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/ \ Even very accomplished thinkers find themselves quite susceptible to 'arguing on the internet'. If they can't sort it out, who can?
I'd love to read an account of two people who enter into a conversation with diametrically opposing views, who work it out.
Better yet would be an example of where this occurred online.
I think genuinely communicating would be a start. Then understanding one another might follow. I don't believe the former occurred until they agreed to stop the correspondence.
I think generally what occurs is that people become so wedded to their positions that it interferes with their capacity or at least willingness to really communicate.
I don't think either attempted to overlook their position about what was going on for the other long enough to try to understand the point of view of the other.
They were both attached to being right (about different aspects of the argument). That commitment is always going to be an obstacle to understanding the other as the other understands them which to my mind is where the real value in conversation lies.
It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's organic in nature and so wonderful to observe. I've seen chat groups that seem to thrive in debating, act as one mind. Also, the more extensive the vocabulary, the more of a challenge it is.
I have been bewildered by this. So much debating and arguing going on, and in a shocking number of cases, by people that are claiming that they have transcended such things, that they have attained some place of freedom where they are clear that they (or anyone else) actually don't exist.
It amazes me that such non-existent entities would find the need to argue, to demonstrate that they are right.
Thinkers like to debate, to be right.
Thinking says nothing about the state of one's heart, and what one has actually experienced and realized.
Too often, being able to clearly articulate truths and teachings passes for knowledge or some form of attainment - but the proof of the pudding is always in how it's actually lived, and the act of arguing usually runs counter to what they're actually purporting to know.
ps/shoh
