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10 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

The Nuns of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery

Buddha replied, “You have a right to be confused. investigated and experienced by each individual. So
This is a confusing situation. Do not take anything one should not be afraid to doubt. In fact, Buddhist
on trust merely because it has passed down through writer Stephen Batchelor wrote a dharma book
tradition, or because your teachers say it, or because entitled The Faith to Doubt. It is right for us to question.
your elders have taught you, or because it’s written But we need to question with an open heart and
in some famous scripture. When you have seen it and an open mind, not with the idea that everything that
experienced it for yourself to be right and true, then fits our preconceived notions is right and anything that
you can accept it.” does not is automatically wrong. The latter attitude
is like the bed of Procrustes. You have a set pattern in
Now that was quite a revolutionary statement, place, and everything you come across must either be
because the Buddha was certainly saying that about stretched out or cut down to fit it. This just distorts
his own doctrine, too. All through the ages it has everything and prevents learning.
been understood that the doctrine is there to be