Were you fully engaged in performing the spiritual work discussed in the previous chapter? Through that personal work you hopefully discovered some new deeper insights into your own spiritual space. If you did the work diligently you likely learned something new. Something strong you felt on the inside in your spiritual space.
With an open-mind toward advancing spiritually it’s time to examine some of your discoveries. First did you recognize the limited biased nature of the opposing point of view? Bias is really easy to see when doing genuine spiritual work.
Your willingness to identify biases wherever you see them should be your first take-away. The most important wake-up signal for you personally, toward your own spiritual growth, is the willingness to sense and acknowledge the biases inside of yourself.
What does being biased really mean, is it reasonable and rational to be biased or is it something negative? In the spiritual context we recognize that personal bias is being conscious and alive as a human-being. Our growth and evolution as a species to survive and thrive on this planet has been positively served by personal bias. Bias simply means you hold tight to your own subjective point view.
Your personal biased views have been influenced and shaped by your life experiences. You have accumulated knowledge and established beliefs around your own discoveries. Your interaction with friends and family, with advisors and peers within the community and your historical and cultural education, these all compile and organize as generate a blue-print of your personal reality. This becomes you and you are always biased in favor of you. You will completely buy into your own discoveries with full devotion and that is very a good thing.
The Spiritual Value in Understanding Biases
You should recognize that being biased is part of your nature. It is vital to your personal well-being and to your success in life. Now let’s look into how biases are developed and how you can leverage understanding this to enhance your own spiritual growth. Being biased is simply the result of observing repeating patterns in your experiences. These observed associations ultimately become your cultural and communal identity.
Biases are created and nurtured as part of the environment in which you were raised. Most likely your religious and political views, your clothing styles, music preferences and your favorite sports teams were all developed by these environmental influences. You had no choice on where you were born and where you grew-up; and yet that exclusively influenced your development.
Obviously there is personal bias in everyone. All people regardless of their race, color, religion or political views are all molded by the environment in which they grew up. We tend to assimilate our spiritual qualities too through association with those people around us. This is all part of our biological development to be comfortable within our society.
Both positively and negatively our environment implants biases into each one of us. For example in business and commerce; depending on your cultural upbringing you may be expected to barter whenever you do business in the marketplace. This is a very common practice in many countries around the world, while in America bartering is not the custom. You expect everyone to pay the same price. You anticipate that all customers will be treated equally based on fair market values.
Insights on Understanding Biases
Biases are established and connected to one’s personal expectations. A person anticipates outcomes based on the accumulation of repetitive occurrences and personal observations. Let’s look at this bartering as an example. Bartering in the marketplace is proceeded by what is called an expectation bias. When you are confronted and exposed to something happening that is opposite your personal expectations you are confounded. You will feel this internally in your spiritual space. How does it feel?
Those from a bartering culture expect to barter and feel uncomfortable when paying a pre-determined price. They sense they are being over-charged or cheated by not bartering. As already mentioned those from a non-bartering culture feel uncomfortable when confronted by a person trying to barter.
You anticipate and prefer your own bias preferences when interacting with others in the marketplace. When you are exposed to activity that contradicts your specific observed associations in life, the inner sensations are felt as spiritually uncomfortable. One way feels good in your spiritual space and the opposite feels uncomfortable. Acknowledging and accepting that these feelings go in both directions is a spiritual discernment. Which one is right and which one in wrong?
Regardless of personal expectations both are unique and legitimate differences in perception. Being aware of this bias and acknowledging it in both directions helps bring you a clearer and more accurate picture of the situation at hand. Believing your personal bias to be the only legitimate valid view is diminishing your own spiritual acuity.
Holding tight to your own personal bias as the only valid spiritual sensation is a self inflicted wound. It will undermine your own perceptions and cause you internal suffering whenever it is contradicted. The ideal spiritual position would be open-minded. Be willing to accept and acknowledge the biases in both directions. This gives you greater and clearer perceptions in all situations and also minimizes the internal negatives.
Information Bias is a Weakness
Information is always presented to help explain a specific point of view. When you limit yourselves to confirmation sources only; you ingrain your biases and thus limit your comprehension and understanding. If you read nothing but one side of an issue you become unbalanced and ridged in an ideological point of view.
