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Don Salmon's avatar

Have you tried the dialog technique of switching positions?

The Tibetan Buddhists have made an art out of it.

DIALOG #1

Person A: The universe is ultimately based on non conscious, non living, non intelligent physical stuff.

Person B: The universe is ultimately based on conscious, living, intelligent Awareness.

DIALOG #2 (Person A takes B's position and vice versa)

Person A: The universe is ultimately based on conscious, living, intelligent Awareness.

Person B The universe is ultimately based on non conscious, non living, non intelligent physical stuff.

The only rule? In each dialog, they have to give every ounce of energy to presenting their position as convincingly as possible.

I know high school and college debate teams do this, but they tend to do it for scoring points. But the Tibetan Buddhist attitude is just the opposite - knowing that Truth can never be fully expressed in words, one takes opposing positions and puts all that energy into supporting each position in order to become aware of one's biases, prejudices, distorted thinking, etc and ultimately, to let go of them and have compassion and empathy for all views.

it's a wonderful ethical discipline, among other things.

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Ms. Billie M. Spaight's avatar

We evolve. One of the troubling parts of our evolution is that we are socially speciating. That makes our very realities different and makes us unable to perceive other realities. Gone are the days when we all tuned in to Walter Cronkite and shared a common understanding.

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