“Do not judge by outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” – John 7:24 [New American Standard Bible]
I’ve often thought that much of spiritual work comes down to learning how to look past appearances.
That isn’t always easy. The mind prefers what it can see, measure, and explain. It leans on logic, tradition, and what’s familiar. Those tools are incredibly useful for navigating the physical world, but they don’t always help us recognize what’s happening beneath the surface of experience.
When I think about spiritual inquiry, I don’t think of it as believing something new. I think of it as learning to sense the essence of what’s already here. For some people, the word “spiritual” immediately brings up religious baggage. Others reject it altogether. But even those who are uncomfortable with the language usually recognize that life isn’t just a collection of objects and events. At some point, most of us have had the sense that there’s more going on than what’s immediately visible.
We know this in small, ordinary ways. You can see a rhinoceros at a zoo, solid and physical. But you can also picture one in your mind — an image with no weight or texture, yet clearly present. Both are real in their own way, even though they exist on very different levels.
Spiritual “translation” works much like that, only more subtly.
I think about a moment many parents have experienced. A four-year-old hands you a misshapen lump of clay and proudly says, “It’s you!” To anyone else, it looks like nothing worth keeping. But you don’t see it that way. You see the effort, the love, the intention behind it. That’s why it ends up on a shelf or in a box for years. The appearance is almost irrelevant compared to what it represents.
That kind of seeing — looking past form to what’s actually being expressed — feels close to what the verse is pointing at. Not ignoring appearances, but not stopping with them either.
When something shifts spiritually, it’s common for the mind to push back. It wants explanations. It wants proof. It wants things to stay within familiar boundaries. I’ve found it helpful not to argue with the mind, but to acknowledge it. Yes, I see why this looks strange. I understand why you’re skeptical. The mind is doing what it’s designed to do. Focusing on surfaces.
But it’s also helpful to remember that the mind only ever deals with appearances.
It will tell you that a lump of clay is just clay. That you are only the body you see in the mirror. That life is a collection of separate people, objects, and events moving through time. And on one level, that’s exactly how things appear. There’s no need to deny that.
Still, appearances aren’t the whole story.
We’ve all seen mirages in the distance or railroad tracks that seem to meet at the horizon. We know they aren’t actually doing what they appear to be doing, even though the appearance is convincing. In the same way, much of life looks one way on the surface and something quite different when seen more deeply.
I don’t think this is about replacing one belief with another. It’s about staying open to the possibility that what we’re seeing isn’t the full picture. That whatever is happening in front of us — in people, situations, even in ourselves — is being held within something larger and more unified than the mind can easily grasp.
You don’t have to define that. You don’t even have to understand it. Just noticing that there may be more here than meets the eye is often enough to begin seeing differently.
Summary:
This article explores the concept of “spiritual translation,” the practice of looking beyond outward appearances to perceive deeper truths. While the mind relies on logic and physical evidence, it is not always the best tool for understanding spiritual reality. I argue that true perception—what the Bible calls “righteous judgment”—requires seeing past surface-level appearances to recognize the essence of things. The article emphasizes that reality is not as fragmented as it appears; rather, everything is ultimately awareness recognizing itself.
Main Points:
- Spiritual Translation vs. Surface Perception – The mind tends to focus on outward appearances, but spiritual understanding requires looking deeper to perceive the true essence of things.
- The Limits of the Logical Mind – The mind questions spiritual experiences because it is conditioned to see separations and physical forms, rather than deeper, unified awareness.
- Reality as Awareness – Despite how things appear, everything is ultimately awareness being aware of itself, and spiritual perception allows us to see beyond illusions.
Key Questions:
- What does it mean to “judge with righteous judgment”?
- How does spiritual translation help us see beyond appearances?
- Why is the mind often resistant to spiritual understanding?
- What is the true nature of reality beyond outward appearances?
