“Just My Opinion”

What was Roshi Bernie saying when he said that? I hear many people – I think it may be mostly people who didn’t know Bernie – taking it as a license to treat their own opinions as gospel. Almost. What the teacher said is just an opinion, and what I think is just opinion; all opinions are equal; one opinion is as good as another.

“Just My Opinion” is a koan which somehow I began working with years before I met Bernie. It was my “boss” koan when I’d first moved into middle management. I’d promoted one of my people to the frontline position I’d just left. He disagreed with me strongly right away. We struggled for a while, but I couldn’t convince him. The light I saw – this is what I told him – is that when we disagree – I could be wrong – we go with my opinion. That’s my job. But that wasn’t the end of my learning.

A few years later, I had another go at the koan. Again, I’d promoted someone into a frontline management position and right off the bat she disagreed with me. I was astonished. She knew more about this operation than I did. She’d been working there for years. This time the light I saw – and this is what I told her – was when we disagreed, once we’d fully discussed it, if we still disagreed, we’d go with her opinion.

I wasn’t done yet. Twenty years later, I came back again to this koan. We were building our charter schools, and my focus was on developing the next generation of leaders. My response morphed again. This time, when we disagree, you have to struggle with my objections. If you still disagree, you can follow your heart, unless I think your way could do serious damage to our schools or your career. Then I’ll tell you, “No.”

“Just My Opinion.” For me, and I think for Bernie, just-my-opinion is not a license for righteousness or arrogance. It was an expression of humility, a teaching I return to again and again.