Identity and Judgement- By William Samuel

Excerpt From A Guide To Awareness And Tranquillity
By William Samuel
WE DO NOT DENY THE APPARENT
It is a waste of time to deny the testimony of the senses, to proclaim the unreality of "the seeing of the eye and the hearing of the ear," as many metaphysical schools would have us do. We do not deny, "let go," or proclaim the unreality of the seen. Listen carefully: We let go the one who claims to be the personal "me" who is supposed to be doing the seeing! We let go identification with the one presumptuous enough to say "Awareness is mine" and who desires to have "my" vision include what "I" judge to be "good." No, we do not deny the testimony of the senses; we deny the possessor's evaluation and judgment of the testimony!
We continue to see children, trees, flowers and everything that goes with being aware, but it is Deific Awareness doing the "seeing"-unpossessed, uncontaminated and free.We are this Awareness itself; this Awareness is our Identity. Identity is not the physical body or the human ego that Awareness is supposed to be in!
Recently, I had a conversation along these lines with a well-known philosopher. In the middle of our talk, the doctor realized that even though Awareness beholds, it has no need of making judgments. "Awareness doesn't decide if things are good or evil," he said with new-found awe. "Awareness just beholds! It is the old ego-me who is constantly making judgments."
A bit later, the doctor ran outside into a driving rainstorm to get something from his automobile. When he returned, he observed that he was aware of rain but, as Awareness itself, he certainly didn't have to decide whether it was good rain or bad rain. "Making no such judgment," he said, "I wasn't burdened with having to like or dislike the rain, or what appeared to be its effects. This is a new freedom for me-a new experience."
There is no question about it. This is a new freedom. It is a new joy to be unencumbered and unaffected by the objects of perception. This is the undeniable (and effortless) ability to be "in the world but not of it." Here is the ability to be the power of Tranquility, even when everything in the world appears to be in terrible turmoil. Reader, I tell you this is the ability to experience Peace, not just to theorize about it and wonder about it and talk about it!
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Dear Nancy,
Just as quickly as we stop acting the judge the pronouncer of "I like this and dislike that"-and start acting as the uncomplicated and unjudging Awareness of Reality that we already are, there will be no more argument with the seen; there will be no more contention with things.
If what is seen is beheld as neither good nor bad, we will not attempt to change it from one category to another. Then, you will find yourself with nothing to argue about. Furthermore, when you understand that your "activity" is simply to be aware, to behold without judgment, you will find yourself free of all desire to experience fulfillment!
I assure you, when you stop contending with things (and contention always stems from your own like-dislike evaluation of them), immediately everything begins to be seen as the Perfection and Beauty it is already, despite whatever appearing it may have to you during the passion of your intellectual evaluations, your likes and dislikes.
Why is this so? (1) Because Reality (Wisdom, Beauty, Deity, Isness) is being all there is to images, if there is anything to them at all; (2) because Reality is being the Awareness that perceives them; and, finally, (3) because this same Reality is the real interpreter of the perception. If it could be that Reality is not being images, then they are not real. If they are not real, they need not be feared!
A very practical Truth lies hidden within these faltering words. Open your Heart and discover it, Nancy. Who can do this for you? Truth is not outside your own Being.I cannot convince you of the Truth that is here; you can only test it out and be convinced yourself.
Sincerely,
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Dear Nancy,
The great judge, caught up in the agony of his own evaluations would like to be free of the "bad"; yet, how mightily he desires to hang onto the "good"! More than that, he wants to change bad appearances into good appearances and spends every moment trying to do it. Now, various metaphysical philosophies would have us reverse our judgments to see a specific error as the suppositious opposite of Truth; and they would have us call "bad" "good" or be wary lest "good" become reversed.
This is an "improvement" of sorts because the re-evaluation of a "don't like" into a "like" appears to create its opposite, manifest as a "demonstration"; but what is all of this but more monkeying around with duality? The Reality being the entire universe has nothing to do with either end of a judgment, good or bad, and it is infinitely "more than" the personal evaluator's highest concept of "good."
Let us stop liking or disliking the sights, sounds and feelings of Awareness. Reality is being the Awareness that includes every sight, sound and feeling. Reality is not divisible into a good or bad sound, liked or disliked sight, sick or well feeling; therefore, it is pure foolishness to attempt to divide the Indivisible in such a manner. This is to judge the unjudgeable. Human activity is just so engaged, and for this reason has often been called a dream. We stop dreaming when we stop placing our own evaluations on everything and when we stop acting as if the world's evaluations were correct.
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The single Awareness of Immaculate Oneness is not divisible into a good and bad, perfect and imperfect, real and unreal; however, mankind acts as though a division were possible and spends all its time classifying every object of perception-good, bad, valuable, invaluable, enlightened, unenlightened, and particularly, "I like" and "I don't like." This is the very purpose of the supposed ego-intellect.
Is it any wonder that intellectual humanity appears to be stumbling from ditch to ditch, war to war, agony to agony?
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The misidentification to come out and be separate from is the one we work at being when we say "I like this and dislike that," therefore, "I desire this and must get rid of that."
Reader, this is the practice that has fathered the age-old enigma called dualism. One wrestles with twoness just so long as he plays the role of judge. The judge stands self-judged, buffeted by every word he utters and every move he makes. The old-man-judge is like one caught up in a dream of dreaming, like one trapped in quicksand where every effort is self-defeating.
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