Hong’s Cave

I guess this can be another view against black-and-white point of views… (this isn’t really not too well thought out yet…)

One of the frustrating things I see (not that I would really get frustrated or something) is that some people seem to believe that things can be only be one way or the other. Although sometimes I do envy some of their unwavering conviction, I can’t help but become sad and frustrated at their stubbornness and inflexibility.

I think these inflexible concepts and ideas are restricting people’s ability to understand. Their minds are already determined to believe and think the world as such without further inspection, when, in fact, those can be influenced and formed by other people’s interpretation of the world, experiencing very little of the world themselves. As I mentioned in another section, there is definitely a benefit to generalization and common sense (efficiency vs. flexibility). However, blindly believing that some opinions or something will be true all the time, seems simply just irresponsible (I think we have become quite too efficient at things).

I believe there is no absolute truth. There are facts and events, however, we will never get around to hearing or learning only those. They will always be filtered through someone’s interpretations. What I mean by “no absolute truth” (I do understand that it is self-conflicting) is that almost all the time, things can and will be interpreted differently. That is, even for the same events of things, they will have different circumstances or environments, which warrants different interpretations of the same events.

I think a lot of (most?) people seem to have difficulty carrying uncertainties and/or seemingly conflicting ideas without going insane. I think people like to generalize/categorize things because that way, they don’t have to think much and I guess, there are other things that are more immediate to their lives.

I think this ability to be comfortable with seemingly conflicting ideas can be very important. I think that might be the only way to be open to things beyond oneself.