just be it It’s about the work involved in establishing a dedicated practice to feelings of a bigger belonging through practices aimed at increasing feelings of compassion, gratitude and forgiveness

I’d Like to Vote for the Open-minded Party

Published on 13/07/12
by randy

Gov. Dayton on Divine Providence and the Open Mind

If you really want a party, you have to have an open mind.  Today’s politics are driven from closed minds.  We’re caught in the trap of ‘thinking we’re right and others are wrong’.  It’s an age old problem and one which flies in the face of our forefathers who’ve pledged their trust in ‘divine providence’  (“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”, from the last line of the Declaration of Independence).

With this statement, they provided the glue for their intentions in manifesting this nation and it’s ‘true north’.  This being noted, it seems we’d all be served best to dialogue on what our pledge is.  To what do we put our faith and trust?  Someone had the integrity to temper our greed and attachment to the security of money with the phrase “In God we trust”.  As we’ve evolved, it seems many have had a semantic trigger reaction to the word ‘God’.  As we’ve evolved in our understanding of thought and language we’ve come to see that words are arbitrary symbols, a map of the territory.  An examination of any spiritual tradition will show that the essence of our connection to the divine is beyond words and thought.  This experience is touched in the gap between concepts, words, and thoughts.  Yet, we fight wars, argue with one another, and get carried away with our notions of the ‘right answer’ all at the expense of our humanitarian evolution.

Life is filled with con men trying to get us to put our trust in them.  Sometimes we feel we’ve been treated well and other times we suffer an unpleasant consequence.  When the con man works to feed the poisons of greed, fear and ignorance, our security is diminished.  Yet, when we embrace uncertainty to that which is bigger than us, surrendered in divine providence, we cultivate real security with an open mind.  We touch the ultimate in wonder and awe for the mystery of each moment.

Today’s politicians struggle to gain our confidence with their solutions.  They lock into their rigid notions of a solution, feeding the toxic nature of our polarized nation.  Big money spends billions to buy our confidence through media and other persuasive efforts.  It seems no one is capable of a conversation anymore since that would command an open mind, a bigger mind that surrenders to the wish of our fore fathers.  When we feel support by God (Universe, Source, Ultimate, Buddha, Allah, Ground of Being, or whatever word that best captures this for you), we find our real confidence to meet the next arising moment in joy, peace, and gratitude for the opportunity to just be.

So I propose we do as the Declaration of Independence commands in the first paragraph.  The take over of big money and paid influence have now made it “necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them”.  They clearly understood that the Laws of Nature command an open mind dedicated to the stewardship of this land, always asking for the assistance of divine providence in our actions.  It now seems the time has come to question the toxicity of a party system that’s become frozen in the abyss of the closed mind.  It’s time to honor the wisdom of our forefathers as we surrender in divine providence to that which is bigger than us.  It’s time to sit with open minds, filled with hope and confidence that the Divine will provide an answer far superior to what an ego filled leader can concoct and sell.  Deepok Chopra, in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, addresses this when he speaks to the illusory nature of our search for security:

“…the search for security and certainty is actually an attachment to the known.  And what’s the known?  The known is our past.   The known is nothing other than the prison of past conditioning.  There’s no evolution in that—absolutely none at all.  And when there is no evolution, there is stagnation, entropy, disorder, and decay.

Uncertainty, on the other hand, is the fertile ground of pure creativity and freedom.  Uncertainty means stepping into the unknown in every moment of our existence.  The unknown is the field of all possibilities, ever fresh, always open to the creation of new manifestations.  Without uncertainty and the unknown, life is just the stale repetition of outworn memories.  You become the victim of the past, and your tormentor today is the self left over from yesterday”. p 86

The Dali Lama says we’re here to cultivate joy.  Our great spiritual teachers say we’re here to be kind to one another, to do what we can to reduce suffering.  Surrendering to uncertainty in confidence to the Divine, we open to the magic, mystery, celebration, wonder, awe, and exuberance of each unfolding moment.  The open mind makes space to find the gift in the given and the courage to explore new opportunities and possibility.

At this stage, the closed minds of all political parties make the concept of ‘party’ an oxymoron since it takes an open mind to party.  I’ll vote for the first party with the courage to sit down in circle, to communicate from a sincere desire to understand, to let go attachments to fixed notions of security surrendered in faith to divine providence.  I’ll vote for a party that values dialog over persuasion, that values the inquisitive mind over the ‘right’ mind locked into a static answer.  I’ll vote for those who put faith in divine providence over big money and personal greed.  I’ll vote for those who can truly demonstrate their skills in active listening over those who can debate and fight one another.

An open minded party knows it’s supported by divine Providence.  It’s less likely to force solutions on problems, allowing us to find common sense actions as we open in alertness to new opportunities aimed to serve all with harm to none.  This party would move away from self interest to Self (divine) interest.  The first operative question would not be, “What’s in it for me?”, but would move to a thorough examination of, “Who gets hurt and how does this apply to the Laws of Nature and the responsibility we have to embrace a bigger belonging in kindness to one another?”

As you can tell, this July I’ve been taken with Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence, and the notion of divine Providence.  An examination of this has substantiated my original feeling that it’s about the open mind, about humility and not pride. It’s about security through trust in the divine rather than trust in money and the material, about the courage to be rather than dying to the poisons of greed, fear and ignorance.

I think few would contest that the world feels smaller.  Borders are breaking down no matter how hard people try to erect fences.  Humanity is being worked by divine Providence with the one basic command, “Love one another in the knowledge that we’re all connected in the mystery of life.”

The open mind knows that time is change and is contained in our awareness and care to the present moment.  Our courage to face this moment in humility, to acknowledge the grace with which it’s been given, and the wisdom to embrace uncertainty in faith and trust to the divine is what the Declaration of Independence is for me.

They didn’t say Christian Providence, Buddha Providence, Islamic Providence, or Abraham Providence.  They recognized the arbitrary nature of words and our need to think bigger, to recognize that words are arbitrary symbols, simply maps to a very mysterious universe to which we get to participate.  I love America for this, much as I’m dismayed over the base, crude level our politics and religions have come to today.

So in the interest of those who follow, I suggest a revolution, a spiritual revolution where we get bigger than our small self interest, where we once again return to the courage to surrender with open minds to the power of divine Providence, to communicate with one another in heartfelt desire to see what comes up.

Those stuck in the mud of the closed mind will find many excuses to stay there.  Yet, when we open to the abundance of what the universe has to pour upon us some amazing opportunities will come.  This is what I have trust in.  Deepok Chopra captures divine Providence for me with the following:

In detachment (openness) lies the wisdom of uncertainty…

in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom

from our past, from the known,

which is the prison of past conditioning.

And in our willingness to step into the

unknown, the field of possibilities,

we surrender ourselves to the creative mind

that orchestrates the dance of the universe.

p. 81 from The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

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