having to shift in your chair or exhale hard? Do derogatory words come to mind?

We encourage you to do this practice. Make your list over a few days and see how long it gets. The longer the list, the further you are from a highly enlightened state than you think.

Love Unconditionally, Love Equally

You see, friends, becoming enlightened is not just about trading one set of beliefs for another, no matter how good those new beliefs feel or how much closer to love they are. It is about choosing attitudes, beliefs, and actions that vibrate at the frequency of Divine Love and then applying them equally to ALL people, no matter what choices those people are making. Even if they are making the most unenlightened choices you can think of, if you stand in judgment of them, you are choosing to keep yourself at a lower vibration, and thus you are choosing to keep separateness in your world. You are, in fact, contributing to the divisiveness.

This will be hard for many to hear and even harder to accept. But it is True. Your task is not to become more accepting of one group while judging another that seems to have a less enlightened agenda. Your task is to love them all EQUALLY, regardless of how they show up in the world. That is how you change the world. You have heard it so many times in your popular culture that the power of love changes the world, and it is absolutely true. So, who are you not in love with? Make that list and start practicing unconditional love for them, even as they continue to speak and act in ways that are offensive to you. Loving them does not mean agreeing with them. It also does not mean allowing them to continue hurting others. Be active in creating the world you want by standing up to ignorance. Shine a light on the darkness that is still so prevalent on this planet. But know that the brightest light is the light of unconditional love, and it is the brightest light that chases away the most darkness.

It’s really that simple, friends. Love unconditionally those you would judge for whatever reason. This is why you are here. Everything else is just the stage, the scenery, and the props that create the scenarios in which you practice. How long the darkness exists in the world is in the hands of you and everyone else on the planet through your moment-by-moment choices. Choose love always and with everyone. Stop complaining about this person or that group. Take whatever action you see fit, but only from a place of love and never from a place of anger, resentment, or frustration. We would go so far as to say that if you feel these lower vibration feelings in your heart, it is best to be still and do nothing until you can act from love.

This is the advanced course, friends. As such, it may feel counter-intuitive. But recall that there was a time when the one friend was comfortable and secure in his judgments of others, only to evolve to a place of greater tolerance and respect. You can never stop advancing in your understanding of how big God is and how big you are unless you choose to. Don’t make the mistake of confusing growth and a new level of understanding with having arrived. Keep pushing yourself to love more and more and more all of those who really push your buttons. That’s the fast-track you all want to be on. So, get on that path and start running!

 

 

Image credits: David Mark