Biased by Love

The common-sense views of a normal, i.e., socially adapted, citizen were supposed to be rational and not in need of depth analysis. But this is not true at all. Our conscious motivations, ideas, and beliefs are a blend of false information, biases, irrational passions, rationalizations, prejudices, in which morsels of truth swim around and give the reassurance, albeit false, that the whole mixture is real and true. The thinking process attempts to organize this whole cesspool of illusions according to the laws of logic and plausibility. This level of consciousness is supposed to reflect reality; it is the map we use for organizing our life. This false map is not repressed. What is repressed is the knowledge of reality, the knowledge of what is true.

(Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be)

Can we be without a bias and free of ego? Can we really view reality as is just as psychologists and philosophers once aspired? Well, we can observe the agenda of our ego. Yes, we can stand up to it and - with enormous use of psychic energy - keep the fellow at bay. Yet, "reality" - the thing itself, as the German philosopher Kant once called it - we will never grasp. We are just not wired for it; we don't even have the sensory equipment to grasp it. "Reality" does not exist from our perspective, yet, we have to deal with what we perceive. So what really exists is a choice: ego or love, right perception or fear. The choice is ours, moment by moment.

A spiritual path is not about becoming unbiased. We leave one bias behind and embrace its opposite. This world of ours has been set up just like a virtual reality show to help us find our Self. The rules are simple, ego or love with nothing in between. Misery or peace, passion or serenity; fear or love. The choice is entirely ours. The ego is not something that you can fight or leave behind. But you can make friends with your personality blanked; you can head in a direction that equally excites ego and Soul.  Along the Way every step is meaningful and love can be discovered in every situation. Go for it, teach the stubborn fellow called ego that choosing love is always in your best interest. We will always be biased so we might as well chose love.