One of the fundamental keys to success and inner peace is allowing yourself to be open to the infinite array of possibilities in your life. This is our topic for today.
Having a mind that is open to everything sounds easy until you think about how much conditioning has taken place in your life, and how many of your current thoughts were influenced by geography, the religious beliefs of your ancestors, the color of your skin, the political orientation of your parents, your size, your gender, the schools that were selected for you, and the vocation of your great-grandparents, to list only some possibilities.
You showed up here as a tiny infant capable of an infinite number of potentialities. Many of your choices remain unexplored because of a hopefully well-intentioned conditioning program designed to make you fit the culture of your caretakers. You probably had next to no opportunity to disagree with the cultural and societal arrangements made for your life.
There may have been some adults who encouraged you to have an open mind, but if you’re honest with yourself, you know that your philosophy of life, your religious beliefs, your manner of dress, and your language are a function of what your society (and its heritage) determined was right for you. If you made any fuss about going against this preordained conditioning, you probably heard even stronger voices insisting that you get back in line and do things the way they have “always been done.” Fitting in superseded having a mind that was open to new ideas.
Whatever the reasons our ancestors may have had for not having open minds, it’s true that they inhabited a much less populated world than we do. In today’s overpopulated world, we simply cannot continue to live with those old styles of closed-mindedness.
Everything means just what it says. No exceptions. When someone suggests something to you that conflicts with your conditioning, rather than responding with, “That’s ridiculous; we all know that’s impossible,” say, “I’ve never considered that before. I’ll think about it.” Open yourself up to the spiritual ideas of all people, and listen with an open mind to crazy schemes and ideas that at first seem to be outrageous. If someone suggests that crystals can cure hemorrhoids, that natural herbs can lower cholesterol, that people will eventually be able to breathe underwater, or that levitation is possible—listen, and be curious.
I urge you to open your mind to all possibilities, to resist any efforts to be pigeonholed, and to refuse to allow pessimism into your consciousness. Having a mind that is open to everything seems to me to be one of the most basic principles that you can adopt to contribute to individual and world peace.
Find an opportunity to observe a tiny little green sprout emerging from a seed. When you do, allow yourself to feel the awe of what you’re seeing. The Sufi poet Rumi observed, “Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment.” The scene of an emerging sprout represents the beginning of life. No one on this planet has even a tiny clue as to how all this works. What is that creative spark that causes the life to sprout? What created the observer, the consciousness, the observation, and perception itself? The questions are endless.
Nowadays, scientists in the space program can move a tiny vehicle on Mars via remote control. Invisible signals take 10 minutes to travel through space and arrive to make right turns and instruct a scoop to pick up some Martian real estate to examine. We all marvel at such technological feats. But think about it for a moment. In an endless universe, Mars, our closest neighbor, is the equivalent of moving a billionth of an inch across the page you’re reading! We move a little vehicle on a neighbor next door and we’re so impressed with ourselves.
There are billions and billions of planets, objects, and stars in our galaxy alone, and there are uncountable billions of galaxies out there. This planet is a speck in an incomprehensibly vast universe that has no end. Think about this: If we found the end, would there be a wall at the edge of the universe? If so, who built it? Even more perplexing, what’s on the other side of the wall, and how thick is it?
How can anyone be a pessimist in a world where we know so little? A heart starts beating inside a mother’s womb a few weeks after conception, and it’s a total mystery to everyone on our planet. In comparison to what there is to know, we are only embryos. Keep this in mind whenever you encounter those who are absolutely certain that there’s only one way to do something.
Resist being a pessimist. Resist with all your might, because we hardly know anything at all in comparison with what there is to know. Can you imagine what a pessimist who lived only 200 years ago would think about the world we live in? Airplanes, electricity, automobiles, television, remote controls, the Internet, fax machines, telephones, cellular phones, and so on—and all available to us because of that spark of open-mindedness that allowed progress, growth, and creativity to flourish.
And what of the future and all of your tomorrows? Can you picture faxing yourself back to the 14th century, flying without machines, telepathically communicating, de-molecularizing yourself and rearranging yourself on another galaxy, or cloning a sheep from a photograph of a sheep? An open mind allows you to explore and create and grow. A closed mind seals off any such creative explanation. Remember that progress would be impossible if we always did things the way we always have. The ability to participate in miracles—true miracles in your life—happens when you open your mind to your limitless potential.
Refuse to allow yourself to have low expectations about what you’re capable of creating. As Michelangelo suggested, the greater danger is not that your hopes are too high and you fail to reach them; it’s that they’re too low and you do. Have within you an imaginary candle flame that burns brightly regardless of what goes before you. Let this inner flame represent for you the idea that you’re capable of manifesting miracles in your life.
In every single case of a person experiencing a spontaneous healing or overcoming something that was considered to be impossible, the individual went through a complete reversal of personality. They actually rewrote their own agreement with reality. To experience Godlike spontaneous miracles, you must have a sense of yourself as Godlike. The Scriptures say, “With God all things are possible.” Now tell me, what does that leave out? A mind that’s open to everything means being peaceful, radiating love, practicing forgiveness, being generous, respecting all life, and most important, visualizing yourself as capable of doing anything that you can conceive of in your mind and heart. Whatever universal law that has ever been utilized to manifest a miracle anywhere, any time, and in any person is still on the books. It has never been repealed, and it never will be. You possess the same energy, the same God consciousness, to be a miracle worker—but only if you truly believe and know it within yourself.
Understand that what you think about expands (“As a man thinketh, so is he”). If your thoughts are filled with doubt and you have a closed mind, you’ll of necessity act upon those closed-minded doubts, and you’ll see evidence of your thinking virtually everywhere you are. On the other hand, should you decide (make no mistake about this, it is a choice) to have a mind that’s open to everything, then you’ll act upon that inner energy, and you’ll be the creator as well as the recipient of miracles wherever you are. You will experience what Walt Whitman meant when he wrote, “To me, every cubic inch of space is a miracle.”