What Is Judgement vs. Discernment?

Previously, we have learned about the ancient I Ching system that describes various states of “beingness” that we can experience as incarnate humans. So far we have looked at the theme of service and various fear patterns as well as siddhic states. But people on the spiritual path are often told to “integrate” things by not judging them. What does that mean? How do we unravel judgement? What is judgement vs. discernment?

The I Ching system has 64 different hexagrams or gates that represent core archetypes or different states of beingness, i.e. thoughts, feelings, behaviors and actions. Each gate is associated with a ladder of frequencies that range from the lowest to the highest frequency states seen in humanity. Richard Rudd (“Gene Keys”) explained it like this:

Most people operate from their shadow level, which includes ego-based behaviors that arise from the low frequency states of fear (underexpression) or anger (overexpression). When we’re in ego, we either shut down or lash out depending on the circumstances.
But the shadow is just a stage in our evolution, something to be transcended, so that we can express the gift level representing our genius and the talents we are to bring to the world.
The divine gift (siddhi) level is the highest state not commonly seen in the current version of humans. It is found in higher frequency entities, such as masters or enlightened beings and in our future selves.

There are two gates that specifically relate to Discernment (Gate 13, Gate of the Listener, The Story Keeper, Fellowship with Mankind) and Judgement (Gate 18, Gate of Correction, Finding Remedy, Working on What Has Been Spoilt). Their three frequency levels are summarized in the Table below, based on the work of Rudd and others:

“Embrace the Shadow, Release the Gift, Embody the Siddhi.” – Richard Rudd

For example, Gate 13 goes from the lower frequency state of Discord (naivety or bigotry) to the gift of Discernment, which means listening to others with your heart, not your mind.

As Wendy Kennedy put it, it means getting out of the operating system of the mind (judgement) back to the heart center (discernment), where you can access more expanded wisdom to recognize the frequencies in your field. There is just an observation of the energy.

Once you recognize a frequency, you can choose to explore it further or choose another frequency that you prefer. You are not trying to make yourself separate from any other frequency. You go to a neutral stance, where everything has equal value.
The whole point of incarnation is to experience duality (yin/yang) in different degrees without judgement. We can see it in a neutral way, just like a battery with positive and negative ends. Both ends are needed for energy to move around.
By the way, Gate 13 attracts others to share anything and everything, including their secrets with you, knowing that you will be their witness and hearer and keeper of secrets.
At the divine gift level, Gate 13 is the gate of Empathy, which leads with love and seeks the best in everyone and everything everywhere. This is a higher level of awareness of other living beings that sees the truth behind all words, which are held as memory in a cosmic library.

In contrast, Gate 18 in its lower frequency state is about Judgement, which is assigning value to something (e.g. good/bad, right/wrong, etc.). That creates a polarized perspective. The values are based on deep conditioning from our parents, who were conditioned by their parents.

This multigenerational pattern is based on an underlying fear of authority (e.g. parent, teacher, boss, priest, police officer, judge, punitive God). There is a certain standard that is applied to everything: work, lovers, self and reality.
But when you judge, you’re in your head and the focus of judgement is on dissatisfaction and the need to correct and remedy the corrupted state in yourself and others (perfectionism).
In its higher expression, Gate 18 goes beyond conditioning into the gift of Integrity or wholeness. It can re-evaluate systems, practices and interactions to see if they are wholesome and healthy (or not). At this level, there is the intuition to improve things or make them “more perfect” by having a bigger perspective.
At the divine gift level, Gate 18 is the gate of Perfecting, which is seen in saints, bodhisattvas or illumined masters that operate at higher frequencies than most of us.

Note that even our Source and Origin have to remedy some of their “mistakes” that could be viewed as “happy accidents” or different lines of discovery in their creations (see Why Is This Multiverse Cycle Different? – Big Picture Questions.com). We’re no different, so give yourself a break!

How do we unravel judgement?

