On questions and answers
The first, most important, and last skill you need to successfully navigate spiritual path is the ability to ask a question, and get an answer.
Luckily for you, Q&A with the universe is a divine right. No one can take it away from you, and you can use it to directly circumvent all intermediaries, and save money in the spiritual marketplace! This is a basic article about getting your first experience of a question-answer cycle, I have an advanced article on the same topic.
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
— Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
The spiritual journey is often described as a mountain, with many paths up the mountain. I’ve also used the metaphor of a spiral but you guessed it, its a 3D spiral! That goes up (or down — depending on my mood and how much I'm bitching).
So… you got to do all your own hiking. Some paths are more direct, and some are more circuitous and most people get pretty tired on the journey, etc, etc. You get the metaphor.
The reason I use this metaphor here, is the most important thing you got in the entire world to get up that mountain is the ability to ask a spiritual question, and get a spiritual answer. And it’s yours it’s always with you. You get a sense of up and down, and you get an inborn map and compass.
Even though you still have to get up the same elevation as everyone else, you can figure out your own direction. And with a little bit of practice you can navigate the mountain much, much easier and pick easier routes rather than harder ones or maybe just routes that are better suited to you. It’s your journey after all. Why shouldn’t you control it?
Questions and answers for skeptics
Luckily most skeptics are going to be intimately familiar with the concept of hypothesis, and experimental data, theories, etc. Hopefully my readers are a bit more advanced on these topics and understand empiricism, and love the scientific method as much as I do.
I think navigating the mountain for most people in the West starts with questions formulated as hypothesis about their birth religion, science, atheism, etc. And people get their answers from embodied sources and personal experience long before they consciously realize they can upgrade the question/answer circuit.
Pretty much everyone I know has kind of muddled around with finding their own belief system. But most people get really mired in the belief systems and guilt trips of their parents, and societies. Sometimes they progress to rebelling against those belief systems but that is still strongly parentally influenced belief. Eventually some intrepid adventurers make it out of conditioned or reactive cognitive patterns to more structured decision-making about the nature of the world, their personal morality, and what happens after death. (Incidentally this is why I generally like atheists, they are usually in the third stage.
All this stuff is better coupled with action so people are aligned but its all pretty humdrum and doesn’t really challenge the status quo human condition.
I want to take you to another model, and if you’re a skeptic I hope you’ve read up on model-dependent realism so you can at least consider this possibility.
I want to introduce the hypothesis that infinite consciousness actively answers any question you formulate. And I want you to test it in your own life.
Questions and answers in spiritual awakening
Most spiritual awakenings start with a question. It’s usually a real question, and it’s usually put to the universe, the divine, or a higher power (in other words not your tennis shoes or your aunt Maime.)
The question is usually pretty simple. For me it was almost verbatim:
“I’m really happy and successful right now, but something is still missing. I’m not complaining, because I’ve got everything I think I could want. I just want to know is this all there is?” .
I asked the stars. There was this lake I used to go to at night to look at the stars and I asked the stars. I didn’t even believe in a God at the time. I just needed to talk to something that felt… open and not closed. So I asked something I perceived of as infinite at a time when I really did perceive of myself as having everything I wanted (money, relationship, status, beauty, etc.) and if you had known me then you would have agreed — it was a pretty good year for me.
And I forgot all about my little slip of the mind until the earth caved in on me a couple months later. I lost everything in such a specific and abrupt way that I was mortally offended with the divine. I was raging at God less than 6 months later (yeah by then I was mad at a real being) and I was reminded gently that I had specifically asked to know, and now I did.
Now I am glad I lost everything. Now I know how paltry what I had at the time was. Now I am so grateful I asked that question and was not satisfied with what I thought I had. But the point I’m trying to make is not whether spiritual awakenings are worth it, the point I’m making is it was a true question.
If you ask a true question, you will always get a true answer. The problem for most people who feel cut off from the divine lies in one of two things:
They do not ask a true question
They do not recognize their answers.
Let’s talk about those two things really quickly.
A true question
A true question must be open. You must actually realize you don’t know. You have no fucking clue. It’s got to be a cognitively available area. This means you have removed previous beliefs (often through disillusionment) and are temporarily open to receiving an answer.
