We seem to be programmed to judge others. It’s as if we can’t help it. But there is a reason for this. Judgement comes from projection upon which the whole of the ego’s belief system is based. Because we believe we have actually separated from heaven, we have a great deal of guilt and we also fear the retaliation of God. So the ego projects all negative and unwanted thoughts out onto others because this amount of guilt and fear would be too much to bear. And then, when we come across those who are acting out these negative beliefs, we judge them. We can’t help it! The negativity originated in our own minds but because we couldn’t handle it we sent it out into the world, which reflects it back to us in the form of the people, places and things that we encounter in our daily lives. The universe is a mirror; it mirrors back to us our state of mind.

As we read in Chapter 13 of the Text of A Course in Miracles, “Projection makes perception, and you cannot see beyond it. Again and again have you attacked your brother, because you saw in him a shadow figure in your private world.” T248 And in Chapter 21, Jesus says: “The world you see is what you gave it. Nothing more than that…It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition.” T445

To overcome the problem we have with judgement, we need help from outside the ego’s thought system. We really can’t do it on our own. Jesus asks us to hand over any fear that we notice in our minds to the Holy Spirit so that He can help us transform our false perceptions and heal our minds. “Do not leave any spot of pain hidden from His light, and search your mind carefully for any thoughts you may fear to uncover. For He will heal every little thought you have kept to hurt you and cleanse it of its littleness, restoring it to the magnitude of God.” T243.

When we are able to stop judging others and to forgive them, we are, at the same time, forgiving ourselves for the apparent separation from God, because other people and other situations are simply reflecting back to us what is in our own minds. When all our forgiveness lessons are complete, we will most probably have a feeling of joy and lightness; no longer will we be carrying around in our subconscious minds that heavy burden of fear and guilt.