The Future is Open

May 24, 2020 Philanthropically, Sociocultural Issues No Comments

Open as in Open Mindfulness, Open Religion, Open Leadership. Open as in open-complex. Open to inside as well as outside.

Positively Open

Openness with a capital O is about overlap. I see this as a positive characteristic in many ways.

Internally, it is about the overlap of concepts, leading to a much-enhanced capacity to make many and broad associations. Things invisible become visible. A person gets more inspired -> better art and better solutions to all kinds of problems, including scientific ones.

Externally, it is about the overlap of people. We are living in a time of social distancing. Social stress may add to the risk that people float apart from ‘the others’ even further than ever. The more so do we need personal togetherness and overlap. Openness is empathy.

The future

Today seems to be less Open than a decade ago. The immediate future may be less Open than today. Still, in the longer term, in my view, we live in a time of increasing Openness. In the present, there are evolutions in both directions.

A counter-reaction to Openness is logical because this is scary to many people. It is about real change, a gradual in-depth transformation. The fact that the counter-reaction exists points to the ongoing evolution towards the title of this blog.

At least, that’s my opinion. I can only see a future of Openness. If we choose for rationality, it is inevitable. If we choose for depth, it is inevitable. If we choose rationality + depth, nothing can stop it. I may be prejudiced since AURELIS has this precious combination as a goal, of course. More than anything else that I know of.

How?

It takes effort, not by one person but by many. The effort lies in transcending the ego. One may look around and see nothing but the inside of the ego. Then it may appear as if this stains the whole world and one needs to follow suit to survive, if not physically, at least mentally.

That may be true as a mere-ego.

Crucial is the insight that the mere-ego is quite different from the ego. The latter is a broad view upon the total person, including the non-conscious, as viewed from a conceptual stance. Ego can understand Openness. It can see and feel Openness, but it cannot be Openness. That is not a problem for the ego. The crucial difference lies in Openness:

The ego is Open. Mere-ego is not.

How can one know which is which? Look at generosity, or even better: the unconditional kind. This is the road towards the future of Openness. Being genuinely generous is building on this road.

So, are many people being truly generous now? “What’s in it for me?” seems to be a general mantra. I’m still positive because I don’t think that this will last. Once there is a certain degree of Openness – and an excellent way to think about it and act towards it – then this becomes self-perpetuating. Sooner or later, just by design or mere coincidence, this will be the case. From that point onwards, it’s bound to be like evolution in one direction only.

Hindsight

From there, looking back will be an experience that we lack. Looking back will make people sad and maybe a bit incredulous. I hope – and know – that they will not take their situation for granted.

That insight is also something that Openness provides.

Once well on that path, it will continue.