Living in the Question
Exploring life, looking behind the veil of appearances, believing in nothing and trusting life
Living in the Question
The Profound Experience
He who does not ask cannot know.
If you want to know, you have to ask.
Be empty.
Questions only make sense when we are empty and open to learning. When we are full (of concepts, ideas, philosophies, attachments, memories, projections…), there is no room for the unknown, for the new.
There are many types of experiences: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. How we interpret these experiences depends on the level of consciousness in which we live.
Each level integrates the previous one and thus deepens the experience. Our view opens up and we evaluate situations with more understanding and compassion. When we reach the integral level of consciousness, we are able to unite all these experiences into one, the profound experience.
It is the experience of Self-knowledge.
Photo by Mona Hassan Abo Abda - Public domain
The Realisation of What Is Real
Living in the question is the path to this experience, which by its very nature is non-personal, integral, and ultimately nondual.
Children are constantly asking questions, knowledge is a necessity, hence the phrase “seeing the world through the eyes of a child”. Life is an adventure to be discovered.
The current system and society are organized in such a way that we forget this inner need. We learn the superficial, which is characterized by disconnection from our inner self, and the standardization of experiences and normalized thought models (framing and wording). Of course, this is very simplistic, but let’s be honest, how many people do we know who are at peace, serene, and in their own center?
Living in the question means exploring life, looking behind the veil of appearances, believing in nothing and trusting life.
Wisdom is a non-linear science, and like all true sciences, it is not based on faith, but on inquiry (the art of questioning) and experience. *Believe nothing, verify it yourself with your own experience (Buddha)*. This is more important today than ever because we have a lot of information available at the click of a button, and what keeps us from getting lost in the ocean of information is the art of questioning.
We are all searching for the same thing, even if we call it by an infinite number of different names. I call it peace and serenity. What prevents us from finding it is ignorance and its shadows, suffering, or, in short, the human drama. If there is no drama, we can fulfill our purpose.
The human drama revolves around one thing, namely the personal self. Identification with the person is the source of human unhappiness and the main cause of the destruction of the earth. This brings us to the most important question of all.
Who I AM?
All other questions are connected to this question. Until we know who we are, nothing really works, and life is at best one patchwork after another.
Who am I? The standard answer is me or I. But who is this “me”?
We can answer that it is the body-mind-spirit complex. But another question soon arises: if you are the body-mind-spirit complex, how can you be aware of it?
I am what I think. But who knows what you think?
I am my actions and my story. But who performs the actions? Who is the doer? When do we decide to decide?
Well, now we can say that the conscious awareness of the world is aware of my actions and my thoughts and is aware of the body-mind-spirit complex. We are getting closer to our true “identity,” and at the same time, the question arises: Who is aware of consciousness?
The reality is that no one can answer this question because it is an experience that transcends words. Some call it the essence, others the consciousness, the Self, the Tao, the Absolute, the Universal Intelligence, or simply the eternal present moment. When Ramana Maharshi was dying, he said to his anxious disciples, “Where can you go? I am here”.
Living in the question opens us to life as it is, and that is who we are.
First published on Medium the August 30, 2024