Mind?

"You need to keep an open mind." I've been told this more times than I can count. As I considered this statement again tonight, I found myself considering not only the question of open and closed minds but also active and passive minds. One of the characteristics of an open mind, I'm told, is that it believes that "anything is possible." One becomes guilty of being closed-minded the moment X (whatever X might be) is deemed impossible. (I have found, however, that this rule only apply when the X that is rejected is on someone else's "favored" list. If I reject the same things that someone else rejects, I'm no longer closed-minded, I'm perceptive, or discerning, or intelligent, or wise, or..., and I'm still open-minded.)

I wonder whether the critical point here is truly open/closed, or active/passive. The person who says "anything is possible" really doesn't have any more to think about, except perhaps some romantic considerations of possibility that amount to flights of imagination. The mind in question is passive no matter how active it may seem. An idea can produce large quantities of highly energetic romantic "possibilities." Does that mean that said mind is active? Is such a mind any more active than the mind of someone having a dream?

On the other hand, what I've called an active mind does not accept "anything is possible" as sufficient grounds on which to stop thinking. The active mind examines, probes, analyses, compares, contrasts, and questions. It, too, may use romantic flights of imagination, but not as ends in themselves. And if the activity of the mind becomes the end what's left is a "gerbil wheel." Is that mind then any more active than the dreamer's?

And if all of this is true of the mind, is it not also true of the spirit (or soul)? Can one have an open spirit, a closed spirit, a passive spirit, or an active spirit? The idea of passive spirituality brings to mind those in my past who have questioned, "Why do you have to question everything? Why can't you just believe?" My answer is that I do believe. I believe the answers exist, even if I never find them.

How often do we find it simpler to enjoy large quanitites of highly energetic, romantic but passive spirituality than to actively pursue spirituality? When does the activity of the soul become a spiritual "gerbil wheel"?

Several years ago a friend commented that the characters in the movie "The Two Towers" were noble. This idea stunned me. Noble? I fussed and fumed. Noble? Eventually I realized that I had somehow attached the idea of detachment to nobility. Nobility was separate, clean (not in a moral sense) , and "above." The characters in "The Two Towers" were constantly dirty. How could they be noble? They were - and ultimately I realized that at least some of their nobility was the result of their being willing to be dirty.

Is the "open" and/or passive mind the separate, clean and "above" mind? Is the truly closed mind just as separate, clean and "above"? (A truly closed-mind is not discussed above, but it which will not consider any possibility. Doesn't that, however; include the mind that dismisses a specific possibility with an "anything's possible"?) Is the mind that is on a gerbil wheel any less detached? Are these statements just as true of spirits/souls? Is this not at heart of the call to be doers of the Word, and not merely hearers?