Opening your mind is an exercise that may prove to you that you don’t know as much as you once thought. No one knows enough to be a pessimist about anything. When any of us closes our mind or closes off what is possible for us or possible for humanity, closes off the Holy Spirit within us which is the connection to God. Having an open mind doesn’t necessarily mean that we find fault in all that we were taught by others, but rather opening your mind to the idea that anything and everything is possible. A mind that is open to everything but attached to nothing. This is contrary to a trait that is so prevalent in the contemporary world, which is the obsession of finding offense in all matters. Most people that I meet spend their lives looking for occasions to be offended. They are actually hoping to find ways to be offended. And there is no shortage of ways; from what someone says, to the clothes they wear, to what is on TV, and so on. But a mind that is open says, “I’m never offended by what is going on out there.” I think, that’s an interesting point of view.” “I’ve never considered that before.”
As Emerson said in 1842, in his essay The Transcendentalist, “The first thing we have to say respecting what are called new views here in New England, at the present time, is, that they are not new, but the very oldest of thoughts cast into the mould of these new times.” An open minded person sees an idea instead of an offense, which makes one an idealist. Emerson went on to say, “The idealist, in speaking of events, sees them as spirits. He does not deny the sensuous fact: by no means; but he will not see that alone.” So I would suggest that we redirect our energy that we dedicate to be offended to that of opening our minds.
The ultimate realization of all of this philosophy is that if you think you know the absolute answer, you may find that you actually know very little. The saving grace is that we have God and He is looking out for us. That’s faith—which is nothing without an open mind.
God speed!
5 comments:
Now I'm not going to comment on most of the posts in this blog, I feel that it would be like kicking a hornet's nest (ha!), but I will comment on this one. I read it a few times and I am trying to understand your view of open-mindedness. What is open-mindedness? Is it even possible to be totally open-minded? I think that if you ask most people, even the most heinous racist will state firmly, "I am open minded!" I myself believe that I am extremely open-minded, a very "live and let live" type of person, and yet there are instances where I claim to know "the truth" and refuse to acknowledge other viewpoints. A case in point would be my view that pedophilia is wrong, for instance. Even though I can see things from a pedophile's perspective, and I can look at the situation with an open mind, I call what that person does "wrong." Is this claim by me that pedophilia is wrong based on closed-mindedness? What I am getting at here is that I don't believe that anyone is truly open-minded, at some point we just have to go on what we think we know. As far as an open minded person never getting offended, I think that sometimes it's important to get offended. Good thing we get offended at acts of violence! Other times, people get offended for no particular reason or because it feels good to be outraged. I love watching the O'Reilly Factor to get outraged.
Happy Easter,
Joshua
Ah! I forgot I was going to go back and expound on the pedophilia thing! We say pedophilia is wrong, because it hurts children. Why is hurting children wrong? Because we ourselves would not like to be hurt. Why do we not want to be hurt? Because we know it feels bad. What I am saying is that deep down, we have to assign a "right/wrong" value to things, and we do this based on what we know to be true. We know hurting people is wrong, so we don't allow it. But would an purely open-minded person say that hurting people might be ok? Maybe. They might say that all of the facts aren't in yet on hurting people. Just think, Abraham "knew" on the way to the sacrificial altar that killing his son was the right thing to do. Later his views were changed. What is right? What is wrong? At some point we define them, no matter how open-minded we claim to be.
I think that the mere fact that we are human, earthbound creatures limits our thinking and perception. The best we can hope for is to attempt to be open to things we do not understand or things we just don’t like. No one is truly, completely open minded; but the fact that you try to be puts you in a better, more receptive position than those of us that don’t. Wouldn’t you agree?
Bubbie,
Does being open minded mean that we can’t define what we learn through this open mindedness as being right or wrong? Does being open minded mean not being able to accept something as right or wrong because as soon as we make that judgment call we are no longer open minded? I think we have to be careful about what we are open minded to. Satan is looking for every opportunity to lead us astray. In the example Joshua used of the pedophile, he left his mind open to the enticing of Satan, which led down a path that was wrong, but Satan probably convinced him in the pedophile’s own mind that in some twisted way it was right, just as the racist believes he is right and does so in the name of God. We have been taught from our parents and from the teachings of Christ what is right and what is wrong and these are tools given to us to help us along life’s journey to make the right choices.
I feel that open mindedness is like faith, because it is an unknown. When we have faith, we have nothing tangible in front of us to prove our faith in something is true, but we are going with what the Holy Spirit testifies to us is true. I didn’t see Jesus walking the earth myself, or witness his crucifixion, or His resurrection but I have faith that he existed and did all that the scriptures testify of Him because the Holy Spirit has manifested this to me. My mind was open to the reception of the Holy Spirit so that I could learn this truth for myself. I guess this means that I am close minded to any other thought that Jesus did not exist, which is Satan’s plan to make us think so, but I am still open minded to the things of God. I feel we have to use our open mindedness along with faith in God so that the Holy Spirit can testify to us the truth of all things whether they be right or whether they be wrong. We can not rely upon our own selves to make those judgment calls-we must put all things into God’s hands.
The scriptures are full of God’s mystery and we must be open minded to the Holy Spirit so that we can search these scriptures and discover those mysteries, especially because we are humans with limited thinking and perceptions as Bubbie pointed out.
I also want to comment about the statement Joshua made using Abraham as an example of wondering what is right and what is wrong. Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? It was a test to prove Abraham’s trust, faith and obedience. This had to be the most difficult test for Abraham because, not only was Isaac his son, but God had promised Abraham that the Abrahamic covenant would continue through Isaac and his descendants.
Let’s consider Isaac for a moment. There is no indication that Isaac opposed the intention of Abraham to sacrifice him. Dallin H. Oaks explained: “When they came to the prescribed place, Abraham built an altar and laid wood upon it. Then, the Bible says, ‘Abraham…bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood’ (Genesis 22:9). What did Isaac think when Abraham did such a strange thing? The Bible mentions no struggle or objection. Isaac’s silence can be explained only in terms of his trust in and obedience to his father” (Ensign, Nov. 1992, 37).
Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac was a similitude of Heavenly Father’s willingness to sacrifice his Only Begotten Son. Abraham never changed his mind about whether it was right or wrong, he never questioned it for a moment, but God himself sent an angel to Abraham just as he was lifting the knife and told Abraham that he was not to go through with the sacrifice. Abraham had passed the test. Then God provided a ram to Abraham and Isaac, that was caught in the thicket, to be sacrificed instead.
Isaac symbolizes us and the ram is a symbol of Christ being offered for a sacrifice instead of us. Dallin H. Oaks goes on to say, “This story…shows the goodness of God in protecting Isaac and in providing a substitute so he would not have to die. Because of our sins and our mortality, we, like Isaac, are condemned to death. When all other hope is gone, our Father in Heaven provides the Lamb of God, and we are saved by his sacrifice”.
Another reason that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is because Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham! What have we learned about ourselves from our own trials? Do we lose our faith and hope or do we continue steadfast in our faith that God will be there for us and trust that we will come out all right no matter how difficult the trials?
Daisy
Good words.
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