Confronting bias (our own)

People can't see what they can’t see. Their biases get in the way, surrounding them like a high wall, trapping them in ignorance, deception, and illusion. No amount of reasoning and argument will get through to them, unless we first learn how to break down the walls of bias. . . .

                     Brian McLaren, as quoted by Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, 3/1/21

 

… there are three levels of prayer: “prayer of the lips (oral prayer) prayer of the nous, the mind or intellect (mental prayer); prayer of the heart”…”it is required of us to enter into this ‘absolute center’ that is, to descend from the intellect into the heart”

                     Kalistos Ware, The Power of the Name,

                     Quoted by Llewelyn Vauaghan-Lee,  Prayer of the Heart

_____________________________

 

I am biased

I must painfully admit it

 

I have been shaped by many things,

forged into the person that I am in this moment

 

the town, the state, the country I grew up in

my parents

the church that shaped my early faith

teachers

professors in college and seminary

 

I have been shaped by what I have read,

and more, by what I have experienced

 

I have been shaped by my gender, my color,

my social and economic level

my life experiences

 

my successes and my failures

 

and now I have a “world view”

I see the world through my own particular set of lenses,

Which means I am biased

 

What I see, what I hear,

how I interpret those things going on in the world

how I see other human beings

how I react to what happens to me

are all shaped by my bias

 

which means it is really difficult to connect with

“what is”

with truth

 

there is the old saying

“truth is in the eye of the beholder”

 

Ouch!

 

But I really do want to know the truth

and it occurs to me today

as I wonder at the blind adherence of some souls to “truths”

that seem so much like “untruth”

 

as I am astonished how some of us see a person as deplorable

and others see that same person as almost godly

 

that we must find a way to minimize

(I doubt we will ever eradicate)

our biases

 

It is clearly not a matter of going “out there” and gathering information,

although that can be part of it.

But even what information we choose to gather is tainted by our bias

We see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear.

 

I am coming to believe

that the only way to get close to the truth, is to get close to Truth

(the Sacred)

 

The only way to be able to see the world out there, clearly and truly

is to start with the inner presence of the Sacred

call it what you will

 

Many wise and unique people have known the power of the inner journey

the importance of taking time, constantly (pray without ceasing?)

to “remember”, to connect with Sacred

every moment

with each and every breath

 

this is not something we do with the mind

it is a remembrance of the heart

it is touching our inner union with all that is Sacred

all that is Love

all that is Truth

 

it is our hearts abiding in the One we love

 

I have come to the conclusion

That it is only this inner journey that can save me from myself

Save me from the alternative realities that I create or embrace

 

It is only this inner union that can break down

the walls of bias, and help me see clearly

through the eyes of Love

 

this day, every day

may we begin with a deep dive into our souls, our hearts

to that place where Sacred dwells, and may we from that place

begin to deconstruct the realities we have created

so we can see

the Truth