SEEING BEYOND OUR BELIEFS, OPINIONS AND JUDGMENTS IS OUR PATH TO PEACE

Seeing what is, creates afresh our life and relationships.

Seeing what is, is a state of awareness that comes with our willingness to lay aside our ‘sacred cows’ – and yes, the one that may have just come to mind, the one you’re sure is ‘the truth’.

There are no exceptions to what we need to let go of to see Possibility and experience our inner peace – this includes all ideas around Possibility.

We don’t easily let go of the known and see beyond our prejudices.

We feel safe with the known and secure when others agree with our political, religious, racial, cultural, psychological and philosophical views.

When someone disagrees with our view, it’s a burr under our saddle.

We prefer engagement with those who agree, ride easily in the saddle and conspire with us. We make friends with those with a similar philosophy of life – believe what we believe.

And typically, we disengage from those who disagree with us.

We, therefore, fail to see how limited, confined and self-confirming our life is when we only befriend, engage with, and listen to like-minded people.

In doing so, we fail to see how enslaved by our beliefs and preferences we are – locked into the impossibility of seeing beyond our stereotypical view and recognising how fossilised our perspective on life is.

Limited to what we think is ‘the truth’, we continue to agree and disagree with others while failing to see that both those positions lie in impossibility.

Agreeing and disagreeing is taking a position based on the past. Both rely on what we have learnt to believe is right or wrong, good or evil.

Yes, the stimulation of debate around shared or conflicting ideas exercise our mental muscles and, at best, stretches us at times to concede that another may have a point.

Communion with like-minded others enthrals us – we are social creatures. But for much of the time, the past – our accumulated, stored-in-memory ‘positions on life’ – distracts us from increasingly broader, deeper and more inclusive views.

We habitually retrace our steps rather than explore the unknown – looking in the direction of the yet-to-be-seen.

Too few of us seriously question what we were raised and educated to believe – even query what we’ve seen in the most profound of our revelations.

We are trained to see people and circumstances as either ‘right’, ‘wrong’, ‘good’, or ‘evil’.

We hold firmly to beliefs such as ‘There is a God’ – ‘There is no God’; ‘Humankind is contributing or not contributing to climate change’; ‘I am right’; ‘You are wrong’; ‘They are right’; ‘They are wrong’; ‘This way, not that way, is the way it is or should be.’

Released from judgement, opinion and belief, we see into a state of mind before our biases are formed.

Our dogma is laid bare before our eyes. Our lifetime reality is rinsed away as if removed by the purest water. Our existing worldview is left naked for us to see.

We have come to a place free from all explanation and attribution of meaning, where we see solutions to what ails us.

Beyond that, we see answers to what troubles humanity. We see ways forward tempered by kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense.

We see a resolution free of coercion and imposition. Most importantly, we see ways forward that are sustainable.

Within the state of fresh Thought, we see what to do and the next step. There are no injunctions from the past. We are free of the confusion or conflict they create.

There is no choice! No second-guessing! No fear! There is only the next step we see to take.

We see the obvious, the way forward. That is because we see beyond our preconceived notions – freed from the straitjacket of the past.

We see a new reality at the conscious level of Possibility.

We recognise in that state of psychological freedom that ideas that serve the common good can and do come from across the political spectrum.

Take our parliamentary system, for example. Consider how our parliamentary system might work if parliamentarians listened and responded when influenced by The Realm of Possibility.

For example, the Leader of the Opposition might express an idea that he thinks will work and benefit the common good.

The Prime Minister listens carefully to what he is saying. She responds: ‘That’s an interesting idea, Bob. Please say a little more.’

The Leader of the Opposition briefly expands on his idea.

The Prime Minister responds again, saying, ‘I think what you’re suggesting has merit. I’m unclear how we might fund and implement the idea or manage some inherent difficulties, but I am keen to explore it with you. Let’s get together with the minister and shadow minister for a separate conversation. Are you up for that?’

You may think this is impossible.

Of course, it is, so long as we think it is.

But what if listening and responding with kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense replaced the impossibility mindsets that currently inhabit many parliaments?

What if the confrontational, belittling dialogue changes to responsive, respectful, thoughtful dialogue?

Pollyanna-ish!

Impractical!

Off with the fairies!

It will never happen!

Impossible!

Well, yes. Of course, all the above is true in a state of impossibility thinking.

It is unthinkable that respectful dialogue could, let alone would, happen – right up until the moment one of our leaders sees from a state of Possibility with sufficient clarity and lives and breathes their daily work from that level of awareness.

There are good intentions, great ideas, and a desire to serve the common good in every party.

It takes only one mind to see the trap of belief, opinion, judgement and political dogma for transformation to occur. At that moment, conscious leadership leads the way forward.

Warmly … John