opinions, what good are they?

[Omoi Otoshi]

My point is that qualitatively equating all opinions is a particularly insipid trap that should be resisted.

Yes, I'm not saying all opinions (all cereals! ) are equal. Or that education/information is unimportant. I'm just saying we don't always have to use so much of a judgemental mind when judging what to do and instead trust that we will make the right choice. Even when you don't fret, worry and discuss for 5 minutes over which brand of peas you are going to pick, as I said, you still have a preference. Because you informed yourself? Because of commersials? Because you like one color more than the other? Lots of times our internal discussion is just trying to rationalize the choice we have already made.

Gassho,
Pontus

[AlanLa]

Good question, Chet, as usual. What I've been trying to do ever since my last post above is to just be more aware of my judgments and recognizing how empty they are, how they reflect conditioned thinking and hold no real truth at all. From that viewpoint it is easier to let them go. It's a lot like doing zazen: Oh, there's a judgment... and there it goes away. But I don't think it's suppression; rather it's owning them and then seeing through them. I still get them all the time, but their intensity fades a lot faster now. I've also tried to apply the precepts to them. Specifically, not talking bad about people (because most judgments involved some sort of conflict with other people's judgments, especially with election season upon us, but with work issues also), not praising my own ideas or elevating mine above others' ideas, and not stealing by letting people have their own ideas and recognizing their conditioned thought is the same process as I go through but with a different outcome. So I am just trying to pay more attention to the judgment process, whereas before it was all about those outcome judgments.

As a young adult I was filled with judgments, overflowing with them, because that's how we create this fictional self of ideas as separate from others. Even before I started the process described above, I slowed way down on all that judgment activity. It is SO exhausting to have opinions on everything. When you get older you don't have to work as hard, but the flip side is the judgments you still have are firmer because you've had longer to cement them in place.

[Taigu]

As a young adult I was filled with judgments, overflowing with them, because that's how we create this fictional self of ideas as separate from others. Even before I started the process described above, I slowed way down on all that judgment activity. It is SO exhausting to have opinions on everything. When you get older you don't have to work as hard, but the flip side is the judgments you still have are firmer because you've had longer to cement them in place.

Cannot agree more with you, Al.

Gassho

T.