Bias, Prejudice & Perfection.

 "Inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair".

 "Cause to feel or show inclination or prejudice for or against someone or something".

I prefer to think that I am rational & logical in my thinking. I hope that I am not particularly prejudiced against anyone or anything. I would like to be kind, willing to be open to other ways of doing things, generous, non judgmental......

But if that were the case I would be a perfect human being. Patently not true. I am flawed. I have personal beliefs & traits which may or may not result in bias.

I don't like some modern art, Mark Rothko for example. I am prejudiced against it & think that it's a con. I'm inclined to think that many male politicians are self serving & egotistical. I believe that we have made a complete mess of handling drug addiction & am very biased towards legalisation & control by Medics. I am also biased agaist our justice system & don't believe it achieves much that is useful. I could go on.

Actually I am full of bias & prejudice. There isn't much perfection lurking in my brain. I am the sum of my experience, good & bad. I was indoctrinated by my upbringing, education & professional life. So were we all. I think working hard is important & am very biased against people I feel are lazy. I am very careful about money & don't waste it. I am biased against people I think are spendthrift. I value intelligence, I don't tolerate fools easily.....

I'm inclined to be a liberal socialist. I'm inclined to love art & feel very inadequate about anything mathematical. I make judgments about people very quickly - whether I like them or not, whether I want to spend any time with them. I'm inclined to put others before myself.

The point is that I do know whether I am biased. I do know what my prejudices are. Knowing is power. Knowing means that I can try to overcome prejudice. Buddhists believe in the Eightfold Path of right views, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. That, simply, is Life. A journey towards being as good as you can be.