The Question.
- clearstreamzendo
- Nov 3
- 2 min read
This week’s topic for reflection is “The question.” What is the question at the center of your life right now? It might be consuming and clearly articulated or hiding, small and mysterious. Perhaps your questions are not at the center of your life but more specific to certain difficulties or situations.
This topic is to reflect on how the questions are uncovered, asked and how they are answered. For example once I was asked why are we embodied in this human form? I didn't have a good answer at the time and his question became my own. Is there a reason or purpose for us being here in human form? This question cycled back on its own and I would just hold it for awhile patiently. Over days and weeks the words faded but the question didn't. Then I remembered the question was asked in the context of dying. Then the answer came to me. Yes, we are here to learn what it is to be alive which transends Iife and death. This returning to the question again and again over time requires patience and faith that the answer will come. I call this remembering what I never knew. I gently hold the question and allow the answer to come to me. When I have created enough space around the question and the answer is ready it arrives. This approach works for me.
Of coarse I’m not addressing simple questions like what’s for dinner which is more of a choice than a question. I’m talking about important questions you really don’t know the answer to.
I have a good friend who became a medical doctor. He once told me he didn’t think you need to be unusually smart to make it through medical school and become a doctor. He said you do need to know how you in particular learn since there is so much you have to learn. Since we are all different it follows we would also have different ways of solving life’s deepest questions. These are the questions where someone else’s way of asking may not work and their answer may not be satisfying.
Ever since I was young I had the question what is God and what is my relationship to God? There were many people who wanted to give me their answer but I needed to find my own. This is what brought me to Zen. Zen held out the possibility that whatever my question was I could discover the answer. Not intellectually figure it out but discover it directly. I had already tried the intellectual route without success. With skillful and patient teachers and guides I have found my path in Zen. I’m not saying my way is the Zen way only that it’s my way. What is your way of asking and answering your most important questions?
Please join us for morning Zoom zazen from 7:00 to 7:30 Tuesday and Thursday, and Sunday morning Zoom zazen and discussion of the topic for reflection blog from 8:00 to 9:00 Pacific Time. Here’s the Zoom link:
Meeting ID: 811 6100 3357
Passcode: 278259
Gassho,
Futai
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