{"id":1985,"date":"2025-07-01T09:23:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T09:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/?p=1985"},"modified":"2025-07-01T09:23:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T09:23:34","slug":"up-your-receptivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/01\/up-your-receptivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Up Your Receptivity"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Decoding our life\u2019s experiences, or perspectives, isn\u2019t a problem so long as we are connecting them to comprehensible paradigms, contexts, or stated connotations that they convey to us. The whole idea, however, gets lost when we twist, or redefine them, while fitting them into totally new perspectives, or hooking them to a pedestal that does not exist. This is because \u2018forced\u2019 experiences communicate a strange hypothesis \u2014 a drapery of unconnected, unrecognisable, or confused contexts.<\/p>\n

This is also a part of a muddled backdrop, not just in terms of \u2018happenings\u2019 that are not existent, but also because it does not help us to make detailed interpretations. The whole purpose of experience is, again, misplaced when we disallow perspectives to speak in their own, untainted language, or express themselves \u2014 simply, sensibly and without jargon.<\/p>\n

What is true, or false, essential, or superficial, is a serious issue; it is not trivial. One cannot, as most of us often do, just sit and define our terms and not follow the practice that we assert \u2014 or, sincerely espouse. No spiritual quest can ever begin with such intentions \u2014 one that does not speak of fair play, candour, righteousness and openness. It is only when we preserve a rich assortment of views that we begin to explore our spiritual beliefs and also bring about a gradual transformation in our thought process \u2014 of what we once thought isn\u2019t the same in changing times.<\/p>\n

What does this signify? That to reach a \u2018common divine position,\u2019 our sense of diversity has to be as limitless as the divine \u2014 like our imagination which is unlimited. Imagination, of course, is boundless. If one were to apply the premise that imagination is a \u2018limited\u2019 enterprise, it would be akin to questioning the sublime genius of Benjamin Franklin. It is this recognition that drives us to \u2018sport\u2019 an open mind that is also accessible to new dimensions and possibilities in, and of, everyday life.<\/p>\n

There is more to the \u2018openness\u2019 idea than what meets the mind. When we are open and receptive to anything new, or different, in the \u2018thoughtful\u2019 field, we would automatically be in a better position, than we ever were, to embracing new experiential perspectives about who we are, or what our theories and experiences actually are in our own presence \u2014 not just in front of others who we know, or may not know. This is the fundamental characteristic of genuine self-knowledge as opposed to popular formulae \u2014 more so, because the search for truth is not simple. It is a formidable exercise \u2014 one that goes on and on until there is nothing left to uncertainty, or there are no questions remaining to inquire, ask, or examine from the inside out.<\/p>\n

The whole foundation of applying, understanding and absorbing our experiences calls for conscious and unconscious knowledge. In Eastern thought, the unconscious is everything that is not consciousness \u2014 it is not the divine, self, or subject. It is anything that could be an object of consciousness \u2014 your body, senses, mind, intellect and thoughts, including your own personality, your computer, or mobile phone \u2014 a mirror that holds your own self-image.<\/p>\n

Western philosophy, however, views the self as self \u2014 the \u2018objective\u2019 aspect. This is also one reason why most thinkers from the West suggest that the psyche and self could be objectively studied. The Eastern standpoint is \u2014 all we can possibly study is the empirical, or the phenomenal self, and the conscious ego. The inference is obvious. The \u2018true\u2019 self, according to Oriental philosophy, can never be studied, or objectively analysed. It can only be experienced at a higher plane \u2014 of what is called as \u2018reflective consciousness.\u2019<\/p>\n

All the same, the more we let go, the more relieved we\u2019d all be from the stranglehold of stress, or anxiety. This positive endeavour, in the midst of chaos, allows us to \u2018reinvent\u2019 oneself and also understand our mind, body, and soul in quintessential, tangible terms. More so, when one manages to untangle from the deep recesses of a certain negative emotion that once defined their behaviour, or existence. Philosophers call it the \u2018open-minded state\u2019 \u2014 the fertile soil on which we are able to express ourselves, while reshuffling our expressions with the autonomy to act, and not reacting by reflex.<\/p>\n

