Question about Open-Mindedness and Skepticism

[Ethan_05]

How can we live a life with a radically open mind without going down some obscure path and believing everything that falls into our laps?

And how do open-mindedness and skepticism relate, cause they seem like opposites but they also both seem valuable to have in one's life?

[Leo Gura]

Openmindedness is the opposite of belief.

Belief is a closing of the mind.

Openmindedness does not mean believing in wacky stuff.

[mandyjw]

Awakening means letting go of the judgement of sane/crazy and the concepts of self and other that making that judgement automatically implies. Concern about going down an "obscure" path implies that you have expectations of what awakening will look like. The "path" means embracing the unknown, becoming the unknown. You know that your choices are right because of how it feels. When you're really on track you'll be too satisfied and fulfilled to care what anyone thinks, and that includes your own judgement of yourself and how you're "doing". Great love is great courage. 

[Rilles]

Openmindedness: I havent seen or experienced this or that so I do not know if it exists, I’m willing to keep myself open to the possibility. 

[Forestluv]

@Ethan_05 Another way to view it is attachment/identification. A mind can have a relationship with a phenomena without "believing it". Belief is a form of holding onto something with attachment/identification. . . For example, if  I was with a bunch of classical musicians discussing whether Bach or Beethoven was more of a musical genius. I could become very curious and learn a lot. I don't know much of either composer. Yet all the ideas would float around like a bowl of stew. I wouldn't really "believe" any of the ideas in the sense of attachment. Holding to any of the ideas would limit my fluidity and capacity to learn. 

"How can we live a life with a radically open mind without going down some obscure path and believing everything that falls into our laps?"

I would use the term "gullible" here, rather than being open-minded. For me, I would say a "gullible sensor" is a combination of intuition, resonance and rational thought. If a drunk person gave me a stone and told me this stone will correct all my DNA mutations, synergize my astral planes and grant me three wishes - I probably wouldn't resonate with that and my intuitiion would kick in. Then my mind might create a rational story of why this doesn't make sense. . . . On the flip side, someone might tell me they have a paranormal ability. The rational mind may kick in and think "this is woo woo BS", yet a deeper intuition and resonance might arise. If the mind relaxes, it could allow space to explore. 

 

[Ethan_05]

Thank you Leo and @Serotoninluv, these responses really helped me start to clear up how to approach openmindedness in my life and while doing research on various topics. 

[Conscious life]

open mindness has it's own consequences and disadvantage. there is great advantage for also being closed mindedness. you have to be conscious on how you see it. 

[InspirationToAction]

Being radically open-minded is important because being open-minded opens you up to new possibilities. 
Being radically open-minded enables you to make a significant mindset shift and not just an incremental one, and that is sometime required to produce a transformational change. But on the downside, being radically open-minded also exposes you to the possibility of believing everything that comes in. Yes you are right, open-mindedness and skepticism are related, if you are skeptic, then you are actually being close minded. By nature, we have been programmed not to be open-minded and to be skeptic so that we are not easily fooled or conned. So being skeptic also has its purpose, but I believe do not be open-mindedness to the point of being naive and gullible, believing anything and everything . A lot of personal development material out there encourage you to be open-minded, but We live in deceitful world where people are scamming others for personal gain. To share you my experiences , I once have been scammed and after doing some thinking, it's due to me being to open-minded or positive , believing in something that in hindsight can seen obviously as fake. So based my on experience, it's better to Start with being skeptic First, but not completely to the point where you reject every idea that comes in. Be open minded and listen, then do your thinking and due diligence, once it has been proven to have at least some validity, then gradually open up.