Everyone’s Right
The power of open-mindedness in an extremely judgemental world
In my past, I’ve witnessed firsthand how detrimental being close-minded can be. For the time span of about a year, I followed an ideology so closely that I thought it was the one and only truth. I followed the ideology of enlightenment and awakening so closely that I felt if you weren’t also trying to become enlightened than you were on the wrong path. The ironic thing is that all these teachings are actually preaching open-mindedness. I just wanted another belief system to grasp onto and that’s what fell into place that I used to affirm my sense of self in the world. I believe this was a necessary stage in my evolution through life, and that if it wasn’t this belief system it would have been something else.
Fast-forward a few years and I now realize how wrong and detrimental this viewpoint was. I would view myself as having a superior belief system than others, but when I would interact with others I would view them as better because they had more charisma in social situations and I was somewhat socially awkward. I spiraled into an undiagnosed depression for about a year because I lived this way, and I overcame my depression in direct correlation with being more open-minded and understanding of myself and others.
I’ve learned that everyone has their own kernel of truth based on the experience that they’ve had on this earth, and being open-minded allows better access to tap into this truth and not cut ourselves off from the knowledge of others.
The value of open-mindedness is also portrayed in Spiral Dynamics, the psychological model developed by Clare Graves displaying values over time. In his model, one of the highest stages is called Systemic which includes being open-minded and seeing the truth in multiple opposing viewpoints at the same time. In other words, being able to consider different possibilities without choosing one as better or superior to another.
“If you understand a man you agree with him; if you disagree with him, you do not understand him.” — P.D Ouspensky
Maybe all disagreements are just misunderstanding. Maybe what the other side is saying has some nugget of truth, even if that truth is only relevant to that person given their unique experience in life. Maybe, you’re wrong but don’t want to admit it. When we develop the courage to look past our own limited viewpoint, then anything is possible!