Matt Kahn (“Everything Is Here To Help You”) said if everything is here to help you, then even judgment must contain some degree of usefulness. What if we thought of judgment as another form of intuition?

His intuition is right on. Gate 18 (Judgement, Integrity, Perfection) is a hexagram, where the bottom trigram comes from Gate 57 (Unease, Intuition, Clarity) and the top one comes from Gate 52 (Stress, Perspective, Restraint, Stillness). There is an intuitive perspective with clarity and stillness (instead of unease, pressure or stress) in this gate.
He explained that your soul has discernment with ethical values, which is noticing the difference between what resonates with you vs. another person. But when we’re around people whose words, choices or actions are different than yours and we blame or lash out against them, that’s judgement.

The minute you judge, that’s the minute you go to sleep. What I want is for us all to be much smarter than this, because love is smarter than anything. Love is the most masterful consciousness in existence. – Matt Kahn

He expanded his ideas in a recent YouTube video, entitled “Unraveling Judgment.” He went on to describe the five steps to unraveling judgement that I have summarized below:

Nothing is stupid. When people are taking a break from evolution, they say that’s stupid. Don’t let stupid things outsmart you. We have to be smarter than ignorance. The dumbest things you see are the greatest things you can learn from. You can disagree with anyone or anything, but nothing can be stupid, because everything can be used to help awaken us in consciousness.
Everything helps everything whether you know it or not. Often you’re not seeing the big picture, because you’re too close to it. That means every character in your life is putting you further on your path, not taking away from your path. Everything is helping you evolve and grow in whatever ways needed.
If it could have happened any other way, it would have. When we ask why did I have to go through that [$#!|] in life? There are parallel dimensions, yet in every moment there’s only one way it’s meant to happen to you. Why? Because that’s the way it happened. Your imagination may see 15 different parallels to your timeline, and when you don’t experience the most favorable timeline, then you keep blaming yourself. The universe knows exactly what you need to become your highest potential, to become who you can’t even imagine becoming.
What weakness is this outcome helping me strengthen? Everything you attract is to strengthen a weakness. That means despite what you will call in, put on a vision board, obsessively stare at every day, despite that, you’re only going to attract whatever outcomes are assisting you to strengthen whatever weakness needs to be ironed out. Life is about taking things you don’t do well, strengthening them, so you come out of life with attributes that have been matured to full capacity.
Thank you for making me a better version of myself. Life could never work the way most people were spiritually taught how it works. It’s too simplified, cause and effect, A+B=C. People try to speed through the spiritual journey, so they don’t have to come back here. The universe is watching. You can’t outsmart the system. Besides you are the universe, so you’re trying to outsmart yourself, but you’re listening, so that doesn’t work! Waking up is funny. We can laugh our way to enlightenment. 😉

Final Thoughts

I hope this piece helps you have a better understanding of judgement vs. discernment, where they come from and how they contribute to our evolution. As Matt Kahn wrote (“Everything Is Here To Help You”):

Instead of judging each thought as if we came up with it, why not be open to the possibility that each limiting idea, belief, or thought is a layer of the collective unconscious that we are healing for the well-being of all?

He said if we feel that energy, we can feel the mind emptying out and the pressure of judgement lifting out. In the book, he talks about the old spiritual paradigm, where we blame the experiencer for everything! Why did I attract this? That’s the ego’s version of Law of Attraction. That’s what we are waking up from. He said:

When we wake up out of blaming the experiencer, when it’s not your chakras problem, your DNA problem, ego’s problem, ancestors’ problem, these are things we heal, but we don’t blame anything!

He said we’re breaking cycles of atrocity and abuse on this planet right now and we have to be smarter than a few little people with ridiculous minds that try to distract us. When we see an atrocious headline, send a blessing for humanity to anchor that energy, again and again, so the things we want to create can stick.

As people take a vacation from judgements, social progress can happen without needing judgements to remind us of the ethical reality we deserve to live in. – Matt Kahn