“Our level of awareness is directly related to our lack of judging.” I have written before about foundation principles from my coaching program. This is one of them. When I first read it, I had to stop and read it again and then ponder its meaning. For me, it did not easily reveal itself.
There are three key words in this statement, levels, awareness, and judging. Each requires some scrutiny to ferret out the full import of the statement. First, levels denote that they can be higher or lower, like different water levels in a lake or a river. Further checking on meanings of the term ‘level’, the Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/level, offers that level means “a particular position, degree, or amount of something, esp. compared with other possible positions, degrees or amounts.” This is useful, because the principle implies that having a higher level (or higher degree) of awareness is a good thing.
Okay, but what are levels of awareness? Continuing in the spirit of research, the definition I found from Google, https://www.google.com/search?q=meaning+of+awareness&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS792US792&oq=meaning+of+Awareness&aqs=chrome.0.0l6.30769j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
noted “knowledge or perception of a situation or fact’ and these synonyms, “consciousness, recognition, realization, cognizance, perception…”
I grasped the meaning of this word in the context of the foundation principle when I thought of a conversation I recently participated in. We were talking about whether to include another group in an upcoming meeting. The particular group in question had just disbanded. My colleague wondered why we would extend an invitation to that group because they had made a decision to dissolve. I pointed out that not everyone in the group had been happy with the decision, and that the group had contributed a lot in the past. What did we have to lose? Yes, this is a subtle difference, one person sees ‘them’ in a particular context, I see various people in a different context. But, I argue, the resulting decision about what to do could have far reaching consequences for everyone. So, according to the principle, it’s important to be or become aware of your level of consciousness.
So far, the principle seems to be saying that having more awareness or a fuller consciousness, is good because you are less judgmental, or judging less. Here is the heart of the foundation principle. Again, I looked for a helpful definition of judging. This is what I found, thanks to Google again, https://www.google.com/search?q=meaning+of+judging&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS792US792&oq=meaning+of+Judging&aqs=chrome.0.0l6.25424j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
“form an opinion or conclusion about…synonyms: form the opinion, come to the conclusion, conclude, decide, determine.” And there is nothing there about the correctness of the judging!
At this point, my musings lead me to this conclusion. The degree of one’s tendency to judge oneself, others, or a situation, is directly related to one’s acceptance of oneself, others, or an event. It’s related to ‘walk a mile in my shoes before you judge me.’ Or, realizing that our similarities across cultures, nations, ethnicities, and religious faiths, is vast compared to any particular differences. This understanding can only be achieved when one is self-accepting and working to be aware of the humanity of others.