RE: Let’s talk about people with biased beliefs
This is a really interesting read and reminds me of many things from both my study of international political psychology (notably how conflicts leading up to wars start and how Fascism gains a foothold where once freedom prevailed) and also my study of Buddhism.
I recall a conversation some years ago with a Buddhist teacher in which I was venting about having learned all these unfavorable things about some very "high" Buddhist teachers and sexual abuse of female aspirants. I was pissed and letting him have it.
It was an interesting conversation in general, but the thing that's stayed with me the most from it was his comment that, "There is no Buddhism; that's just a myth. The path of awakening is the path of disillusionment. We have to let ago of all our illusions, especially our illusions about the Dharma."
I would say that the primary antidote to the very human tendencies you describe in this article is to learn to embrace the process of disillusionment as the path of maturation itself.
I am not familiar with the concept of "Dharma" in the context you are describing.
Well, I would have to learn about this way of seeing the world. In my case, I am not sure if disillusionment is something good, I think that the future will be better than our present, just as our present is better than our past, all thanks to technological innovations which are the ones that change and improve our world.
But, it is always interesting to read and learn about different points of views :D
Thanks for stopping by and for your great comment @indigoocean!
He was saying that we have all these lofty ideas in our head about the teachings and the teachers. We imagine them as something above us and we have to give up that hero worship. Disillusionment in the Buddhist context doesn't mean despair. It means literally removing (dis) illusions (false perceptions). It's about coming to see the world as it is, not as we wish it would be. That is actually more optimistic, because it says that reality is good enough without our needing to pretend in order to make peace with it.
I would add from my other spiritual leanings that in addition to sorting out what is with equanimity there is also the matter of clearly defining what we wish to see come into being. Using our imaginations to envision the future we want to create, for ourselves and collectively, is a part of what it is to be human.