I once heard Mindrolling Khandro Rinpoche say something that has stayed with me ever since: “When we truly understand interdependence, we move beyond linear thinking into a deeper understanding.”

Linear thinking sees the world in simple opposites: this is good, this is bad; this is your fault; who is to blame?

It is from this way of thinking that many of our opinions arise—especially the strong ones. We see the world from our own perspective, shaped by our upbringing, our culture, our experiences, our fears and our hopes. It is a little like looking into a vast room through a keyhole. Whatever we see is not only partial, it may even be distorted. And yet we often mistake that small fragment for the whole picture.

Listening to other people’s perspectives can broaden our understanding. Sometimes it does. But only if we are genuinely listening. More often than we realise, our opinions become part of our identity. We don’t simply have opinions—we become them. And then a conversation is no longer an exploration but a fight. Instead of opening our minds, we fortify our positions.

As our understanding of interdependence deepens, something begins to change. We gradually realise that reality is woven from an unimaginable network of causes and conditions. The more deeply we look, the more layers reveal themselves. Certainty becomes more difficult to maintain, and very strong opinions begin to soften—not because we stop caring, but because we realise how much we cannot see.

Of course, we will still have points of view. We still have to make choices, take responsibility, and sometimes act decisively.

But perhaps we hold those views more lightly. Not because truth no longer matters, but because we begin to understand that reality is almost always more subtle, more interconnected, and much deeper than our first conclusions allow. And perhaps that is where wisdom begins. Not in always being right, but in seeing enough of the whole to become a little less certain of our own perspective of it.