11/27/2025
"Sometimes we think that the only way to make someone a better person, and, by extension, make the world a better place, is to convince them that they should see things our way. But there are plenty of people around us who don’t behave the way we think they should, and we waste energy trying to convince them to be something they are not, instead of allowing them to be who they are.
When we think that we know more or better than someone else, we are setting ourselves up for a clash of beliefs. This is what corrupts a beautiful idea. The idea can be anything—organic food, civil rights, tolerance, animal rights, world peace . . . or any seemingly noble idea you can think of.
As long as we engage in the I-am-right-and-you-are-wrong struggle, there will always be conflict. It is our attachment to being right—our attachment to our personal importance—that keeps us from experiencing freedom in both our Personal Dream and the Dream of the Planet.
Without respect for the freedom of choice, peace is not possible.
Freedom of choice is not about being right or wrong; it is about respecting one another as human beings in order to create a community that we share with one another."
-don Miguel Ruiz Jr.
The Five Levels of Attachment
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