This is also referred to as evidence selection bias. You choose only to hand select information that supports your view. If you do not identify contradicting or conflicting information sources how can you comfortably interact with people who hold an opposite point of view?
It would not be prudent to deny yourselves access to all available data when contemplating any topic. To refuse to consider or even acknowledge an opposing point of view would self-defeating. By ignoring an opposing view you constrict and limit your own internal comprehension and that will only undermine your personal competence.
You were exposed to this growth experience when doing the spiritual work referenced in the last chapter. The fastest way to become clear-headed and sharp in your understanding is to do what is called opposition research. Not to attack an opposing view but rather to clearly understand it. To connect with a greater perception of reality engage in the study of something that violates your current understanding or position on a specific matter. That’s the very spiritual work you did in the last chapter and you should continue to do it daily.
Through the process of personally challenging your own biased point of view you broaden and strengthen your own perceptions and connections to reality. If you believe you are in the right you are just like everybody else. That is really not an empowering place to be. Rather when you can competently discern and decipher the nuances of a fully rounded view your world expands immensely. By gaining a comprehensive understanding of things from all sides you become powerful and strong in managing your own inner spiritual condition.
Even when information seems to have little or no value, it too broadens your understanding of things. The more information you assimilate the better. The more you attain on the broadest array of topics the richer and more satisfying your life becomes. Acknowledging the bias in both directions helps bring you a clearer and more accurate perception. Believing your personal bias to be the only legitimate valid view is diminishing your own spiritual acuity. You would be rejecting observable reality and undermining your own perception in the matter.
The Negative Side of Being Biased
The negative side of bias becomes prominent in our experiences when we become tribally aligned against one another. As a spiritually minded individual you need to protect yourself from being sucked into this dark place. Our tribal biases are base and bring out the animalistic defensive survival instincts; and this is opposite to spiritual enlightenment. Spiritual light shines through love and connection. Especially when connecting with our fellow earth citizens, but it shines most brightly when we connect with a stranger or a foe.
From our tribal nature we are pursuing animalistic self-interest. From our spiritual nature we are giving positive energy through love and connection. This is why there is more joy in giving then in receiving.
To avoid this trap of negative biases the spiritual approach is do not judge. Judging along the lines of good verses bad always heightens bias. To unequivocally label something as only good or only bad we will absolutely be less accurate in perceiving or understanding it. This simple dichotomy leaves a person with very limited understanding and will diminish their spiritual comprehension.
The Deeper Details of Spiritual Comprehension
Here you will discover some deeper spiritual information. It requires that you concentrate with focused attention on what is happening inside of you as you read on. In your spiritual space you are being invited to explore for a deeper meaning. Understanding these important points will help develop and lead you to greater spiritual comprehension. Be open minded in contemplating these deeper realizations. This will only sharpen your view and magnify your spiritual understanding.
By contemplating the dichotomy of spiritual contrasts you attain deeper more profound insights that advance you on your spiritual climb. Imagine the extreme opposites in the spiritual space as a horizontal line. On the far left you have total black darkness and on the far right you have total pure white light. From either end of these extreme dichotomies you see nothing. It’s only when you discover the space between these two opposites that you gain spiritual insights.
Imagine your inner spiritual sensations in the same way. On the far left you are frozen in fear with total terror. On the far right you are completely unencumbered in the free space of pure love. Discerning and acknowledging every detail of connection between these two extremes is the spiritual quest.
The more shades of gray between black and white or darkness and light the better your comprehension in determining and calibrating the path of your spiritual journey. The more words you find to describe the feeling sensations, between the extremes of being tied-up tight with terror and the freedom of pure love, the higher you can comfortably climb on the spiritual ladder.
The connection between two opposites is where you discover the balance in the whole. The finer your comprehension and awareness of these details the richer and more profound your life will be. As you absorb and assimilate all the details between the two opposites you acquire greater wisdom and discernment with every detail you explore and define.
