P52 "We find that we have to let go of criticism "attack" thoughts, critical thoughts, and judgemental thoughts. We have to let go of putting ourselves in the position of being right and making other people wrong because the level of "Right and Wrong" is at the energy level of about 180, which is that of negative thought forms. In other words, it has a deleterious effect of our health and life energy. If we are willing to let go of our illness, then we have to be willing to let go of the attitude that brought about the illness because disease in an expression of one's attitude and habitual way of looking at things." A little later he says this, " To put oneself in the energy field of 540 is to automatically heal oneself. A loving thought then heals, and a negative thought creates illness. Choosing to become a loving person results in the release of endorphins by the brain, which has a profound effect on the body's health and happiness."
Dr. Hawkins goes on for a few more pages, but that is the gist of it. The numbers above (180 & 540) come from a calibrated Scale of Consciousness that he has determined and is outlined in his first book "Power Vs Force". It is well worth the read and the Scale of Consciousness really explains a lot about human society and it basically describes how you see the world based on where you fall on the scale.
Monitoring your thoughts and catching the judgemental ones, I find to be really really difficult. Besides fighting human fear impulses, fighting the need to judge is probably the most difficult thing to overcome. We judge everything. It probably was a very useful evolutionary tool to keep us out of harms way. The ability to judge a situation might have kept us from getting eaten by a mammoth but it seems that the human mind is rampant with it today, especially when it is applied to how we see others. I catch myself all the time in judgemental thoughts that usually just appear and only later can I forgive them and myself and let them go, after I recognize that I was actually judging. Sometimes it's just subconscious because we are so used to doing it.
There is a great book called "My Stroke of Insight : A Brain Scientists Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor. She was a Harvard trained Neuroscientist that had a stroke one day and recorded her entire journey and reflected back on her ordeal to explain what she learned about herself. One of her discoveries was that before her stroke she was very judgemental and critical and left brained. The stroke basically wiped her brain clean of its old patterns and she had to go through rigorous therapy over a period of eight years. What she discovered was that she had the unique opportunity to re-set her brain, to think differently and see the world differently. She talks about being responsible for the things we think because it sets neural pathways over time that become ingrained in our physiology. She says it's very important that we be responsible for our thoughts, maintain awareness, and take action to stop negative patterns. We are what we eat, why aren't we also what we think?
Lastly, it is important not to be judgemental of others but also not to be judgemental of ourselves. Edgar Cayce, the great seer, said that it is important not to condemn self and that it was just as harmful and deleterious to think negatively of yourself as it was to think so of others. Constantly having negative thoughts towards ones self I would imagine produce even more dramatic and faster negative physical symptoms than having them about others.
Could this be the answer:
My favorite part about the Course In Miracles is that it harps away at Forgiveness. It basically says forgiveness is the answer to most of the problems that we encounter and that the world is starving for forgiveness. If you can learn to forgive others for ignorance and also forgive yourself then you can cancel out many errors in judgement. If you do it enough, and practice it like a meditation or a mantra for your life it really becomes a new vision of the world, a much more kinder gentler vision. ACIM basically says forgiveness is a miracle. P4 Miracle principle #21 says, " Miracles are natural signs of forgiveness. Through miracles, you accept God's forgiveness by extending it to others".
ACIM goes on to say on P47, " You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgement. When you recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in any way is without meaning. In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging them. You do not need judgement to organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize yourself. In the presence of knowledge all judgement is automatically suspended, and this is the process that enables recognition to replace perception."
A new vision:
In the Gospel of Thomas, the disciples asked Jesus , "When will the kingdom come?" He replies,
"It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it.
Heaven on Earth is already here but people do not see it. Do they choose not to see it that way? To me this quote is about seeing the world a different way. Not looking to some future tense for a promised Heaven in the sky but seeing one in this very moment by looking at the world with new eyes and a kinder heart, forgiving yourself and others.
