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Originally Posted by Andy  Now I realize that everyone's opinion simply comes from their own perspective, and I always try to view opinions through this other perspective so I can better understand where they come from. |
That's also basically my approach at the moment - and an approach most of the people around me would call exactly wrong.
I'm simply following this approach because I believe that 1. Everything happens for a reason and 2. I should not judge others - at least not by my own beliefs and values.
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Originally Posted by Daniel Terhorst I think it all comes down to "mind." To me, the greatest gift of the mind is the ability to discriminate. You get information... you reason about it... you assign it value... you make decisions based on what you think about it. Give it an exercise. That's what a mind is for, isn't it?
Whether you believe everything or nothing... they seem the same to me. It's the middle ground that's interesting! |
Daniel, I agree with you that - as always - the extremes are too ...well, extreme, and that the middle way is the one to follow in order to be really open minded.
To me open-mindedness means that I have my own opinions, and I allow others to have their own, whether or not they are right for me, knowing that my own way is not necessarily the best one possible. And if I'm interested in personal growth, I'm constantly searching for other ways that are possibly better.
And that's what I meant when I wrote that things look different from inside.
For example: I'm vegetarian now for more than 20 years and never liked to eat dead animals from birth on(I'm 27 y/o). Last month I tried to go vegan, which from the inside looked much different than from the outside (Steve wrote about this in his blog some time ago...).
While for me being somewhere between vegetarian and vegan is right at least at the moment (I'm heading in the same direction Steve is going), still my girl-friend likes to eat steaks that have barely touched a pan or grill. To me there's nothing wrong with her doing so, while for me it'd be totally wrong.
And that's what open-mindedness is all about in my opinion.