Bias

Last week I got something wrong. I misunderstood idiot compassion as self-righteousness.  But really Idiot Compassion is the pity we feel for people who are abusing us, which we use to justify staying in the abusive relationship. What I was really struggling with is the aggressive bias that is the enemy of equanimity.

I can barely imagine my life without some kind of opinion that I am aggressively hunting for facts to back up. This impulse drives my life.  What would I be without it?

In Tibetan Buddhism, I would be the four immeasurables: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. 

This is the hardest attachment to break, the attachment to an aggressive defense of values. 

My concern is that the alternative to opinion feels like indifference, the near enemy of equanimity. Or it feels like boredom. Giving up my strong opinions will be a very big change for me.  The question I need to ask is: are they strong opinions, or merely aggressive opinions. Are the opinions about having a deeper more complex understanding about something, in a way that can bring about change?  Or are they just about perpetuating anger?