I wish very quickly to describe the ways in which we are going to be using some terminology for when it comes up.

Discernment and judgment are interrelated ideas that need to be teased out. I define discernment as the process of recognizing when some object, event, person, or opportunity is good for you. It’s knowing what you want when you see it. Judgment, on the other hand, is a process of extending that discernment out into the world around you.

When I have a teacher who approaches their teaching in a way that I don’t enjoy, I actively practice recognizing that as being about what’s in my integrity; I use discernment to know that I don’t want to do whatever it is that’s bothered me. The reflexive habit of judgment tries to say that what the teacher is doing is wrong, and uses my lack of enjoyment as evidence for why they shouldn’t be doing it.

In short discernment equates with “do not want,” and judgment with “must not be.”

Being able to tease those processes apart makes it easier for me to decide which one I really want to be doing (practicing discernment), and do that. As judgment falls away, I feel softer, easier, and happier.