Openness

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Neuroscience

Openness
by Peggy La Cerra, Ph.D

As with many other characteristics of spiritual people, openness reflects the cultivated neural and mental capacity to ‘de-centralize’. When we’re operating from a lower-order self-representation, our mind-brain is limiting the information that enters into our construction of reality to material that was neurally-associated with those experiences that generated the networks giving rise to that self – we’re, in effect, operating in a closed circuit. When we are operating from a higher-order self-representation, or have cultivated a neural network platform of ‘no self’ through dedicated meditation, we are processing the world around us in a much more direct and open manner.

Rabbi Rami's Reflections

Openness
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Openness seems like another version of hospitality. What is the difference?

You’re right; openness is part of being hospitable. In fact the two may feed into one another: We can only be hospitable when we are open, and we widen our openness by being more and more hospitable.

Is it possible to be too open? Too nonjudgmental?

I think the real danger is mistaking being open–minded for being empty–headed. The difference between the two has to do with curiosity. An open–minded person is curious about the world. She seeks to investigate things, to see for herself what is true and what is not. And empty–headed person has no interest in the world at all. She lacks curiosity, and because of that she lacks any sense of awe and wonder as well. She is alive and yet largely lifeless.

Yet being open–minded can lead to entertaining all kinds of crazy ideas. How do we know what ideas are true and what are false?

True and false are categories that may be beyond us. Certainly there are people who insist that their beliefs are absolutely and universally true, and not just “true for them,” and such people too lack curiosity, wonder, and awe.

I prefer to speak in terms of justice and injustice, and compassion and heartlessness rather than true and false. The question I pose to the ideas I entertain is not, “Is this idea true,” but rather, “Does this idea make me more just and compassionate?” If an idea adds to my capacity for doing justly and acting kindly, then it is an idea worth entertaining. If it doesn’t then it is an idea better left alone.

But what about things like astrology or UFOs or conspiracy theories? Should I be open to these things?

Being open and being in agreement are two different things. But, again, I would ask about the impact of these ideas on my capacity for justice and compassion.

To me openness is an attitude, engaging life with a gentle, even if somewhat skeptical, curiosity. Is there something wrong with inquiring into things? Curiosity has a fearless quality about it that can be very valuable. Just don’t lose sight of how your ideas are impacting your behavior.

Best Practices

Spiritual Confession: Where do I Start?
by Aaron Murray-Swank

Are you interested in learning more about spiritual confession? If you are a member of a particular spiritual community, chances are that there is some ritual of confession within your tradition. There are also steps that you can take on your own to explore confession as a spiritual practice, such as writing or journaling. Here are some suggestions to help you get started.

In writing a confession, it will be most helpful if you write “from the heart,” as openly and honestly as possible. Don’t worry about how it sounds, grammar, and spelling -- just try to get all of your thoughts and feelings on paper. You might want to write over a period of several days to allow yourself time to process your experience. Here are some questions and suggestions that you might consider in getting started:

Are you bothered by guilt about something you have done? If so, write about what you did, the harm it caused, and your intention for the future.

Do you hold a particular image of God or the sacred? If so, it may be helpful to write your confession as a letter to God, expressing what you did and asking for forgiveness. You may even write this as a “two-way” letter in which you offer you confession and listen and write down what you feel is God’s response to you.

What specific things do you think or do that you would like to change in order to live more consistently with your spiritual values? You might want to identify these areas through a confessional essay, focusing on patterns of thought and behavior that get in the way of your relationship with the sacred, and leave you feeling stuck.

When you have fully expressed and experienced remorse about the past, bring your mind to the present moment and invite love and self-acceptance into your heart. You may find sacred scriptures, images, or prayers to be helpful guides. For example, reciting a prayer or affirmation focused on forgiveness and acceptance, or picturing the loving presence of a sacred figure may be useful. .Or visualize water washing over your body, bringing a cleansing and restoring energy. Use practices, images, and rituals that speak to you to foster healing, wholeness, and self-acceptance.

