How to explore a Topic?
Topics are a way to reach the heart of any issue. Why not watch the video to find out more?
What is Understanding?
Understanding is a mystery. It is the deepest prayer, the ultimate happiness.
Understanding is not education or teaching, which is the imparting of knowledge. That is the old model. Telling ideas to students is useless, a kind of totalitarianism. We can take in the facts and ideas, but they bounce back or dissolve. Unrecognized assumptions, entrenched biases, mindless reflexes, make us ignorant. Without understanding it impossible to see what lies just in front of our eyes.
Understanding is different. It is not what you decide, but how deeply you look and how deeply you care. Understanding breaks down illusion. It resolves perplexities. It puts an end to the misery of isolation.
Enter a still, silent space. Simply seeing a point of view that is not your own is already most of the way toward understanding. There is always a heart of gold, even if it is covered in mud. It’s not what you decide, but how deeply you look, and how deeply you care.
Understanding is not education or teaching, which is the imparting of knowledge. That is the old model. Telling ideas to students is useless, a kind of totalitarianism. We can take in the facts and ideas, but they bounce back or dissolve. Unrecognized assumptions, entrenched biases, mindless reflexes, make us ignorant. Without understanding it impossible to see what lies just in front of our eyes.
Understanding is different. It is not what you decide, but how deeply you look and how deeply you care. Understanding breaks down illusion. It resolves perplexities. It puts an end to the misery of isolation.
Enter a still, silent space. Simply seeing a point of view that is not your own is already most of the way toward understanding. There is always a heart of gold, even if it is covered in mud. It’s not what you decide, but how deeply you look, and how deeply you care.
How Topics work
Explore is a process of uncovering the truth of perspectives we misunderstand. It is based on the idea that there is always something true about what you oppose, and that it is possible to bring all views together in a respectful, transformative resolution.
Explore is composed of perspectives and insights, each presented in a paragraph or two. Each perspective has a separate popup page. Before voting on a perspective, hold it up before you in your own mind. Listen with compassion, especially if you are inclined to disagree. What is the story or narrative that it represents? What assumptions does it make? What world does it assume? Opposing points of view are not to be feared. It is always possible to see the truth in another side – taking its flaws into account, of course, but focusing on the good.
Use Resources to gain a deeper understanding. Resources includes Facts, Videos, Documents, Images and Audio. Feel free to add a Perspective or Resource if you like.
1. Try to find something real in what you see. 2. Ask what lies at the root. 3. Say something good about those you disagree with.
Grasping the value of a perspective is the heart of understanding. It makes little difference which side is right. What matters is how you approach it. If you enter it with good will, with willingness to change, with love for truth, you will succeed.
Explore is composed of perspectives and insights, each presented in a paragraph or two. Each perspective has a separate popup page. Before voting on a perspective, hold it up before you in your own mind. Listen with compassion, especially if you are inclined to disagree. What is the story or narrative that it represents? What assumptions does it make? What world does it assume? Opposing points of view are not to be feared. It is always possible to see the truth in another side – taking its flaws into account, of course, but focusing on the good.
Use Resources to gain a deeper understanding. Resources includes Facts, Videos, Documents, Images and Audio. Feel free to add a Perspective or Resource if you like.
1. Try to find something real in what you see. 2. Ask what lies at the root. 3. Say something good about those you disagree with.
Grasping the value of a perspective is the heart of understanding. It makes little difference which side is right. What matters is how you approach it. If you enter it with good will, with willingness to change, with love for truth, you will succeed.