Integrating lower perspectives

[trenton]

I have been doing some self observation and noticed that judgemental perspectives although not completely wrong can be painful if my mind gets stuck on them. Lower perspectives often have lazy criticisms which focus on the ill intentions of a person or group of people. Higher perspectives tend to be more nuanced and see the good intentions of people while providing a vehicle with which to improve. Because it can be painful to hold more judgemental perspectives I think that I would be happier and have a greater peace of mind if I let them go.

I can give some examples from science and religion. A lazy criticism of religion would be to focus on the sex scandals. The point of this criticism is that religion is deeply hypocritical because it is corrupted by the very selfishness that it hopes to transcend. There are sex scandals in the military, business, and so on, so it's not like sex scandal equals religion bad.

With science I could argue about the profit motive, but this does not require a more sophisticated understanding of science. A better criticism would be that although science attempts to understand reality by breaking it up and studying various aspects in different fields, in so doing it becomes hyperspecialized and therefore incapable of a holistic understanding of reality. This results in miscommunication between the different branches of science.

You can do the same thing with any world view. Should we drop the lower perspectives because they are painful? Or should we try to reconcile the paradox created between higher and lower perspectives? I think I would benefit from writing out a list of my more judgemental perspectives and strive to develop fewer of them with more nuanced perspectives taking their place while seeing the good in others. Seeing the good in others is more truthful anyway.

In practice I don't say my judgements out loud to other people. Instead I suspend my disbelief to see if I can learn something new. I spoke with a woman who believed in the zodiac signs and the Bible. She told me that the 12 disciples of Jesus were connected to the 12 signs of the zodiac. The Bible uses the number 12 a lot as in the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 sons of Jacob. This makes sense because astrology has been used for understanding reality for a long time. Christians probably make predictions and prophesies based on the stars as well. Maybe this is how they predicted the birth of christ. I told my family about these connections and they were fascinated. My sister criticized Christians for believing in crazy things while she believed in the zodiac. If the two are connected, then I have helped my sister to make peace with Christians. In this way the fact that I suspend my disbelief is so powerful that it can make my family happier as well as myself.

[Ulax]

Maybe stop asking whether these judgments are true, and instead search for whether the holding of the beliefs fulfils a certain purpose for part of you.

Nice thoughts