The ninth strategy for connecting with conscience is to think critically and have humility.
We learn this strategy from the rabbis who codified Jewish law. For them, it was not a strategy. It was a way of life.
The rabbis of the Talmud, intellectual and spiritual giants, engaged in heated debates over the fine points of the law in order to get to the truth. They examined every possible angle because truth is always bigger than what one person can see.
However, in practice it’s impossible to create a legal system that never comes to any practical conclusions. So they had to devise a way to decide which opinion would be codified in the law. Their guidelines were that it should show critical thinking and humility.
Critical thinking meant endless questioning to test the soundness of an argument. Humility meant it did not matter to them if their argument was declared unsound.
It was decided that the school of Hillel met this criteria because they carefully considered the other group’s opinion. They wanted to get at the truth and had no personal stake in winning the argument.
Similarly, critical thinking and humility are essential to developing a relationship with conscience. Conscience requires humility to be open to a calling that comes from beyond one’s self and conscience requires critical thinking to test whether the arguments in one’s head are grounded in reality.