I need to see that the barriers to peace, love, and understanding lies mostly within me. Because of the brain's tendency to maintain the feeling of a unified self with a unified will, we normally avoid the thought of us having wants and thoughts and values and behaviours that are contradicting each other.
But we have. We are full of conflict. The brain is a conglomerate of networks that operates in parallel. All those thoughts and feelings and impulses are harmonized as an afterthought in us, maintaining a narrative of our "person" as a unified self. Looking at the networks, they seem more like a gang of monkeys in our heads, with wildly different tendencies. We are a herd.
In us, there is the group that effectively blocks the peace: feeling threatened, giving sad or angry responses, view the world in black and white, acting defensive.
In us, there is the group that effectively blocks the love: are quick to judge, and stops us when we want to spend those six to eight seconds it takes to genuinely empathize with another fellow human being.
In us, there even is a group that wants us to avoid the costly (in terms of carbs) understanding: maintaining a world view based on the primitive feelings of group thinking and other defensive strategies, instead of taking a second or two to invoke and listen to the analytical and reasoning networks. What do we actually know about the situation? What can we actually see? What is a product of our biases and how can we compensate for them in order to see more clearly?
Being aware of these barriers is the first step to navigate around them. Knowing them by name and exploring them makes us better suited to avoid being blocked.
What conflicts do you have within you? When exploring your thoughts, how many different wants do you recognize? Which ones blocks you from the peace, the love, and the understanding?
Reading tip: The Self Illusion.
