Thinking about Thinking

Originally published 7/6/08, 7:34 pm.
Did you know that:

1. My rebbe is better than your rebbe?
2. My Sevara [logic] is better than your Sevara?
3. I am Holier than Thou?
4. My community has it right, yours is wrong or at best mistaken?
5. God thinks just like I do?
6. Since I have always believed it to be this way it must be true?
7. I know others cannot be infallible because I see the errors of their ways?
8. etc.?

I made an "early" foray into the world of "egolessness" not by studying Zen or New Age spirituality, but by being introduced to a very insightful book by a very observant and sincere Convert to Judaism. This friend of mine helped mentor me into becoming a computer programmer and he highly recommended the following tome, The Pscyhology of Computer Programming. In it, the highly rational author, Gerald Weinberg, preached the "gospel" of ego-less programming. imagine if we had egoless debating on blogs and discussion lists when it comes to matters of Torah. I now this is possible because the B'nai B'seira set an amazing example of egolessness in deferring to Hillel the Elder. So this trait is in our genes and in our legacy.
I realize that I, myself, allow my ego to get in my own way, and I am astounded at the way some of my cyber-debaters are so wrapped up in their pet paradigms that they fail to see it. I guess I am only ahead of some others in that I can usually show how my own pet paradigms and prejudices lead me to think the way I do. Whereas my colleagues are often clueless as to how they are really seeing things through ego based distortions. In an effort to raise all of our consciousness, I will from time to time post some useful info on how we can see through the egocentric thinking and arrive at a more objective truth.
My late dear Student, Reb Tony Yeni, died tragically last year at a rather young age. He left me several pamphlets including one from this website:

• http://www.criticalthinking.org/

Below is a blurb regarding Egocentric thinking. There is a more definitive blurb on page 6 of The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools. For now this blurb will do.
For complete details on this, please see the
Critical Thinking Website

KT,
RRW

Strategy Six: Deal with Your Egocentrism. Egocentric thinking is found in the disposition in human nature to think with an automatic subconscious bias in favor of oneself. On a daily basis, you can begin to observe your egocentric thinking in action by contemplating questions like these: Under what circumstances do I think with a bias in favor of myself? Did I ever become irritable over small things? Did I do or say anything “irrational” to get my way? Did I try to impose my will upon others? Did I ever fail to speak my mind when I felt strongly about something, and then later feel resentment? Once you identify egocentric thinking in operation, you can then work to replace it with more rational thought through systematic self-reflection, thinking along the lines of: What would a rational person feel in this or that situation? What would a rational person do? How does that compare with what I want to do? (Hint: If you find that you continually conclude that a rational person would behave just as you behaved you are probably engaging in self-deception.)