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April 23, 2026   Keep an Open Mind   The nature of online discourse today, which favors strong opinions and loud voices, has, of course, heightened divisions by rewarding extremes and discouraging anyone uninterested in making a splash from jumping into the pool.  Buddhism, on the other hand, encourages an open mind and admitting we don’t have all the answers. Whether it’s Zen’s “don’t-know mind” or what Ajahn Sumedho, an influential American Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition, calls “affectionate curiosity,” inquiry is a key part of practice. In Zen koan practice, it is the whole of it. Expecting a definitive answer is to miss the point.    Seeing doubt as an imperative, not a weakness, the Buddha warned against accepting his teachings on blind faith and instructed practitioners to question and investigate, to come and see for themselves.   When Buddhist nun Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo admitted to her teacher that, after investigation, she still had trouble accepting certain parts of Tibetan dharma, her teacher told her not to worry. There are good reasons she might feel that way and it would also be OK if she never resolved those questions. Curiosity keeps us alert, and in the end, “We can be quite happy with a question mark,” Palmo says.   The Buddha called this the middle way. As Buddhist teacher Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel describes it, “The term ‘Middle’ points to the ignorance-free zone between static conclusions and stupidity, grasping and rejecting, believing and doubting. It is the vast and deep alternative to the tug-of-war we have with our world.”   This week’s Three Teachings reminds us that an open mind is a strong mind, and a potentially free one at that.

Necessary Doubt By Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo Reflecting on her own experience as a student, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Buddhist nun, teaches that a questioning mind is essential to the Buddhist path.

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The Power of an Open Question By Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel  Buddhist teacher and author Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel speaks about the imperative to question but also to be, or embody, the questions we can’t ask with our intellects. Each one of us must follow our own “practice of open-questioning” to embrace the full experience of reality without drawing false or unhelpful conclusions.

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Practice Questioning By Narayan Helen Liebenson    Insight teacher Narayan Helen Liebenson offers skillful questions to ask ourselves on and off the cushion.

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