Questioning Everything

[Eva Libre]

Inspirations

Questioning Everything

Today's Inspiration

Being open-minded means that we are willing to question everything, including those things we take for granted.

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.

by Madisyn Taylor

[John Savlove]

This is one Inspiration I keep thinking about. There's no way I can write everything I've thought in the last two days, but at least I can respond with love and admiration for the piece.

"Question Authority" is the easy one for me, it was my childhood meme, back when there were no memes - rather, it was a button I wore on my shirt!

This led to questioning anything else, including myself - often- for, ironically, I take so much stock in being an authority.

The meaning of the word "sacred" has been an important thing to ask about. Notice how "questioning" and "ask about" already take on different shades. "Ask about" feels kinder, more curious than rebelling through reason. The purity of god consciousness is the one thing I don't want to question. It is inviolable. I don't need my mind or anyone else's to mess with that. Yet to consider something sacred is not necessarily invoking unconditional love or higher presence. Without the right intention, I find it is easier to reduce "sacred" to a cliché. With the right intention, there is less need to engage the mind - questions may well arise, but better quality questions.

One other small point is that a few days before this piece appeared, I was already questioning the phrase "beginner's mind". Not for fun, but because I had a reason --- the meditation teacher was lecturing about how the Unified Field Awareness comes from somewhere else other than the mind. She said, "Only the mind can question the existence of God. The reality knows inherently that there is a God!" So if the trick is to relax the mind into a stillness so deep that the Core Awareness is magnificently perceived, beginner's mind is a tool but not the end. That's when I started getting playful about alternatives to "beginner's mind": Beginner's Soul? Soma Seed?