"Brothers and sisters: Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ."
Ephesians 4:32
I have been learning a lot about non-dualistic thinking and sincerely have the goal to try and live more like that...with less "us vs. them" and more "both/and" ways of seeing things. Just when I think I'm getting somewhere I am faced with how deficient I really am and how much further I have to go. During this difficult election I'm especially challenged, but I sure don't need an election to show me I'm still very dualistic! I took it to prayer yesterday and really asked God for guidance. Does being non-dualistic mean not having my own opinions? That doesn't seem realistic at all. If we have a brain we have opinions and someone who has lived as long as I have has rather strong opinions based on sixty years of living on this planet. The answer I gleaned was this: It's not about whether or not you have opinions, it's about how you hold your opinions. Do we hold our opinions as the only way to believe? Do we feel everyone is wrong if they disagree with us? Do we feel compelled to share our opinions because they are so "right" and others need to know how right we are? Do we feel justified by our opinions and thus, like the Pharisee in yesterday's Gospel, we are saved by them? Is it possible to hold our opinions too tightly? Deep and ponderous questions we can ask ourselves. Being non-dualistic means allowing that there are other opinions and people feel just as passionately about their opinions as we do. We do not have all the answers and neither does anyone else. We are trying to live our lives as faithful, loving, compassionate people. As we muddle through this difficult time, let's all pray for each other, and our country, these next couple of weeks and beyond. Love, heidi
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