The Spiritual Practice of Openness

“It is important in the spiritual life to keep an open mind, open to ideas, experiences, people, the world, and the Sacred.”

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spiritual Rx: Prescriptions for Living a Meaningful Life

Some people will read this statement and say, “Well, of course.” Openness is almost axiomatic, basic to their understanding of the spiritual journey. Others will read this statement and disagree, even find offense. For them, openness can get in the way of their spiritual journey.

Maybe it is important to consider both stances. Both people hold their stances with conviction. Both believe that it gives meaning and direction to their lives. Those who struggle with openness can see those who embrace it as naïve and foolish. Those who embrace openness can be critical of those who are so closeminded…a stance which may not be an expression of openness.

Because of these differences, to me, it feels like a conversation about openness as a spiritual practice may be one of the most important conversations we can have. A conversation that doesn’t necessarily come to conclusions but keeps going because it opens up something in both people. Yes, I realize that “open” is part of that statement. In fact, I have been reflecting on the significance of openness for many days now. And I realize I could keep doing that forever…being open to openness.

At some point, it is important to put something out there. When something is important, you want to say everything about it. When something is important, because it is important, you can’t say everything about it. So you say something, and you are open to what happens. Oops, there it is again, that word “open.”

Openness is a foundational part of life. To see this, all you have to do is look at children.

Without thinking or planning, children explore the world around them. First, with their eyes as infants, and then later, with their hands, their feet, and their voices. One sign that children do not have a secure emotional attachment to the people in their lives is their hesitancy to explore the world around them.

Without openness, there is not progress. Without openness, there is nothing new. Every new idea, every new invention, every new way of looking at and being in the world…all of them originate from someone considering that something about the world could be different.

Openness involves an open state of mind. An open mind does not mean that anything goes, that we lack standards or convictions. Instead, it means a willingness to examine what we know in light of what is before us. The struggle with willingness to have an open mind can show up in simple and subtle ways.

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor. I have worked with hundreds of people who struggle with depression. A new client begins talking about what brought them into counseling. What they share sounds very similar to what so many people with depression have shared. At this point, it would be easy for to begin formulating a picture of this person’s depression based on my past experiences. I could begin formulating a diagnosis and treatment plan.

But when I do this, in many ways, I have stopped listening. I have stopped being open. I have stopped being open to this person’s unique experience of depression in their lives. I have stopped being open to connect with this human being in front of me. I have stopped being open to something they might say that will give us a clue as to how we might work together to overcome their depression.

This type of openness is very different from the way our minds usually work. Our minds like to organize and put things in place. It likes to sort through and evaluate and categorize so it can come to some conclusions. This process works well with many external situations. But when we are talking about thoughts, feelings, desires, and other intangible parts of life, it doesn’t work as well.

Fortunately, this thinking part is only one part of our minds. There is also a part of our minds that creates a space for seeing the whole, even if the whole has some degree of unknowing and uncertainty. We are open to what is there, instead of what we think is there, or what we want to be there.

Openness to anything and everything can be problematic. There are stances and places and people in the world that are threatening. Openness is not approval. But it takes some degree of openness to know more fully what is before us and how it might be a threat. Which means we might also know more fully the ways it is not a threat. Most ideas, most beliefs, most people are not all good or bad. They are a combination of light and darkness. Openness allows us to see that combination, in others and in ourselves.

Openness is not just seeking; it is being open to finding.

“When someone is seeking,” said Siddhartha, “It happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose” (Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha).

I spoke earlier of how there is no progress without openness. And yet, when this progress that is the result of openness shows up, ironically, we struggle with being open to it. The place where this struggle with openness shows up in a profound way is in our openness to others. It is one thing to be open to new experiences, new places, or new food. It is another thing altogether to open to people who are new to us and different from us. A newness and difference that we are aware of only because, we were open.

That openness can shut down quickly when it involves people who are new and different. The otherness that was so inviting because challenging. It can become a source of anxiety and fear. When I say fear and anxiety, it is easy to think about a threat. But fear can also be an invitation. An invitation to openness.

In a future post, I will share more about openness as a spiritual practice and how we can express it in our lives. For now, well, I’d like to be “open” to your thoughts and ideas.