Dhamma Wheel Buddhist Forum

What do you think open mindedness is

do you dismiss alternatives or consider them and find it worthy to question your theories through various means?

Hi Cittasanto,

I think open mindness is keeping an open mind to other things besides our belief.It's not that we go just accepting everything.But atleast we can consider testing these various different theories.

Well, I can't watch that video in my country due to copyright protection.

I think open mindedness is to accept everything that is going on in mind, without resisting or pushing anything away.

These processes in mind are just dependent arisen and impersonal, but if we start to take them personal and clinging starts, closed mind already happens. My two cents.

Regards :-)

Open mindedness is often advocated by those who want to put forward their beliefs, i.e. as a means of persuasion.

Not believing anything while accepting that others believe regardless of what they believe is perfect open mind. Such an open mind may be the result of mindfulness.

ground wrote:Open mindedness is often advocated by those who want to put forward their beliefs, i.e. as a means of persuasion.

Not believing anything while accepting that others believe regardless of what they believe is perfect open mind. Such an open mind may be the result of mindfulness.

Thank you for sharing what you believe.

tiltbillings wrote:

ground wrote:Open mindedness is often advocated by those who want to put forward their beliefs, i.e. as a means of persuasion.

Not believing anything while accepting that others believe regardless of what they believe is perfect open mind. Such an open mind may be the result of mindfulness.

Thank you for sharing what you believe.

You cannot know whether there is belief. All you see is just words. If there would be belief then the words would not be the belief but just a means of expression. Meaning of words arises depending on eye contacting words qua forms.

ground wrote:

tiltbillings wrote:

ground wrote:Open mindedness is often advocated by those who want to put forward their beliefs, i.e. as a means of persuasion.

Not believing anything while accepting that others believe regardless of what they believe is perfect open mind. Such an open mind may be the result of mindfulness.

Thank you for sharing what you believe.

You cannot know whether there is belief. All you see is just words. If there would be belief then the words would not be the belief but just a means of expression. Meaning of words arises depending on eye contacting words qua forms.

Said Ground, expressing his belief. Thank you for sharing your expression of belief.

tiltbillings wrote:

ground wrote:

tiltbillings wrote:Thank you for sharing what you believe.

You cannot know whether there is belief. All you see is just words. If there would be belief then the words would not be the belief but just a means of expression. Meaning of words arises depending on eye contacting words qua forms.

Said Ground, expressing his belief. Thank you for sharing your expression of belief.

Remember: You cannot know.

ground wrote: Remember: You cannot know.

Thank you, again, for sharing your belief.

mirco wrote:Well, I can't watch that video in my country due to copyright protection.

I think open mindedness is to accept everything that is going on in mind, without resisting or pushing anything away.

These processes in mind are just dependent arisen and impersonal, but if we start to take them personal and clinging starts, closed mind already happens. My two cents.

Regards

unfortunate, it is an interesting video. (watch this space I'll mirror it for a short time.

If the Buddha didn't resist... (fourth Noble truth) and wasn't open to a life without Dukkha (third noble truth) the extent he saw dukkha being present (the second noble truth) would not of been undermined and uprooted.

these four Noble Truths are to some degree an expression of open mindedness. a receptivity to new ideas (what has not been heard before) and seeing whether they fit reality. not necessarily an acceptance of anything, but an understanding of everything.

Cittasanto wrote:What do you think open mindedness is

I don't take my opinions as seriously as I used to, I mean they are just opinions and it's OK not to know the answers.

porpoise wrote:

Cittasanto wrote:What do you think open mindedness is

I don't take my opinions as seriously as I used to, I mean they are just opinions and it's OK not to know the answers.

Hi cittasanta

Cittasanto wrote:What do you think open mindedness is
do you dismiss alternatives or consider them and find it worthy to question your theories through various means?

I think this is a perfect example of open mindedness by Ven. Sariputta:

"Friends, just as the footprints of all legged animals are encompassed by the footprint of the elephant, and the elephant's footprint is reckoned the foremost among them in terms of size; in the same way, all skillful qualities are gathered under the four noble truths. Under which four?
Under the noble truth of stress,
under the noble truth of the origination of stress,
under the noble truth of the cessation of stress,
and under the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress. - MN 28

But, as others suggested, 'open' mind can be ambiguous, as to what is to be dismissed and what is acceptable.

So a big-mind may be a better term, in accord with the big elephant footprint.

nibbuti wrote:But, as others suggested, 'open' mind can be ambiguous, as to what is to be dismissed and what is acceptable.

For me an open mind is less caught up in grasping and rejecting views, therefore less opinionated and more open to possibilites.
Possibly.

porpoise wrote:For me an open mind is less caught up in grasping and rejecting views, therefore less opinionated and more open to possibilites.
Possibly.

Possibly. But some views are necessary in conventional life to plan ahead and not starve. The Buddha taught wise view rather than no view.