Independent Thinking & Trust in One's Mind.

I am pretty sure that to be a good buddhist - at least in the diamond way school/lineage - one needs to be able to think independently, and one needs to trust in one's Mind.


But what is independent thinking?

After all, we are influenced by society, by media, by the internet, by religions, by collective psychology of a place we live in, etc.

Some people think they think independently, but are just repeating the words of others.

Do not get me wrong, I do not encourage not trusting wisdom of the wiser, sometimes trusting the wisdom of the wiser is very neccessery, I think.

I think I have inner teacher, that was introduced into my mind by the acts of meditation, and by the Refuge Ceremony that I've participated in.

I think that independent thinking can include lessons taken from others, even if not fully understood. The point is in deciding whether: 'Ok. This is for me', or 'This won't work very well in my case'. Making a choice of accepting the lesson or not, and then taking the responsibility - either: 'It's my own decision to think that way, to do things that way', or: 'It's my own decision to reeject this teaching, to not do it for now'. Independent thinkers also accept the consequences of their own decisions, instead of blaming teachers when something goes wrong. It's independent thinking to not blame teachers for the things we have heard from them, and opted to do by ourselves.


What is Trust in One's Mind?

I think it's impossible to know everything, to fully control our lives.

But then, we can take refuge in our friends and in our trusted teachers and in their lessons.

Then when we lose our / illusory / control over our lives, we have friends who can catch us when we fall. Everything turns to be allright, in the end.

'Falling' can be losing our / illusory / control over our lives, or losing a touch with reality. And reality is not as it seems or as explained by media, I think. I think and believe that miracles and supernatural powers are fact, for example. I've witnessed some in my life - for example during the Buddhist Refuge Ceremony i participated in.

When we fall, and friends whom we trust 'catch us up', it's like flying on the Icarus wings, then falling down. But then it's falling into a sea, and that sea is calm and warm. In the end one survives and is feeling well. :)

I've heard from a buddhist friend, she said that: 'Mind is like sea'. I think that it's true, regardless of whether one considers Mind to be personal, collective, or both.