A curse of having an over-sized human brain is that we have room for a lot of opinions. Wherever we point our attention, one of those opinions latches onto whatever we encounter. Opinions can be good, bad, or neutral. Those opinions hit us in the form of feelings. When we have a bad opinion about something, we feel bad. When we have a good opinion about something, we feel good. It is pretty simple that way. When we look out at the world, we think good and bad things about what we encounter there. When we look into ourselves, we think good and bad things about what we find there.
Problems arise when we get stuck in habits of negativity. The world is full of horrible stuff, there will always be plenty of truly horrible things we can observe and generate negative opinions about. The world is also filled with wonderful stuff. There will always be plenty of wonderful things that we can focus on and generate positive opinions about. When we get out of balance, especially when focusing too heavily on the negative, we get drawn to the negativity and see it everywhere. When we look out into the world, we see the nasty stuff. Then, when we look into ourselves, we see the nasty stuff there too. Too much dwelling in those negative opinions erodes confidence, enjoyment, insight, and well being. To guard against that, we need to remember our basic goodness.
Over focusing on the positive can also skew reality, blinding us to the less pleasant aspects of life. However, when it comes to our own nature, the essence is good, so we need to be able to recognize that.
Basic goodness is our innate desire to feel good. We all love to feel good, and nobody likes to feel horrible. We also want those we care about to feel good. That simple preference is our basic goodness. Even getting sucked into negativity comes from our attempts to avoid pain and attract pleasure. Unfortunately, as habits form and opinions proliferate, wires get tangled, pain becomes pervasive, and pleasure can be elusive. At those times, we can remember our basic goodness, cut through all the wires, and abide in our natural essence.
Those tangled wires can be messy. Despite being basically good, people do all kinds of damage to each other. Parents and cultures have built in biases that they pass on to their children and populace, that make many people completely unaware of their good nature. Some people even think they are rotten to the core. Many people and cultures think that other people and cultures are irredeemably awful. Those kinds of ideas, when applied to individuals and other groups of people always backfire. They erode confidence in basic goodness. They create a coal fired generator of negative opinions that spew out smog and cloud perceptions. To tap into the power of our own goodness, we need to be able to see it both in ourselves and in others. Not just some others, but all others. That can be challenging.
As soon as we start making exceptions and naming those individuals or groups of people who don’t fit into our ideas of goodness, we feed into negativity. Instead, it is more helpful to focus on people and groups of people who exemplify goodness. Those kinds of thoughts generate good opinions and good feelings and they make it easier for us to understand basic goodness. The good feelings don’t need to exclude anybody. As soon as the exclusions begin, the first person excluded is the one generating the negative opinions.
Understanding and living from an understanding of basic goodness does not blind one to the dangers and evils of the world. In fact, it is the opposite. It creates a sense of well being that promotes wisdom and allows for clearer vision into both the light and shadows. Whenever we encounter something that sticks out as not right, we can notice our negative opinion and, at the same time, be grateful for our insight, wisdom and goodness that allows us to differentiate between right and wrong. In that way, negative opinions don’t flow unchecked and spoil the landscape of our awareness.
Understanding basic goodness is not wearing rose colored glasses. It is seeing clearly and responding appropriately. With clear vision, we can observe our own negative opinions as they arise, and we can respond to the information without allowing the negativity to affect our mood or insight. A compassionate doctor does not turn away when they encounter a disease. They notice it, accept it, and use their skill to find a way to ease the suffering. People are good that way.
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