As psychologist Josh Adler writes in Open Journal of Philosophy<\/em>, \u201c\u2019Open mind\u2019 is a contemporary concept rife in popular cultural memetics since at least the late 1950s, when \u2018father of the atomic bomb,\u2019 J Robert Oppenheimer applied it to governance, as \u2018an indispensable, perhaps in some ways the indispensable, element in giving meaning to the dignity of man…\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, in the same article, Oppenheimer concludes, \u201cThe style, the perceptiveness, the imagination, and the open-mindedness with which we need to conduct our [governmental] affairs can only pervade\u2026 if they are a reflection of a deep and widespread public understanding.\u201d Social psychologist Milton Rokeach and his colleagues in The Open and Closed Mind<\/em> followed soon after by arguing sociologically, that, \u201ca rigid cognitive organisation of attitudes and values leads to predictable social consequences, including prejudice and authoritarian submission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Open Work<\/em>, first published in 1962, by Umberto Eco, provides a poetics-based critique of \u2018openness,\u2019 as a crucial developmental aspect of contemporary art\u2019s engagement with cultural \u2018formativity.\u2019 He writes, \u201cIn art, the individual forms for the sake of forming, thinks and acts in order to form… form is a structured object uniting thought, feeling, and matter in an activity that aims at the harmonious coordination of all three and proceeds according to the laws postulated and manifested by the work itself as it is being made… a form, once it has reached completion and autonomy, can be seen as perfect only if it is dynamically considered. Aesthetic contemplation is this active consideration that retraces the process which gave life to form… But since the fact of form opens it up to an infinity of different perspectives, the process which actualises itself as form also realises itself in the continuous possibility of interpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eco\u2019s understanding of aesthetic contemplation as a significant process in consciousness\u2019 dynamic organisation of a perceptual continuum outlines its faculty as the primary receptive interpreter between indeterminate and deterministic neurological fields. For instance, the process of \u2018harmonious coordination\u2019 as Eco describes can be challenged by competing views that result in \u2018cognitive dissonance\u2019 if the interpreter is unable to remain \u2018open\u2019 to co-emergently different, yet viable, perspectives. His position, therefore, supports an understanding of open-mindedness as a compositional phenomenon that allows consciousness to combine into ever more complex activity, as well as a creative source of new physical possibilities.<\/p>\n

It would do us all a world of good when we think of our emotions as a small paper boat in a puddle of water during rains. The little boat will move freely just as much as you let it go, more so when you tie a strand to it and hold the \u2018controls.\u2019 This simile holds good for your emotions too \u2014 because, it is only when your mind is willing to let go of old negative emotions that you\u2019ll discard and break out of your comfort zone, or staying put in the cocoon that resides in your old, pessimistic psyche.<\/p>\n

Paracelsus, the mediaeval physician and alchemist, articulated that each of us has a resourceful flair in the arts, sciences, and philosophies. Our imaginative powers are not just external, but also internal. This is because all of us can generate thoughts and emotions, propelled by anything that could be set in a peculiar motion. He suggested that there were several negative thought and emotion forms that cause energy blockages. When such negative energies generate damaging thoughts, on a perennial basis, it becomes difficult for us to operate well, or attain a state of personalised independence. This may, in the long run, turn upon us, triggering dreadful habits, including addiction, while impairing our health and happiness.<\/p>\n

The philosopher Plato, likewise, thought that we are all in the same little boat as regards our moral behaviour, although the rational individual, as he contended, follows a life of wisdom, courage, balance, integrity, and not stupidity, fear, lack of self-discipline, or bias. Put simply, this means that if we were to choose physical illness over physical health, for example, we\u2019d be foolish. If we were to choose moral and spiritual illness over moral and spiritual health, we\u2019d be illogical. The inference is obvious \u2014 if we want to be truly happy, we must choose to live well.<\/p>\n

\u2014 First published in India First<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Decoding our life\u2019s experiences, or perspectives, isn\u2019t a problem so long as we are connecting them to comprehensible paradigms, contexts, or stated connotations that they convey to us. The whole idea, however, gets lost when we twist, or redefine them, while fitting them into totally new perspectives, or hooking them to a pedestal […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-1985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mind-body-spirit","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1988,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985\/revisions\/1988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}