Definition:

And so you turn around, and find yourself in an open mind. And as such, you may realize that to have an open mind is to allow for the possibility… of not having an open mind. This means both that you would be willing to consider giving up having an open mind if you saw a reason, and that you may not have had one before you turned around. As such, one who is open minded is one who is willing to allow for the possibility that one is a) wrong, and b) biased. After this realization, one is willing to consider new ideas, and considering new ideas is the basis for open mindedness. Once various ideas are considered, the person can become biased again, but the person will be better at it than most — out of knowledge.

And This Is Good Because…?

1. Knowledge: As you openly consider the variety of options the there are in this universe, you greatly expand your mind. You begin to collect a variety of facts, such as traditions, philosophies, and fishing tricks. Then, you also begin to understand people: how they think because of who they are. There is no way that one could truly understand a person without walking in their proverbial shoes. Then, one also begins to understand the universe, because of one’s new found philosophies. The world seems to have more purpose, more reason, and your life begins to come together, because you have belief in a philosophy. For example, I had once thought, long, on why I was here, what my life would be worth if I were to die, and if it eventually amounted to nothing, then what is the purpose of me continuing to live? I came to a conclusion, then — and I don’t know if it will change — that my life will be meaningful if I have a positive impact on this planet. Then, once my philosophy and beliefs were established, then I could begin to build my life surrounding this. However, if I had not stopped to think about myself, and consider who I am, and who I want to be, and look around at what is out there, and change my way of thinking, and eventually better myself — how would I?
2. People’s criticisms/attacks become understandable: Once you begin to understand people, by considering who they are and what they are, and thinking in their proverbial shoes, then you understand that any time that they attack you, they are doing it because they are *blank.* You then have a choice to be angry at them back. Since you understand them, you can then go on to empathize with them, and try and help them. Also, when you begin to consider changing some biases, then you might start to understand why they do something hurtful and completely unhelpful — like saying that something you spent hours on sucks. They think it sucks, and you can understand why. Heck, through this, you might actually make it suck less. Everyone likes something that doesn’t suck, and especially so if it doesn’t suck for everyone out there, rather than only people who think like you.
3. Tolerance: Once the mind is opened to various forms of thought, various philosophies, and various cultures, one becomes more tolerant of them. A lot of hate and fear stems from something that one does not understand, or something one does not know (the unknown). If the lack of understanding/knowledge is removed, then the hate and fear is also removed. Therefore, even if one does not agree with what a person thinks or believes, then one can still tolerate them. This also applies to intangible things, such as ideas or philosophies.
4. Living Philosophically, Rather Than Emotionally: People often react based on what chemicals their bodies send out as an instinctive response, out of reactional habits that they create in their mind, out of biases, or out of mood (there are other reasons as well). However, once a mind is more open to various philosophies that exist, it can start to have more control over the body. A person, then, starts to react more out of what they believe in life, rather than what they instinctively want to do. For example, a person from your street throws a rock at you (maybe not so likely sometimes, but who knows?). At this point, the instinct might be to become angry, to throw the rock back, to give them hell about it, to punch them, etc. However, perhaps you remember that your philosophy dictates that wars are stupid, that “an eye for an eye would make the whole world blind” (Gandhi), or that unkindness meeting with unkindness only leads to further unkindness. At this point, one no longer lives emotionally, they live philosophically.
5. Forging Your Own Path and Beliefs: In modern times, religion in the western world tends to be more of a set of guidelines and rules for how to live your life with morals (For example, a Christian might follow the ten commandments, and some other philosophies from the bible, but might not go to church each week). These are wonderful for the people of most religions, because they mean that the people do not have to wonder about what is right or wrong, because it’s clearly stated by their religion, after many years of revision and interpretation. However, that is a matter of following rules, not a matter of necessarily understanding right and wrong. Open mindedness allows one to know what there is to believe, and therefore make up one’s own mind as to what is right and wrong. It also allows them to wonder around their lives and re-think the way they act, react, think, and smell. This is only possible after allowing for the possibility that the way that one thinks isn’t the best way. There are always new philosophies for the making and taking.
6. Understanding Yourself: Once one spends a lot of time re-thinking everything in life, choosing the philosophies that seem the most right, and living differently, one can understand one’s self. One knows everything about what they believe, and why. There beings a time when one can explain their every move, once it is questioned — and the best part is, that if they are proven wrong, they can accept it and change themselves for the better. This creates a person that is always striving to be the best person that they can be, not a person that is always striving to be right.
7. Feeling of Freedom: I don’t know what to say about this one exactly. It’s a freeing feeling, that I’m not bogged down by instant emotional responses. Also, what I think people don’t realize is that they aren’t free — they have biases, bosses, families that control their lives, and many much more nasty things. The open mindedness at least gives you the freedom to understand yourself, and after your goals in life are all set up, then everything else sets into place. You realize that since you can change yourself, you can change your life, and you can be free.

On the other hand…

This all takes a lot of work. People are generally happy believing what they do, and even if it is harmful ignorance, what does it matter to them, and their families? Nothing, really. Is there something wrong with your life, really? If not, why do you need to better yourself? You don’t. Most people don’t like being called ignorant, but we all know that ignorance it bliss. Therefore, there really isn’t anything wrong with it on a very self-centred kind of level, and if that’s the level that one is on, what else does one need?

But personally, I like to have the ability to be able to think both ways.

Challenges

Problem: There is a difference between acceptance of other’s beliefs and open mindedness. Open mindedness assumes the willingness/ability to change if the change seems like the best thing, if that’s what your striving for. A quotation from what I’ve written before goes as such: “… you may open your mind to options that are outside of your normal thought sphere. So please, read, consider, set aside your biases (if you have any ), and see all your options — then make up your own mind on what you should believe. ” The catch here is that a) no one can tell you (theoretical “you”) that you’re closed-minded without an argument, and even then you may not believe it out of closed mindedness; b) perhaps you think that you’ve found what is “the best thing” for yourself and therefore no change is necessary because your previous open-mindedness has led you to the proper set of beliefs. The last catch (c) is that everyone is biased, always, about everything, because of what they know about the subject. If you know more, you’re still biased — just better at it.

Solution: tell yourself that you are wrong and that something else is right in order to attempt to shed your biases temporarily. At that point, try to see if you really are wrong in your beliefs. Alternatively, do nothing and be happy with yourself.

It’s all your choice. The only limit is yourself. (zombo.com is probably right)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 5:30 am and is filed under Open Mindedness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.