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A lot of people feel threatened if they feel they are being asked to question
their cherished beliefs or their perception of reality. Yet questioning is
what keeps our minds supple and strong. Simply settling on one way of seeing
things and refusing to be open to other possibilities makes the mind rigid
and generally creates a restrictive and uncomfortable atmosphere. We all know
someone who refuses to budge on one or more issues, and we may have our own
sacred cows that could use a little prodding. Being open-minded means that we
are willing to question everything, including those things we take for
granted.
A willingness to question everything, even things we are sure we are right
about, can shake us out of complacency and reinvigorate our minds, opening us
up to understanding people and perspectives that were alien to us before.
This alone is good reason to remain inquisitive, no matter how much
experience we have or how old we get. In the Zen tradition, this willingness
to question is known as beginner’s mind, and it has a way of generating
possibilities we couldn’t have seen from the point of view of knowing
something with certainty. The willingness to question everything doesn’t
necessarily mean we don’t believe in anything at all, and it doesn’t mean we
have to question every single thing in the world every minute of the day. It
just means that we are humble enough to acknowledge how little we actually
know about the mysterious universe we call home.
Nearly every revolutionary change in the history of human progress came about
because someone questioned some time-honored belief or tradition and in doing
so revealed a new truth, a new way of doing things, or a new standard for
ethical and moral behavior. Just so, a commitment to staying open and
inquisitive in our own individual lives can lead us to new personal
revolutions and truths, truths that we will hopefully, for the sake of our
growth, remain open to questioning.
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