Killing Ideas
And bringing them back to life
On committing murder, conquering death, and performing miracles…
Recently, an acquaintance described people of a certain ethnicity (let’s call them Dalpharians), as ugly, stupid, and dishonest. This “insight” was not based on an exhaustive analysis of Dalpharians, but based on a sample of one: the acquaintance’s (now former) Dalpharian business partner.
Consider the phrase: “All Dalpharians are Ugly”.
If you believe this, then you convince yourself that every Dalpharian is ugly, and not a single one is, in your eyes, pretty, handsome, beautiful, or any other form of not-ugly.
In other words, you’ve killed ideas like “A Dalpharian could be pretty”, “A Dalpharian could be handsome”, etc.
Mea Culpa
Now you might think that my acquaintance is the one who is stupid (and also likely ugly and dishonest), but we all make judgments like the above.
Or in other words, we all murder ideas.
Instinctively, you might consider this “killing”, ignorant and prejudiced. But there is a good reason we all do it.
Prejudice is very energy efficient, brain-power-wise.
It is much easier to believe that “All Dalpharians are stupid”. As opposed to keeping track of which ones are and which ones are not. Or even worse — keeping nuanced information like the fact that some might be stupid in certain situations and certain times, but not in others, and so on.
Hence, while the above example is very clear and obvious, we are mostly unaware of why, how, and where we kill ideas.
An Open Mind
If you want to stop committing murder, then the first step is to accept that you do: that you are ignorant and prejudiced. The second step is to watch yourself. And notice when you commit murder. The third step is to resurrect the ideas that you’ve killed.
For example, when I challenged my acquaintance on his judgement and pointed out several counter examples of Dalpharians who were not ugly, not stupid, and not dishonest, he finally came around to the idea that some Dalpharians might not be ugly, stupid, and dishonest.
The main benefit of not killing ideas is that you will see the world for what it really is. As opposed to your own little prejudiced view.
Some people refer to this as having an “open mind”.
Death
Many people fear death. The death. The death at the end of life. Physical death.
But in reality, we die a little each time we kill an idea. Hence, we don’t die once, but we die many times. A slow death, by slow torture. The worst thing about this death-by-a-thousand-cuts, is that, paradoxically, we are unaware of it.
Physical death itself is punishment for a crime we’ve committed. The crime of believing “This body is mine, my body, it is me”. In other words, we have killed the idea “This body is not mine; it is not my body, it is not me”.
I’m not implying that the latter idea is true — but implicitly almost all of us have killed it. Hence, we fear death, suffer all manner of anxieties and regrets as a result.
Miracles
The good news is that a cure exists. With ideas we can perform miracles. We can bring any idea back to life.
The moment we stop believing that Dalpharians are all ugly, stupid, and dishonest, our lives might be blessed with the wisdom of one, the honor of one, or the beauty of one.
And similarly, the moment we stop believing “This body is not mine; it is not my body, it is not me”, we conquer death.
A wise person strives to bring every idea that they have killed, back to life. And enlightenment is when every idea has been thus resurrected. When we have done all that needs to be done.
