Compassion and non-violence enable us to see the enemy's point of view.
To hear his questions. To know his assessment of us. It may be through his
point of view that we may come to see the basic weaknesses of our own
condition. And if we are mature, we may learn, and grow, and profit by the
wisdom of our brothers whom we call, 'the opposition'.
Martin Luther King Jr. |
David Bohm defined 'dialogue' as a free flow of meaning among people in communication. A key difference between dialogue and ordinary
conversation is that in the latter, people usually hold relatively fixed positions and argue in favor of their views as they try to convince others
to change. In dialogue, however, a person may prefer a certain position, but he or she is ready to listen to others with sufficient sympathy and
interest to understand the meaning of others' positions properly, and is also ready to change his or her point of view if there is good reason to
do so. Dialogue implies a very deep change in how the mind works. It is essential that each participant suspend his or her point of view, while
also holding other points of view in a suspended form and giving full attention to what they mean. In doing so, each participant has to
suspend his or her own tacit infrastructure of ideas. Freedom from the tacit infrastructure of ideas, worldview, and so forth, brings about the
true spirit of dialogue.
Leroy Little Bear
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