Week 21 - Card XX - Compassion - Transcending Judgment

Again, from the lovely Ariel. :)

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Working with the information in the higher arcana of the Tarot is a way to build a framework for your personality.  I have found it is also useful in helping me with my interpersonal, intrapersonal & transpersonal relationships.  I continue learning how to handle difficult people, how to receive negative feedback & the importance of giving  compassion.   In doing this work many shifts have taken place for those people who are willing to commit to this 22 week process, & the work continues.
 
Please remember that I will only be offering this service for two more weeks.  If you would like to have a dialogue or a reading with me, please give me a call at 303-652-0157.
 
The following information is taken from The Tarot of Transformation by Willow Arlenea & Jasmin Lee Cori. 
 


Card XX - Compassion - Transcending Judgment

Traditionally, this card has been called Judgment, & the image has often depicted the Last Judgment of the Christian tradition.  In the Tarot of Transformation, we move away from this context, while staying true to what is perhaps its innermost core: the process of separating out sin (that which is “off the mark”) so that we might return to our natural benevolence.  It represents returning to what former priest Matthew Fox calls “original blessing” (rather than “original sin”) or what in other traditions is called “basic goodness.”  We see this less as a process of exclusion than as a redemptive inclusion.  Rather than push away & reject that which is off the mark, our lesson is to embrace it lovingly.
 
To do this, we have to transcend judgment as we usually know it.  We have to stop saying, “This is right, and this wrong.”  The mind sees what is wrong with someone, while the heart, looking through the eyes of love, sees what is right.  It sees the other's basic goodness & how their cruel, distorted, or “unskillful” behaviors are simply a product of their conditioning.  If we can put ourselves in others' shoes & really understand what they've been through, what influences have squeezed & hardened them, we will feel much more accepting.  We will see how far they've come, rather than how far they fall shoft of the standards in our minds.
 
One way to cultivate compassion, then, is to develop your capacity to see other people more clearly.  If you watch carefully, you'll notice how judgments arise from defensiveness, disappointment & from seeing only the surface of the situation, not the whole picture.
 
From a Buddhist perspective, cultivating compassion, comes with a life of “practice.”  Two practices of particular importance are tonglen and metta.  Tonglen is a meditation practice in which you bareathe in suffering & breathe out healing and love.  Consciously taking on & experiencing the suffering of others melts the sense of separation & softens your heart.  Judgment, in contrast, is often an attempt to resist others' suffering by finding a way to blame them for it.  When practicing tonglen, you embrace both the suffering & the one who suffers.
 
Metta is the Pali word ofr loving kindness.  In Metta, you extend loving kindness to an ever growing circle of beings.”  It is a simple practice of wishing others well.  You let go of your resentments & competitive feelings & realize that we're all in this together.  Just as you can drop separation & experience others' suffering, you can also experience others' joy.  Their happiness can be your happiness too.
 
Another way to develop compassion is to work on really loving yourself.  Learn to embrace your hurts & be gentle with your own tender feelings.  It means honoring your needs & uniqueness & becoming intimate with the preciousness hidden inside of you.  This comes as you open your heart to yourself.  You may have to work through several barriers to accomplish this, perhaps using a psychotherapist or spiritual teacher to help you.  Opening your heart is a process whose benefits accrue not only to you but to everyone you meet.  When you fill up with love, it flows out to other people as well.
 
This is very different from castigating yourself for being judgmental & pushing yourself to be nicer.  What we propose is not an act of will, but a natural outpouring of the heart.  The heart is inherently loving.  As this love grows, it embraces more & more of you.  You can love the places that are unloving, just as you can feel compassion for those parts that appear cold-hearted and lacking in compassion.  ather than judge yoursself for being judgmental, recognize the insecurity & need this comes from & forgive yourself.  We're all judgmental at times.  Our culture trains us to evaluate & compare.  Yet in spiritual work, the point is not to see who is better or worse. the point is simply to see where you are off the mark, where you are not whole, and how you can move back to the state of innocence & wholeness that is your underlying nature.
 
…It is compassion that liberates the tormented souls…and soothes the torment in us.  It spirals out from the heart in a universal embrace of that whish is in need of healing.
 
When you draw or are drawn to this card, it is a good time to look at how your judgmental attitudes cause suffering & to practice cultivating compassion.