Open Your Mind

Keeping an open mind is perhaps one of the most important things a person can do. When minds are closed, hearts are closed, and when hearts are closed, there is no room for unconditional love for your fellow human being. This is one thing that contributes to our current crisis in the world. The inability to keep an open mind. People have their beliefs and too often people can't branch out and broaden their horizons. What harm would it do you to just see a different perspective? Ask someone who thinks differently from you "Why do you see it this way?". I think one reason that this does not occur as often is because people feel threatened by other beliefs, and I think it's people's fear of being wrong. Being right and getting the last word seems to be of great importance to people, and I think that is the result of people's egocentric way of thinking. Such a conversation between two or more people explaining why they think the way they do is not necessarily to change minds, but to create understanding. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing and it doesn't mean that one of you is wrong and the other is right.
But instead of explaining our views, we feel we must debate our views as if it is some kind of competition between right and wrong. And it's a result of an egocentric way of thinking. It's present in almost ever aspect of life, most especially in politics and religion. And you take one look at the social climate on this planet and you see the detrimental effects that this ego centrism has had.
But keeping an open mind is not only necessary to help improve the social climate of our world, it is also healthy on an individualistic level as well. Denying yourself other perspectives deprives you of understanding and furthering your mindfulness. You need to seek out new ideas that challenge your current beliefs. It will be tough at first but after a while you will find that you are more open to new ideas as they approach you. You begin to see possibilities you never would have seen before. It's okay to believe that almost anything is possible. But there is a difference between believing everything you hear blindly and simply considering the things you hear as possibilities. I don't believe everything I hear. I believe what makes sense to me, but still hold most everything I hear as simply being possible. Life becomes more fascinating when you keep an open mind.