Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!
Carlos Castaneda opened the weeklong workshop series known as the Westwood Series, at UCLA in 1996, with the instruction, SUSPEND JUDGEMENT. He intended to introduce us to some core sorcery knowledge, but knew that the dominance of our minds needed to first soften to allow it in. His method to achieve this was to have us learn and perform sorcery movements called MAGICAL PASSES, which enabled us to gather the energy needed to receive his knowledge. Judgement, he contended, was the guardian of our worldview, however limiting or illusory. In order to see and experience more we must first suspend judgement.
Jeanne has suggested, many times, that we be careful to never be harsh with the self. Harshness is the action of a judgement, which views the self, in some way, as a failure. She suggests that we view, instead, all our decisions and actions as necessary and as part of our path of gaining knowledge. Rather than berate the self for the repetition of an ancient “negative” behavior, ask the self what it means. Why have I journeyed here again? What is it that I need to learn? Am I ready to retire these actions or thoughts, or must I remain a while longer? This line of questioning is gentle and objective; it allows the self to be fluid. It allows the self to discover its secrets. It allows the self to gather in old energy, tucked away in old experiences, waiting to be liberated and returned to the self to allow for a new direction.
When we look outward into the world, our judgements categorize every one and every thing. These categories generate clarity and determine how we navigate. The value of such an interpretation system cannot be overestimated, as it generates a cohesive world for us to solidly live and die in. However, our judgements are hardly objective. Much of what we “see” is, in fact, the projection of archetypal determinants, or reflections of our own psychic economy. If I haven’t discovered the depth of my own shadow, I am surely subject to dark paranoid projections upon the people of the world around me. How can I ever discover the true nature of the world if I remain encased in my own subjective bubble? Suspending judgement outwardly requires the same curiosity as the inward view. Why do I feel this way toward him/her? What happens if I suspend the automatic categorization; if I continue to observe; if I allow myself further investigation? Perhaps I will discover something very different than I initially assumed.
Buddha’s emphasis on compassion can be helpful here. Compassion erases the category of otherness. True compassion requires the ability to own the fullness of the self, no discarded parts projected outwardly. Removing the veil of separateness in our experience of the world opens the door to deeper exploration and connection. We may choose not to go deeper with another, but we can do it from a place of energetic objectivity, i.e.: this relationship doesn’t serve my energetic evolution or, I no longer need this energetic encounter because I have discovered all I need to learn. This kind of decision making is a far cry from any judgement of superiority or difference, which subjectively keeps us entrenched in the veil of our illusion of who we really are.
Learning to suspend judgement is, by far, the most powerful tool to pry apart the old veils, advancing us into deeper truth, and worlds beyond the known.
As always, I am open to discussion or comment. Should anyone wish to write, I can be reached via email at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com
Until we meet again,
Chuck