VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem

T-3.VI.1. We have already discussed the Last Judgment, but in insufficient detail. ² After the Last Judgment there will be no more. ³ Judgment is symbolic because beyond perception there is no judgment. ⁴ When the Bible says "Judge not that ye be not judged," it means that if you judge the reality of others you will be unable to avoid judging your own.

T-3.VI.2. The choice to judge rather than to know is the cause of the loss of peace. ² Judgment is the process on which perception but not knowledge rests. ³ I have discussed this before in terms of the selectivity of perception, pointing out that evaluation is its obvious prerequisite. ⁴ Judgment always involves rejection. ⁵ It never emphasizes only the positive aspects of what is judged, whether in you or in others. ⁶ What has been perceived and rejected, or judged and found wanting, remains in your mind because it has been perceived. ⁷ One of the illusions from which you suffer is the belief that what you judged against has no effect. ⁸ This cannot be true unless you also believe that what you judged against does not exist. ⁹ You evidently do not believe this, or you would not have judged against it. ¹⁰ In the end it does not matter whether your judgment is right or wrong. ¹¹ Either way you are placing your belief in the unreal. ¹² This cannot be avoided in any type of judgment, because it implies the belief that reality is yours to select from.

T-3.VI.3. You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment. ² When you recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in any way is without meaning. ³ In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging them. ⁴ All uncertainty comes from the belief that you are under the coercion of judgment. ⁵ You do not need judgment to organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize yourself. ⁶ In the presence of knowledge all judgment is automatically suspended, and this is the process that enables recognition to replace perception.

T-3.VI.4. You are very fearful of everything you have perceived but have refused to accept. ² You believe that, because you have refused to accept it, you have lost control over it. ³ This is why you see it in nightmares, or in pleasant disguises in what seem to be your happier dreams. ⁴ Nothing that you have refused to accept can be brought into awareness. ⁵ It is not dangerous in itself, but you have made it seem dangerous to you.

T-3.VI.5. When you feel tired, it is because you have judged yourself as capable of being tired. ² When you laugh at someone, it is because you have judged him as unworthy. ³ When you laugh at yourself you must laugh at others, if only because you cannot tolerate the idea of being more unworthy than they are. ⁴ All this makes you feel tired because it is essentially disheartening. ⁵ You are not really capable of being tired, but you are very capable of wearying yourself. ⁶ The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable. ⁷ It is curious that an ability so debilitating would be so deeply cherished. ⁸ Yet if you wish to be the author of reality, you will insist on holding on to judgment. ⁹ You will also regard judgment with fear, believing that it will someday be used against you. ¹⁰ This belief can exist only to the extent that you believe in the efficacy of judgment as a weapon of defense for your own authority.

T-3.VI.6. God offers only mercy. ² Your words should reflect only mercy, because that is what you have received and that is what you should give. ³ Justice is a temporary expedient, or an attempt to teach you the meaning of mercy. ⁴ It is judgmental only because you are capable of injustice.

T-3.VI.7. I have spoken of different symptoms, and at that level there is almost endless variation. ² There is, however, only one cause for all of them: the authority problem. ³ This is "the root of all evil." ⁴ Every symptom the ego makes involves a contradiction in terms, because the mind is split between the ego and the Holy Spirit, so that whatever the ego makes is incomplete and contradictory. ⁵ This untenable position is the result of the authority problem which, because it accepts the one inconceivable thought as its premise, can produce only ideas that are inconceivable.

T-3.VI.8. The issue of authority is really a question of authorship. ² When you have an authority problem, it is always because you believe you are the author of yourself and project your delusion onto others. ³ You then perceive the situation as one in which others are literally fighting you for your authorship. ⁴ This is the fundamental error of all those who believe they have usurped the power of God. ⁵ This belief is very frightening to them, but hardly troubles God. ⁶ He is, however, eager to undo it, not to punish His children, but only because He knows that it makes them unhappy. ⁷ God's creations are given their true Authorship, but you prefer to be anonymous when you choose to separate yourself from your Author. ⁸ Being uncertain of your true Authorship, you believe that your creation was anonymous. ⁹ This leaves you in a position where it sounds meaningful to believe that you created yourself. ¹⁰ The dispute over authorship has left such uncertainty in your mind that it may even doubt whether you really exist at all.

T-3.VI.9. Only those who give over all desire to reject can know that their own rejection is impossible. ² You have not usurped the power of God, but you have lost it. ³ Fortunately, to lose something does not mean that it has gone. ⁴ It merely means that you do not remember where it is. ⁵ Its existence does not depend on your ability to identify it, or even to place it. ⁶ It is possible to look on reality without judgment and merely know that it is there.

T-3.VI.10. Peace is a natural heritage of spirit. ² Everyone is free to refuse to accept his inheritance, but he is not free to establish what his inheritance is. ³ The problem everyone must decide is the fundamental question of authorship. ⁴ All fear comes ultimately, and sometimes by way of very devious routes, from the denial of Authorship. ⁵ The offense is never to God, but only to those who deny Him. ⁶ To deny His Authorship is to deny yourself the reason for your peace, so that you see yourself only in segments. ⁷ This strange perception is the authority problem.

T-3.VI.11. There is no one who does not feel that he is imprisoned in some way. ² If this is the result of his own free will he must regard his will as not free, or the circular reasoning in this position would be quite apparent. ³ Free will must lead to freedom. ⁴ Judgment always imprisons because it separates segments of reality by the unstable scales of desire. ⁵ Wishes are not facts. ⁶ To wish is to imply that willing is not sufficient. ⁷ Yet no one in his right mind believes that what is wished is as real as what is willed. ⁸ Instead of "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven" say, " Will ye first the Kingdom of Heaven," and you have said, "I know what I am and I accept my own inheritance."