From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Mon Jul 08 2002 - 05:20:51 MDT
Regarding trust, confidence, blind faith
I'm not advocating stupidity ... :-)
I _did_ say : 'you do your best to be ready' (i.e. do you your homework)
With that said, I have two comments.
One is a general observation about people who live large parts of their
day inside of their heads (many here ,including moi). We have a tendency
to want to be '100% certain' before jumping, which is impossible. So
then when do you you have 'enough' information? I think that it's a
skill that is worthwhile developing, in order to stretch ourselves; that
is, to know when 'enough' is 'enough', and then do it and jump.
My second comment regards conscious versus 'other
(unconscious/emotional/etc)' information. I don't think that many people
here give much weight to what is not present as a fully formed concept
in their minds. I believe that exploring our inner universe is just as
important (or more) as exploring our outer universe. Vast amounts of
information exist in our subconscious and that data is not lying inert,
it's affecting many aspects of our external lives. So then, why not
learn about it and use it to stretch ourselves and grow?
For example if you've done your homework in order to make a big
decision, but you are still crippled by fear about whether you know
enough, listen to your instinct or to your heart or other emotions. The
'listening' tells you alot and that process and the information gained
about yourself is valuable.
I can't answer well your question regarding successes versus mistakes
because I think that, in some sense, 'mistakes' are also successes
because of what you've (hopefully) learned about yourself in the
processes. (that's the Zen Big Mind view). Anyway, it all comes down to
trusting _yourself_.
>> [alex]
>> That takes confidence, or trust, or blind faith...how do I tell if I'm
>> being over-confident, or gullible, or trusting?
>
> [amara]
> You do your best to be ready. Then you jump. Blindfolded. Can be
> frightening. Then you see the result. Some times you will know that
> you made a mistake. Other times you will know that you did exactly
> the right thing. Each time you learn, so you never lose. After all,
> if you're not making mistakes, then you are not trying and you are
> not living.
[alex]
>...but if the first couple of times you get it wrong, the 'mistake' has
>such grievious consequences that it becomes illogical to trust again.
>The price of the mistake was too high to risk it happening again...no
>matter how many 'interaction' buttons you get invited to press, one of
>them might have the psychological equivalent of a nuclear arsenal
>attached to it. Hmmm...so if I trust you, I'm saying 'I'm willing to
>risk a fate worse than death here for no particular reason'? Does this
>make me brave, gullible or deluded?
>More important, what are the odds on mistakes vs. successful
>interactions? : }
-- *********************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ *********************************************************************** "What I like most about myself is that I'm so understanding when I do something wrong." --Ashleigh Brilliant
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