Keeping Our Minds Supple

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.