The Dichotomy Path in Practice
A simple moral understanding of this dichotomy would be discerning between right and wrong. Certainly in the spiritual space there must be some clear understanding and comprehension of right and wrong. Let’s expand your spiritual mind and heart with another example to look at. Does everyone agree that stealing is wrong, that it is a criminal act? Most would agree that a person stealing is deserving of some type of social justice to protect the community at large. Yet a spiritual attainment beyond that simple dichotomy of judgment is sensed internally when the stealing action is attached to a widowed mother trying to feed a starving baby.
We go from simple moral clarity of black and white judgment to a more sophisticated spiritual comprehension that now adds a moral distinction. The details become more and more complex as you dig deeper into motives and intentions of the individuals involved and the wider consequences to the community at large.
What does your community or society consider as being bad or wrong today? Perhaps what you considered wrong in the not-too-distant past might be considered okay or even openly accepted today? How do we know what is right anyway? Should we sit and judge another person who fails to accept our ideas about what is right and wrong?
Genuine spiritual growth requires that we evolve and change. Be willing to understand and accept everything as it is. It is very spiritually mature to be willing to adapt and change. Advance from judging things as simply right and wrong to a new higher spiritual degree of contrasting things as this and that. Be open to changing your mind and be willing to accept new ideas. This wisdom of change is available as a spiritual discovery for those ready to reach new heights.
Perpetual change is the reality of life and the path of growth. Adjusting yourself to the expanding world around you means your value judgments too should remain flexible. You should be willing to face and adapt to the changes in your own life. This is hard to do when we hold-tight to the idea that only our values are the right ones.
Your biases about right and wrong are the very definitions used to identify who you are. You should certainly hold on to beliefs that serve you well, nut be careful not to become stuck in your present beliefs especially if they are not serving you well.
Another example worthy of consideration is a pregnant teenager. It may not fit the ideal definition on the “what is right” spiritual spectrum. However the reality of this experience in your world will certainly force upon you a broader perspective. Should this situation develop for you or with another person close to you, the right and wrong scenario becomes broader and much more nuanced. You will discover deeper and more defined insights in understanding the spiritual dynamics of this reality.
To insure your continued spiritual advancement always be open to changing your mental constructs and biases about right and wrong. Remember the clarity progresses in both directions, perceived as right and wrong creates suffering. Why limit yourself to that simple dichotomy of judgment? Why not be open to accepting and loving all contrasts that develop in life? The fact that any and all of these things arrive in life is evidence they belong and are a part of who you are. You get decide how you will experience them spiritually within your own reality.
Keep Your Spiritual Space Protected
You can and do manage your own spiritual growth. Holding tight to your current understandings with regards to your own personal biases puts you in conflict with the laws of life. This is foolishness because in this struggle life will always win out. Nothing stays the same, everything is always changing. Learn to influence where you can but remain open to change your truth! Be open to change the notions of your truth, be willing to expand your internal structures of thought. Allow the deepest truths of who you are to be altered through your personal exploration.
A new broader description and greater appreciation for who you are is where your spiritual growth occurs. Dare to challenge and expand your own beliefs because through that process you accelerate your own growth. A new and better experience in life is right there at your fingertips.
Challenging yourself with new fresh ideas mean your story begins anew. A better more fulfilling you and that process and your story will never end as long as you keep living via the process of expansion by being open and willing to change. Why close yourself off to a newer and truer you.
Your life expands at the end of your comfort zone. By being open to new things and new discoveries, this is where the excitement of life exists. By engaging yourself in this spiritual work here is where you and your relationship with life becomes more fully realized. A more fulfilling and expansive life is right here. It is inside of you. A life with richer experiences, with more joy and happiness is already inside of you. Reach inside yourself and love all that you discover there. It is all you … the ‘good and bad’, the ‘right and wrong’ and the ‘this and that’ … it is all revealed inside of you. The more nuanced and gradient perceptions you acquire the more complex and enlightened your life will be.
No matter how good you think things have been, you can always experience things better. No matter how wonderful you think your truth is, it will be even greater if you remain willing and open. Expanding and changing with the rhythms of life is experiencing and living a spiritually rich life. Enjoy your spiritual quest of personal discovery it never ends unless you decide otherwise.