An important final step in the confession process is to make a commitment to your future self. What commitment can you make to live more consistently with who you want to be? It is helpful to be specific here -- what particular things will you do (or not do) differently? What will help you support this commitment to your future self?

Recommended Articles

Giving Thanks For All the Little (and BIG) Things in Life
by David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B.

Would it surprise you to learn that you can begin changing your life right now, right where you are? As easily as turning on a light switch? It would? Good! You just started.

Have you ever noticed how your eyes open a bit wider when you are surprised? It is as if you had been asleep, merely daydreaming or sleepwalking through some routine activity, and you hear your favorite tune on the radio, or look up from the puddles on the parking lot and see a rainbow, or the telephone rings and it's the voice of an old friend, and all of a sudden you're awake. Even an unwelcome surprise shakes us out of complacency and makes us come alive. We may not like it at first, but looking back, we can always recognize it as a gift. Humdrum equals deadness; surprise equals life. In fact, my favorite name for the One I worship in wonder -- the only name that does not limit God -- is Surprise.

Right this moment, as I remember spiritual giants I have been privileged to meet -- Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, His Holiness the Dalai Lama -- I can still feel the life energy they radiated. But how did they come by this vitality? There is no lack of surprises in this world, but such radiant aliveness is rare. What I observed was that these people were all profoundly grateful, and then I understood the secret.

A surprise does not make us automatically alive. Aliveness is a matter of give-and-take, of response. If we allow surprise to merely baffle us, it will stun us and stunt our growth. Instead, every surprise is a challenge to trust in life and so to grow. Surprise is a seed. Gratefulness sprouts when we rise to the challenge of surprise. The great ones in the realm of Spirit are so intensely alive because they are so deeply grateful.

Gratefulness can be improved by practice. But where shall beginners begin? The obvious starting point is surprise. You will find that you can grow the seeds of gratefulness just by making room. If surprise happens when something unexpected shows up, let's not expect anything at all. Let's follow Alice Walker's advice: "Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise."

To expect nothing may mean not taking for granted that your car will start when you turn the key. Try this and you will be surprised by a marvel of technology worthy of sincere gratitude. Or you may not be thrilled by your job, but if for a moment you can stop taking it for granted, you will taste the surprise of having a job at all, while millions are unemployed. If this makes you feel a flicker of gratefulness, you'll be a little more joyful all day, a little more alive.

Once we stop taking things for granted, our own bodies become some of the most surprising things of all. It never ceases to amaze me that my body both produces and destroys 15 million red blood cells every second. Fifteen million! That's nearly twice the census figure for New York City. I am told that the blood vessels in my body, if lined up end to end, would reach around the world. Yet my heart needs only one minute to pump my blood through this filigree network and back again. It has been doing so, minute by minute, day by day, for the past 75 years and still keeps pumping away at 100,000 heartbeats every 24 hours. Obviously, this is a matter of life and death for me, yet I have no idea how it works and it seems to work amazingly well in spite of my ignorance.

I do not know how my eyes adapt, yet when I chant by candlelight they are 100,000 times more sensitive to light than when I read outdoors on the porch at noon. I wouldn't know how to give instructions to the 35 million digestive glands in my stomach for digesting one single strawberry; fortunately, they know how to do their job without my advice. When I think of this, as I sit down to eat, my heart brims with gratefulness.

In those moments, I can identify with the Psalmist who cried out in amazement, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Ps.139:14) From there it is only a small step to seeing the whole universe and every smallest part of it as surprising. From the humble starting point of daily surprises, the practice of gratefulness leads to these transcendent heights. Thomas Carlyle pointed to these peaks of spiritual awareness when he wrote, "Worship is transcendent wonder" -- transcendent surprise.

Other Articles:

Getting Used to Stuff: A Conversation with Daniel Gottlieb
by Betsy Robinson

Clearing the Heart: The Healing Practice of Confession
by Aaron Murray-Swank

Practice Openness

Spirituality & Health Practices: Practice Openness Daily. Famous Quotes on Openness. Time: 2:05

Visual Images: As you watch this Short Video images synced to music, reflect on what it means to be open. Time: 3:38

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