Most dogmatic ideologies say that what the human says is the truth. I say—and those who understand what I understand—never say that “what I say is true,” that “I have the right way,” but rather that what is true is true, what is is, and it is up to us to see it or not for ourselves. That is what being open-minded, and thinking for yourself—what not being controlled by illusions—is all about. It’s the opposite of arrogance.
The problem is that most people think they are thinking for themselves and are in control of their actions and beliefs when they are not. That is the definition of denial. Most people are living in denial. Anyone who thinks that they have done enough thinking about life to know who they are is simply missing the point of what they contend to have done, and betray the fact that they haven’t “thought” enough about themselves to know who they are, because anyone who thinks they know themselves doesn’t. If you don’t see this then you do not yet understand what all this is about.
I don’t need to push my truth on you because it isn’t my truth. I didn’t decide it, I didn’t make it up, and thus I have no stake in whether you believe me or not. I am not asking anyone to believe anything. If I ask anything, it is that people make more of an effort to be open, to stand up and have some courage and face their fears and question their illusions, to see that things are not as they think they are, that they are living lives of illusion and not reality, that they are (at least currently) controlled and not in control of their own lives.
Who, other than an utter fool, could possibly say that that is “wrong?” It is beyond the human realm of right and wrong. Again, the problem is that people see this “philosophy” incorrectly and think that since they have done some thinking about life and have decided what they believe that they have done it. They miss the whole point, and then assign their own small concepts of right and wrong to a process that is beyond such things. This process is not right or wrong, it simply is.
I have no need to defend a philosophy of open-mindedness and making the effort to see things as they really are, because it is not my philosophy, it is not my truth. Reality, truth, what is, has absolutely no need to be defended. It goes along, being what it is, being, wholly immune to human opinion or judgment. Applying human-based concepts like right and wrong to reality, to what is outside the realm of such small-minded concepts, is simply absurd.
Another thing many people miss is the distinction between open-mindedness and agreement. I do not have to agree with something to be open-minded about it. To agree with everything is to be a fool; to be open-minded to everything is to be wise.
It is unwise to dismiss anything out-of-hand. To judge anything, to dismiss things, is unwise. Why? Because later on, maybe that thing you did not dismiss, but simply set aside, may come back and connect in some way you do not see now to other things that come later, and without it, you would not be able to see reality the way it is.
Just because I am open-minded to things does not mean I need to accept or agree with them. Rather, I can withhold judgment and let it be without feeling the need to give it my stamp of approval. What the hell does my stamp of approval matter anyway? Reality is what it is whether or not I agree with it, approve of it or not. Most people cannot see how powerful, how far-reaching, and ubiquitous their egos and arrogance are.
It’s about clinging. He who is open-minded does not need to cling to being right or wrong, and realizes that his approval or disapproval, his judgment of a thing, speaks only to himself and not the thing. So many people are too ego-centric to see this distinction. They think that their opinion and judgment is about the thing when it is rather only about themselves. We do not define things, we only define ourselves by our perceptions, judgments, and opinions of them. And deeper than that, we do not even define ourselves, but, rather, we are defined.
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From my personal notes, 12/22/99
