Daily Reflection
A moment of peace and contemplation for your day.
The Wisdom
If you identify with a mental position, then if you are wrong, your mind-based sense of self is seriously threatened with annihilation. So you as the ego cannot afford to be wrong. To be wrong is to die. Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within, and it is available to you now. You can still make your point clearly and firmly, but there will be no reactive force behind it, no defense or attack.
The Reflection
The ego is cunning, so you have to be very alert, very present, and totally honest with yourself to see whether you have truly relinquished your identification with a mental position and so freed yourself from your mind. When you are defending an opinion, you are not defending the truth; you are defending your *image* of yourself. Truth does not need defense; it simply is.
The Practice
Today, observe your impulse to defend yourself or your opinions. When someone disagrees with you, notice the surge of energy that wants to fight back to prove you are "right." Instead of reacting, take a breath and let the need to be right go. State your truth simply, without the energy of defense.
The Mantra
"I stand in the truth, and I have nothing to defend."