Opening the Mind

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Opening the Mind

"Enlightened people have no fixed mind; they make the group mind their mind. To those who are good, I am good, to those who are bad, I am also good - goodness is Power."

"Of those who trust, I am trusting; of those who do not trust, I am also trusting. Trust is Power."

"Enlightened people attract the world and merge with it's mind. The people all focus their eyes and ears; enlightened people all act as infants."

Enlightened people keep their minds open and impartial because fixed opinions or belief systems distort the flow of pure information coming in from the outside world. They enhance their understanding of the outside world and their position in it by merging with the collective mind of humanity - what Carl Jung called the group subconscious. They don't rely solely on information gained through their eyes and ears but look beyond with an open heart and mind.

In this way, infantlike they can act upon the world without unbalancing it. By trusting those who cannot find tru st in themselves, and showing goodness to those who are not good people, enlightened people are emulating the Tao. They are using an opposing force to neutralise an extreme thus altering the internal reality of untrusting, mean people. This response runs contrary to the common one where aggression is met with aggression, hate with hate, anger with anger.

In observing the laws of Nature, enlightened people realise that acid is not neutralised by acid, it is neutralised by infusing it's opposite - alkali. Lao Tzu believed that the ability to alter reality by neutralising extremes is the ultimate power that will bring peace to the world. (49)

The mind of humanity, the group mind, is an intermediate step between our individual minds and the universal mind. The group mind is a stepping stone that we can use to perceive the larger universal mind. It allows us to go beyond ourselves and see ourselves in relation to the universe. We can merge our individual minds with the group mind by opening our minds, allowing our sense of identity, our ego, to be diminished. The difficulty is that the ego is surrounded by many defence mechanisms and has the ability to defend itself against perceived threats. In fact, the death of the ego, the dissolution of the personal self is said to be the way in that we achieve ultimate enlightenment and liberation from this world of suffering. It is perhaps the biggest challenge we have and it may take hundreds of lifetimes to raise one’s awareness to the point of recognising this fact. It’s worth doing because then we can merge our minds with the larger mind of humanity and the universe and by setting aside selfish thoughts, open the mind to unlimited wisdom.

Another aspect of opening the mind is to avoid adopting fixed, unyielding ideas. People often develop fixed ideas as they grow older. They adopt a belief system early in life and guard it against change thereafter. It is seen to be a virtue to “stick by your principles”. To be a virtue, the principle has to be an ultimate, unchanging truth and there are very few if any truths that can be said to be ultimate and unchanging. Something may have been true once, but times change and everything in the world changes with it. To try and fix one’s ideas in time is folly. It’s far better to remain open-minded and change with the world as it changes. An example of this is where people in their adolescence identify with the current pop music and fixate upon it. As they grow older they can be heard to decry the current pop music. They only listen to their old music and claim that it is better than anything that’s been along since. This is certainly a symptom of fixed ideas. People should listen to the current pop music and appreciate it in it’s own right as being a good or bad as any previous or future pop music.

Changing with the times, “going with the flow” is also an excellent way to live long since one is conserving energy by moving with the flow rather than spending energy trying to go against it. It is like a swimmer caught in a rip. He may have enough energy to swim for an hour. By going with the rip he will very likely be able to swim ashore within an hour, even if he’s several kilometres down the beach by then. By swimming against the rip he probably won’t be a strong enough swimmer to make progress against it so even if he swam for five hours he still wouldn’t reach the shore. After an hour he’s exhausted and no closer to saving himself. The current, representing the Tao, is completely indifferent to the plight of the swimmer. It is an accurate metaphor of a human life. We have a certain time to live, a certain amount of energy to spend. “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”

We can spend it quickly, in a furious sprinting burst, or we can pace ourselves like a marathon swimmer. When I go swimming at the pool I always begin with a steady 1000 metre warm up. There are often other swimmers there who sprint up and down, but they are long gone by the time I finish m y kilometre.

Published by: David Tuffley (January 2000) | Home Page