zevenenergie
Serious Thumper
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SuzukiSavage.com Rocks!
Posts: 2332
The Netherlands Den Haag
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Reading through this thread, I noticed something interesting in myself.
I felt the urge to add my opinion.
And then I wondered: why?
Most of what is happening here is people expressing opinions, defending them, challenging other people's opinions, and finding new arguments to reinforce what they already believe. And my first impulse was to join in by giving you my opinion about all those opinions.
Which would be rather ironic.
So perhaps there is a more interesting question here, especially in a discussion about religion.
If we take religion, at least in part, as a means of spiritual or inner growth, could refraining from expressing an opinion sometimes be a spiritual practice in itself?
Not because having an opinion is wrong. And not because we should remain silent when something actually needs to be said.
But because sometimes expressing an opinion seems to serve very little purpose beyond maintaining our own psychological structure: the need to be right, to be heard, to defend an identity, or to confirm what we already believe.
Many religious and contemplative traditions contain practices that ask us to examine our attachment to the self. From that perspective, perhaps an interesting question isn't always:
“What is my opinion about this?”
but:
“Why do I need to express my opinion about this at all?”
And I have to include myself in that question.
Perhaps that is part of polishing the diamond: not getting rid of thought or disagreement, but becoming a little less attached to the person who desperately wants to be right.
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