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Sparked by someone else's thread, I got to thinking about the term "open mindedness" ( Ironically, the thread now seems to be closed. ) My initial reaction, probably guided by the question, addressed dealing with the eccentricities of other people. But, upon further rumination, I think open minded may have a simpler, broader, application.
Zen Buddhists have the idea of mu-shin, literally "no-mind", central to their beliefs. A basic English translation could be mindlessness, but that's not particularly appealing and also misleading. One horrid translation prevalent in new age style literature is mindfulness, also kind of missing the point.
One take on no-mind I'm fond of is the beginner’s mind. Plato lamented the ability of people to directly experience reality, being trapped in a cave. Buddhists believe it is possible to directly experience reality. The only impediment to this is our own mind. That is, our expectations, assumptions, prejudices, become a haze that blocks our ability to perceive directly. A beginner, someone who has no experience of something at all, has the most honest chance of seeing something as it really is.
Ok, enough Zen 101. Back the West.
Open minded, to me, would seem to be the ability to understand something without our experience making us rush to judgment. To not prejudge, in the literal sense. Close minded meaning that the mind is "made up", it now has no ability to understand, no hope to see. I don't know if open minded is analogous to no minded, but I'd like to think it's reasonably close.
Zen Buddhists have the idea of mu-shin, literally "no-mind", central to their beliefs. A basic English translation could be mindlessness, but that's not particularly appealing and also misleading. One horrid translation prevalent in new age style literature is mindfulness, also kind of missing the point.
One take on no-mind I'm fond of is the beginner’s mind. Plato lamented the ability of people to directly experience reality, being trapped in a cave. Buddhists believe it is possible to directly experience reality. The only impediment to this is our own mind. That is, our expectations, assumptions, prejudices, become a haze that blocks our ability to perceive directly. A beginner, someone who has no experience of something at all, has the most honest chance of seeing something as it really is.
Ok, enough Zen 101. Back the West.
Open minded, to me, would seem to be the ability to understand something without our experience making us rush to judgment. To not prejudge, in the literal sense. Close minded meaning that the mind is "made up", it now has no ability to understand, no hope to see. I don't know if open minded is analogous to no minded, but I'd like to think it's reasonably close.