Discrimination - Capacity for Choice

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Discrimination is the faculty of mind to perceive differences, and is what allows us to make informed decisions in life. Like many tools, it can be employed usefully or badly misused.

Some see “discrimination” as a dirty word, associating it with sexism, racism, classism, and other "isms". Indeed, negative discrimination is the cause of these problems, however real discrimination is a much deeper concept. More generally, discrimination is interpretation. Our outer or inner senses perceive something, and our mind interprets it as true or untrue, good or bad, pleasurable or annoying, and so on. These classifications may be accurate, biased, selfish, or any number of other qualities, but almost everybody is continually making them.

Discrimination is based on the Latin word for separate. We are all One, although in our manifest world this Oneness is expressed in many diverse ways, like the unity of white light refracted into a rainbow. In the grand scheme of things, separation allows us to ground and perceive different aspects of infinity. For example, different color paints are kept separate, else they would blend into an ugly uniform gray. In the human body, blood in the veins needs to be kept separate from air in the lungs. Both are needed for physical life, but blood in the lungs or air in the bloodsteam quickly results in death. However, problems arise when things become separated too much, or we forget we’re inherently One.

Discrimination is a tool: It takes practice to learn to use it properly and accurately. Undeveloped discrimination can be when it isn’t employed enough. For example, not recognizing a scam, or not realizing that one’s in an abusive relationship. Undeveloped discrimination can also be it overgeneralized or taken to extremes. For example, having an ex-romantic partner who was an Aries, and therefore thinking that all Aries people are jerks. Or even preferring strawberry ice-cream over other flavors, and thinking that everybody who doesn’t also know the truth that strawberry ice-cream is better than all others must die in a holy crusade of cleansing fire! ;)

Proper discrimination allows us (and penguins) to find our soulmates among millions of possible partners. It allows me to me able to determine which keys to press next while typing this sentence. It allows us to decide what to do with our time on this planet, and how we can most efficiently grow ourselves and serve others.

In summary, discrimination and its development is part of being human. Plants grow and bend toward the sun, but do so automatically or instinctually, without a mind interpreting and deciding to do so. Discrimination is also different from intuition. True intuition is beyond thought and duality. Intuition can bring in spiritual energy, however once it reaches our minds it’s up to developed discrimination to perceive and maintain the energy, and translate it into proper choices in our world.

Today let’s recognize the ways in which discrimination manifests in our lives, and work to refine the ways in which we use it. ♥