An open mind or a hole in the head?

[Guest guest]

Yes, we mustn't be open, God forbid we learn anything

new! The Sufis make frequent remark about how hard it

is to get anyone to understand what "learning" is. It

is not a rehashing of what we already know. It is

attempting to expand and diversify the patterns of

one's mental processes to eventually take in and be

able to process the concept of things beyond thought.

Take yourself, for instance. For you, there is no

other method to "attain" outside of your own chosen

paradigm. Things must be performed in a certain way,

under a certain aegis, and all according to the rules;

if not it has no validity whatever in your teeny-tiny

locked-up-tighter-than-a-bank-vault mind, and any

spiritual advancement attained thereby, in your

opinion, is completely invalid. Thus the actual

"learning" process has ceased for you entirely. As has

any chance of genuine spiritual progress whatever..

Lilith M.

--- omprem <omprem wrote:

>

> This post misuses the ideal of openness to all and

> equinimity or

> vairagya to promote a concept of bizarreness. But

> bizarreness

> and eccentricity are not the hallmarks of a free

> spirit: they are the

> hallmarks of a tamasic spirit who has not learned

> the second

> great lesson of viveka or discrimination between the

> real and the

> unreal, truth and fiction. In fact, the bizarre or

> eccentric person is

> using his/her weird and wonderful excursions to

> acquire viveka .

>

> Bizarre and eccentric actions are a form of the Neti

> Neti ( Not

> this, not that) approach used by Jnanis to arrive at

> the Divine

> through a process of elimination. The actions are

> necessarily

> bizarre because the density of intellect of the

> tamasic sadhaka

> requires a low starting point of inquiry.

>

> Omprem

>

>

> , "NMadasamy"

>

> <nmadasamy@s...> wrote:

> >

> > What is meant by total openness and oneness?

> >

> > … when limitations and restrictions are gone,

> there is

> oneness.

> > With oneness, there is no suffering or conflict,

> because conflict

> > exists only where there is more than one.

> >

> > "Openness is an ability to go with the flow, as

> Taoism puts it,

> > without expecting predetermined outcomes. It means

> being

> receptive

> > to new possibilities, without prejudging them. It

> is an ability to

> > make yourself available to out-of-the-ordinary

> opportunities.

> > Indeed, openness to the unknown, the exotic, and

> the bizarre is

> > usually seen as the mark of a free spirit. You can

> increase your

> > openness by practicing empathy. Move outside

> yourself into

> another's

> > situation. Try to access the other's feelings and

> ideas. For the

> > purposes of practice, the more eccentric your

> choice, the

> better."

>

>

>

>

 

 

 

 

 

 

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