Open Your Mind

"Open your mind."  It is a phrase much maligned by those with concrete beliefs, and it usually follows the other favorite, "You are so stubborn!"  But, is this wrong?

No, not necessarily.  It speaks to you having an opinion, your opinion, but at least you have one which, nowadays, is becoming an oddity.  People have become lazy and incapable of thinking for themselves.  It seems like more and more people enjoy having the opinions of other people, which is fine except they don't know why they have the opinion because it isn't theirs.  Saying you feel the way you feel because so-and-so feels that way and it sounds good to you, aren't reasons.  It's kind of like voting the political party, not the candidate.  It might also be like having faith in the scripture.  Is it your faith, or the ministers?  If he told you to drink the Kool-Aid, would you?

"I believe in having a more open mind and including others who don't share your faith and having dialogue with them.  And just having a pure heart and being a good person can bring you closer to God.  Because once you believe in one particular religion fully and not others, that requires you to start disliking people who don't share your views."

-- Ishmael Beah, author, human rights activist

People take scripture on faith, which is why they call it faith.  Whether they had religion spoon fed to them when young, or found it when they matured, faith in scripture can be a good thing.  It can be a good thing.  It can also have you moving in circles, or stop you in your tracks, which might not be a good thing.  I don't think God's intent was to have us hold up a book as a focus for our faith.  I don't have faith in the Bible, I have faith in God.  God gave us stone tablets with commandments on them.  I never read that God delivered the Bible from on high.  The Bible has way too many issue for me, too many contradictions, and leaves itself open for too much interpretation by divisive ministers whose agenda is to convince you their way is the only way.  What?  I thought God's way was the only way.  What would Jesus do?  Hello?  Better yet, ask why Jesus would do it.  We tend to muddle the obvious with too much philosophical discussion and ministerial ego.  It is what it is.

I try not to detract from the importance of scripture.  I think it has its place in kick starting belief and giving one a good foundation.  But, a foundation without a building is incomplete and a waste of what God gave us - a mind.

"Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds.  I have always kept an open mind, a flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for the truth."

-- Malcolm X (1925-1965), Muslim minister, human rights activist

Opening your mind doesn't only mean to be open to other ideas and to change. You can also open your mind. You can sit in your car and view the pristine setting in the woods, the wildflowers, pine trees, and the steam flowing through it, or you can get out of the car and open your mind to the smells, sounds, and texture of what you only see from the comfort and safety of the car. This is what I mean by being stopped in your tracks. You have been put on a path from birth. If you allow yourself to be spoon-fed faith you risk not moving down that path, or walking someone else's path, believing someone else's faith. Your path, like your faith, needs to be your own. If it happens to run parallel to someone else's, let it be a happy coincidence.

Open your mind to the wonder that is reality.  If you want to call it God, Mother Nature, Creation, Gaia, or Energy, have some faith in it.  Above all, question everything, even your faith, for it is through questioning we expand our knowledge about the universe, our reality, ourselves, our path, and our God.  Through knowledge we can strengthen our faith.  And it doesn't matter if you aren't the sharpest tool in the shed.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to grasp the obvious, it usually escapes them anyway.

"I don't believe complete assimilation is possible, at least not for anyone who has an active, open mind.  Every step, every entry into the flows of existence can be seen as a beginning, a commencement of a brand new way of seeing oneself in the world.  This is the case for everyone."

-- Chang-Rae Lee, novelist, professor

Open your mind and you'll find you've been searching way too hard to find what is right in front of you.  Stop trying so hard to be happy, you're already there.  Stop trying so hard to be saved, you already have been.  Stop trying so hard to understand, it is right in front of you.  If you don't think anybody loves you, stop and ask yourself why you don't.

Just take a moment, and open your mind.  You will find the path ahead is very clear.  Now... move!  Time to get on down your path, for as Mark Twain once noted:

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."

Note from Pastor Tony, the founder of the Congregation for Religious Tolerance, as well as the author and editor of "The Path," the Congregation's official blogsite:  

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion.  It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other.  An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion and debate in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth.  After over twenty years as a military intelligence analyst, planner, and briefer, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human.  God's test for us is what we do afterward, and what we learn from the experience.
  

Frank Anthony Villari, Pastor