The Danger Of Books And Ideas
I’m going to share a concept that is so slippery and difficult that it will take many attempts to get it right. The ultimate goal in life is to have a fully integrated belief system that allows you to live the type of life that you desire. This belief system needs to be individual and intensive. It may be simple or it may be complex.
The narrowminded person can achieve far more than the open-minded person because they don’t doubt themselves, second-guess themselves and have strong convictions and beliefs that lead them along a clearly defined and narrow path. They are quick to action because they do not recognize the possibility of very many actions.
In contrast, the open-minded person is tolerant of new ideas and slow to judgment. He or she is also slow to act or judge because of an innate ability to see both sides of an issue and be indecisive. The end result is that they at times suspend judgment and doubt their own convictions. This causes them to not be as effective in getting things done. They are slow to choose just one among the many possibilities that present themselves.
The solution lies in having a personal belief system that is complex and adaptable enough to allow success and focussed effort while at the same time simple enough to be straightforward and effective. I’m almost confusing myself just trying to share this. Our personal belief system should be as simple as possible while still allowing us to live the type of life we desire! It needs to work! It needs to get results!
Exposure to outside ideas through books and other sources is dangerous because it undermines the structure of our existing belief system. At the same time we need this exposure to outside ideas in order to grow a more complex belief system! There is a paradox at work here. We need this exposure, yet it remains dangerous to us.
The real secret to success is to find the antidote to any idea that we are exposed to. That will cancel the one-sided effect of the first idea and allow for a more balanced and genuine perspective. Once we have neutralized the power of the first idea with its opposite we can stand in the center and form a more correct judgment without being polarized.
The real danger is that any idea or opinion that we are exposed to and which we understand lodges inside of us and drains us of our energy until we find a place for it, until we integrate it. If we refuse to integrate these alien ideas and concepts they will drain our own energies and become like cancer cells that will seek to destroy us. I am trying to offer antidotes to some of the ideas and concepts that have infected our world.
Just be careful what you let into your head!