A true question must be addressed to the right place. You’ve got to ask Source, God, the universe, something bigger than yourself. If you’re an atheist you can ask the void that you sense. It’s critical that you step beyond traditional sources for the answer. If you ask your cousin Joe, or the internet, or your professor, or your religion you’re not actually opening up at all. You have to ask something that is unexplored to get something new.
Good: It’s also important that you ask something good, think high not low. So something loving, beneficial, and interested in your wellness as it coexists with that of other peoples wellness.
Smart: There is infinite intelligence in infinite consciousness. Generally people think the cosmos has the intelligence of a very large chunk of granite, or is uninterested in them. It’s not, it’s really fucking smart, it knows everything about you, and it’s already trying to talk to you. So ask something you think is smart.
Open: Ask something that is going to listen to your input. This might sound silly but the universe really, really cares what you truly think. It might have a much better idea on how to get what you want, but it does care what you want. And it cares what you see so ask something open to dialoging with you. Start a conversation.
A true question must be consistent. If you want an important answer, you have to be consistent, and persistent. So ask in all ways; mentally, physically, and emotionally. Ask again, and again. Write it down, put it on your mirror ask verbally, in prayer, and with some heart. Keep in mind that false beliefs about answers can block you from getting them clearly so be patient if it doesn’t come right away. Be inquisitive about the question itself, if its not quite right then work on it and make sure its really reasonable.
A true question must be logical. Don’t ask the universe “Why am I a bag of shit?” because you’re not. The universe can’t answer that because it’s not logical. You’re not a bag of shit so no answer is possible. It’s a nonsense question. Don’t ask nonsense questions. If you’re not getting an answer make sure its not a nonsense question.
Recognizing answers
A true answer can’t hurt you. If you’re a truly, subconsciously afraid of an answer, you’re not going to get it until you’re open to it. Most people are subconsciously afraid of God, so asking if there is a God can take a long time to get an answer. Try asking for simple, practical shit to begin with: “How do I fix my credit score?”, “Why is Cousin Jack irritated today?”, “How do I wake up on time in the morning?” stuff thats pragmatic and measurable.
A true answer builds a relationship. This is a relationship you’re building with the universe. One where you trust your ability to ask questions and get answers. Answers that are beneficial to you, helpful to you, and pragmatic. No problem is too small or two big. So start small, and simple just like you would with any other relationship. Track your performance. Build trust, listen, apply what you get, come back with more questions. This is your right. You can take time to test the waters. Its okay to be vulnerable and protective of yourself at the same time.
A true answer is personal. You’re an infinitely complex and unique being. Nothing basic about you. The universe knows this, an answer is going to be specific to you in the place and time you need it. It’s going to seem very, very individual. It’s very common for it to be related to unique personal history that only you would really understand. This is your channel, its going to come with your name on it in one form or another. In your language, culture, history, and emotional frequency.
A true answer might take a while. Don’t be surprised if your first real answer takes months. And don’t be a dipshit and put a question out there, then forget you asked it. Then be all like “the universe doesn’t’ answer me”. Pay attention to what you are consciously, and subconsciously asking for, keep a list, and refer to your list occasionally to see if your question got answered and how it got answered. I keep a running list of important questions at all times.
A true answer can come from anywhere. If you ask a question today, and your best friend walks up tomorrow and answers it, that still counts. The universe gets credit. The universe can use strangers, friends and family, the radio, or your own suddenly burning desire to march down to the nearest library. Don’t fuss about how, fuss about what. Focus on getting the question right, and your head might spin about how fast and efficiently it gets answered.
The point is not to earn a PhD in getting one question answered. The point is to get ALL your questions answered. All the time. Continually. From the highest source, without intermediaries.
I fully admit I recently asked the universe if I was a free-climber (can never fall) or a ski jumper (epic crash and get back up again). After a week my friend texted me a picture of a mountain goat on a cliff and said “They just walk like that, also no fear”. I was delighted and satisfied. It was a good question, and a lovely answer. The universe is just really fucking smart and I’m always so goddamn grateful I made friends with it.
Next question.
Questions and answers conclusion
This ones a bit long, and I’m glad because if you only get one thing from visiting this site, you have the one thing you need. It’s more important than anything that you can get information from the divine directly. It is the core skill you need to optimize your life, and start really living it.
You don’t need me or anyone else on this path. You get this straight and you can safely kill the Buddah.
My best wishes on this. I am never so satisfied as when a student returns to me and tells me they got a real answer to a real question for the first time. Teaching them how to do that is my only real job .
