Written by Mathew Naismith
We
are simply born with an open mind, all else is a condition of the mind by our
environment to think one way or another. I have allowed my step daughter to be
and think as she likes, she is now a self-proclaimed atheist. At no point has
my wife or I tried to influence her to be and think as we are. I started off my
life in an atheistic environment, I am now a............what ever. I am a what
ever simply because of the extent of my open mindedness.
We
are born with an open mind, this means we are neither a believer of disbeliever
of anything as all our beliefs and disbeliefs are determined by our
environment. Did I disbelieve in God when I was born? No, as I simply had no
comprehension of what beliefs and disbelief were until my environment
determined what was a belief and what was a disbelief. My atheistic environment
soon determined what was a disbelief. This closed mindedness of what to believe
and what to disbelieve limited my acceptance of other people and their views,
in other words my consciousness was being limited to certain specifics and
certain specifics only. Having experienced certain experiences beyond what
atheism dogmatically determined to exist, I found myself drifting away from the
exceptionally limiting doctrines of atheism.
I
have got myself in a lot of trouble being so open minded, I have lost count how
many people have been offended by my open mindedness. To give you an idea of my
open mindedness, I don't believe we experience various lives; we experience one
life while experiencing different experiences from one life experience to
another. It's like a stage play where you act in one play, (one life), while acting
(experiencing) different scenes or acts. It's as though I am looking at life through
the soul perspective instead of the human perspective, there is no separation
as in the perception of individual lives lived. It's one life with different
scenes or environments to experience life through.
Looking
at life through a soul perspective has conditioned my human mind to not just
look at myself as being of a particular colour or culture. I don't see myself
as being just of a white Australian. How many people today take offence of
another culture pointing out the truths in their own culture? If anyone from
another culture was to say how uncivilized we were in Australia
My
own environment of not separating one life experience from another, has allowed
me to look beyond my own colour, creed and culture. I once interacted with
Australian aboriginals that didn't think much of white people, in the end they
couldn't believe I was a white Australian. This was because I didn't firstly
see myself as a white Australian of a certain colour and creed, I was simply a
soul having an experience. How many US
citizens would be offended, especially if an Eastern cultured person, pointed
out that Australians are war mongers for supporting the US in nearly every conflict the US
How
often is the self put before the soul or spirit in a lot of new age
spirituality? It's most often about how good I humanly feel, not how good I
spiritually feel. A lot of relationships work like this. At first they please
each other and make each other feel good until the momentum of making each
other feel good all the time diminishes. What do a lot of new age spiritual
people do? Try expressing anything they have judged as being negative. You are
most often instantly disposed of because this so-called negative doesn't feed
their egos and makes them feel good all the time. I did not enter in a
relationship with my wife and expect her to make me feel good all the time or
even half the time, I certainly don't expect or demand this from life itself.
My
relationship with life itself, or if you like with God, Shiva, Allah, Gaia and
so on, is not built upon expecting or demanding that life should always be
about making me feel good or even positive. Look around you at present, see
what expecting or demanding that life makes us feel good all the time is doing.
Life itself isn't about feeling good, it's simply about an experience just like
the experience I have with my wife, where there are no expectations or demands
that we make each other feel good all the time. Today, most ideologies and isms
are being misused and abused in this way to simply feed an ever hungry ego in
control. This is what I call abuse of energy.
Considering
the following information, it's amazing how often I go way outside my comfort
zone to experience other people's experiences. At times this makes me feel
good, at other times it doesn't make me feel good but life experiences isn't,
to me, about feeling good, it's about a soul or spiritual experience. To
realise this, one must look through the eyes of the soul or spirit, not through
a controlling ego that demands to feel good all the time. What often occurs
when the ego in control is fed something that doesn't make it feel good? It's
usually labeled negative or toxic!!
Children are born Open-Minded. It’s Vital we don’t Teach
them Otherwise.
Extract: Open-mindedness is
receptiveness to new ideas. Open-mindedness relates to the way in which people
approach the views and knowledge of others, and "incorporate the beliefs
that others should be free to express their views and that the value of others’
knowledge should be recognized."[1][2] "An
open-minded person characteristically moves beyond or temporarily sets aside
his own doxastic commitments in order to give a fair and impartial hearing to
the intellectual opposition."[3]Another
closely related definition sees open-mindedness as the "willingness to
take a novel viewpoint seriously."[4]
According to Wayne Riggs, open-mindedness springs from an
awareness of the inherent fallibility of one's beliefs; hence, open-minded
individuals are more inclined to listen to, and seriously consider, alternative
viewpoints.
6 Keys to an Open Mind
1. Fight the urge to
react in anger when you hear differing opinions
2. Avoid closing
yourself off
3. Place yourself
out of your comfort zone
4. stay social and
make new friends
5. Don't be afraid
to ask questions
6. Avoid speculation
