On Purpose

Chapter One The Open Mind When one refuses to accept the possibility of other truths, they have, for whatever reason, failed or refused to explore, then they have essentially closed their minds. And in doing so they have limited their potential for growth. A closed mind is unreachable and unteachable. In that instance, clearer deeper thought is unfortunately annulled or minimized. To read through my book may require that you keep an open mind and consider that my experiences have not been the norm and yet are not abnormal either. They are simply my experiences that resulted from opening my mind to new ideas. I decided, that to not do so was pompous and grandiose because I would thus be assuming that I already knew everything. I had to ask myself, “How could I possibly be that wise that I did not need to learn more?” How could I risk not allowing myself the honor of education, mind expansion, exploration of wonders such as Philosophy, Science, Spirituality and Nature. No one knows everything and never will. We cannot learn the truth of what we have not yet examined. We cannot examine all knowledge, but we can always learn something new. I love learning and always have. So, allowing myself to learn about many new concepts or possibilities seemed reasonable, exciting, and important. Even if you do not love learning, thinking with an open mind is an important skill if you have any desire to enhance your spiritual life and experiences. By all rights, everyone should love learning because it is the only thing that will bring change to the self and only when people change can we eventually alter our world. Change and growth begin with learning how change can be beneficial. Thinking about the potential to change the self and the world will never be considered until many more minds and more thoughts are engaged in the pursuit. Furthermore, changing our world for the better begins, of course, with changing the self. We all bear that responsibility whether we are aware of it or not. If we cannot accept our personal responsibility for change then how can we justifiably condemn the world for not changing? The world I refer to is our world, the world of people. The planet does just fine without our trying to alter it. Not accepting the need that we all must change to grow is to sell short the value of the life experience. We are capable of so much more than just having a career and working our lives away only to die frustrated and remorseful for not having become all we could have been. It may be my idealistic nature that causes me to think that we are not striving hard enough to find our higher selves, and yet, I have become painfully aware that many people neglect to develop their spirit, which is the very essence of purpose. In all fairness, most are painfully aware of their inability to find their higher self. We all know we can be better as humans. But not all realize the obvious path to walk in search of that goal is by becoming more spiritual first. It is obvious not because I say it is, but rather it is obvious our most advanced human examples are or were deeply spiritual beings. We truly begin to understand that change is necessary if we aspire to becoming higher vibrational beings and furthermore, the more we strive for that, the more we believe it is possible and the more we believe it is possible the easier it comes to us. I have a coaster on my coffee table that reminds me of my need to be actively involved in change. It says, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This phrase is a quote from Gandhi who obviously spent an enormous amount of time in contemplation and was a deeply spiritual being. Change begins with each of us and that is something worth thinking deeply and deliberately about.