Originally Posted by weareunity

Hello all.

High on the list of difficulties and challenges when applying our resources in our attempts to interpret and understand concerns fulfilling the requirements which will allow open minded enquiry.

Open minded enquiry requires what it says on the box--an open mind free of assumptions, presumptions, prejudice, access to relevant information, being among the most obvious requirements.

When doing our best to clear our emotional and mental decks in order to fulfil these requirements, we may also choose to consider the role of our certainties and beliefs in this context. This is not to pour disdain and doubt upon our beliefs, nor necessarily to abandon our certainties. What we can do however is to at least perceive our certainties and beliefs as stepping stones on a continuous journey of understanding rather than as totems to having arrived at understanding.

Not only does this enable constructive discussion between those with different certainties and beliefs, but may also help keep the journey of understanding continuous and not stuck in misconception.

The words "those who have ears to hear, let them hear" does not, as we know I am sure, refer to hearing loss, but to the openness of the mind.--Something of which I for one most certainly need to be reminded.

petex