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I have for the better part of my life always questioned any piece of information provided to me. I have questioned religious practice, family and societal interpretations, conduct and everything else. My journey of questions might have started when I was 12 or 13 years old around middle school. I was never satisfied with the answers I got from the elders “this is how it is” , “our family does it this way” etc etc.  

It is this relentless drive for answers that has a huge impact on how I conduct my self today. I have turned from a believer in the idea of a higher being (I got married in a temple) to one that doesn’t believe a higher being exists. I am sure that my journey will change me tomorrow but then this is where I stand today; every day is another learning experience that tells me more about who I really am and about the world around me and shapes how I think about interpersonal relationships and my relationship with a potential higher being. 

I often find words to be limiting in the ability to express my true state of being, I nonetheless try and it results in interesting outcomes; especially when I can’t find the exact set of words to express what I actually mean. Those are the days when I learn the most. People react to a set of words in different ways and have different understanding of ideas. Reading exposes me to different ideas and I am fully aware that my interpretation might be quite different to what the author intended. It helps when I am able to discuss a piece of writing with someone else; it shows me a different point of view. 

Questions need answers. Some of the questions can be answered fairly quickly as the answer is based in universally accepted truth; these questions are not important. The difficult questions that ask you to question the acceptable answer are the important ones. If and when you do find an answer remember it is your answer for it is from a unique point of view. 

Theology and philosophy deal with the questions and why they arise. They make a very good attempt to answer them too. But then the answers are always biased in the sense that the answers are true from a point of view - they look at the questions from a point of view and answer them from the same point of view. The drive for knowledge is underlined by the fact that a question might be biased by the point view and to truly get an answer one needs to look at the question in 360 degrees and acknowledge each answer as a possible outcome. Wow extra effort needed. 

I have been reading about the dao or tao depending on how you spell it and have found similarities in the basic idea of the tao in scripture, in Hindu philosophy and in middle eastern philosophy (limited to what I have read). They all point towards a simple idea (I might be using the wrong words to convey it from your particular point of view) - the way is no way. Essentially the answer to any philosophical or theological question is to not go looking for the answer - it is what it is. The very act of looking for the answer gives birth to expectations and expectations would give birth to disappointment. It’s the expectations coloured with our own biases that tend to disappoint us. Then why ask these questions? Do we just accept the status quo and stop asking questions? No - we ask questions but need to accept the answers for what they are. Answers are inherently biased with a point of view. Acceptance of all points of view needs you to give up your own biases. When you drop your biases there is no need to prove a point or say a particular answer as the correct or true one and in essence the reason for the original question could completely disappear. The question and the answer is one. 

What a simple idea - The way of the way is no way; extremely difficult to grasp and even more so to implement. 

C