Judgement
“Judgment is how ego fastens its stories into something that feels solid.”
Judgment is the ego’s favorite tool for defending its tunnels. By labeling reality as good/bad, right/wrong, worthy/unworthy, ego makes its story feel solid.
Judgment narrows perception, locks attention, and fuels conviction. Every label reinforces the tunnel walls.
Psychological Level: Sticky Labels
At this level, judgment shows up as quick labels:
“I’m lazy.”
“She’s selfish.”
“That’s unfair.”
The labels feel true, but they are shortcuts — mental stamps that oversimplify complex reality. Once applied, they stick. The mind keeps re-reading the label instead of seeing the living moment.
Judgment is seductive because it offers certainty. But it costs clarity: the world shrinks into rigid categories.
Debugging here means loosening the label: “Is this an absolute truth, or just a temporary description?”
Systemic Level: Fuel for Loops
At the systemic level, judgment powers feedback loops.
If you judge yourself as “a failure,” attention hunts for proof, conviction amplifies it, and the loop repeats.
If you judge others as “untrustworthy,” you behave defensively, invite suspicion, and the loop confirms itself.
Judgment strengthens the loop by filtering out whatever doesn’t fit the story.
Debugging here means catching the judgment as it arises and questioning its validity.
Nondual Level: The Split That Wasn’t Real
At the deepest level, judgment creates duality: this vs. that, me vs. you, good vs. bad.
Without judgment, reality is seamless. Judgment slices it up and pretends the divisions are real. From this perspective, all judgments are illusions — appearances carved into categories by thought.
Debugging here means recognizing that no label touches what is. Reality is not inherently “good” or “bad.” It simply is.
Debugging Judgment
At the psychological level, soften rigid self- and other-labels.
At the systemic level, catch how judgment fuels loops.
At the nondual level, rest in the openness before categories.
Judgment feels like clarity, but it is actually confusion — mistaking a label for the truth. The moment you notice the judgment as judgment, it begins to lose its grip.