“Look, man, I need more friends, and strong political opinions is not going to get me there. Love is going to get me there, tolerance is going to get me there. A sense of curiosity about other people is going to get me there, and strong political opinions is going to put me in the wrong direction.
Intention is fine, but attachment is bad.”
“Look, it’s not that I don’t have these views, I just don’t have the attachment to these views.
…if you’re super attached to it, then you’re going to freak out when something throws you off. And furthermore, you’re not going to recognize the fact that it is the voyage itself that is the adventure of life, not actually reaching the particular destination, whether it’s the original one or one that turns out to be better or worse or wherever you wind up.
Thích Nhất Hạnh said one of the greatest attachments that people have in modern life is to their views and opinions. That’s a real attachment. It can be as dangerous as your attachment to money or power. Why? Because people treat their opinions as if they were gold, they’re jewels. “Get between me and my political opinions, man, I’ll cancel you. I’ll get you fired. I’ll denounce you on social media. Who knows, maybe I’ll be violent.” I mean, life is crazy these days. And so I looked at it and I thought, am I weighed down by attachment to my views, to my political views? So I wrote down five of my strongest political views and I crossed them out.”
Intention is fine, but attachment is bad. I need more friends, too.
Comments welcome!