The ABCs: Q is for (Radical) Questions
It's never really about the answers
In many spiritual traditions, there is a practice in which a selected scriptural passage becomes the theme for the week. At Radical Spirituality, we do the same thing, but in a radical way.
Each Sunday, I offer The ABC’s of Radical Spirituality, a single, simple word distilled from the common principles of all the world’s faith and wisdom teachings that serves as the exploration for the week. They are the roots of Radical Spirituality. And because I am that person, the words are in alphabetical order. We start with A and go to Z.
It’s a simple practice to get to the roots of what matters on our spiritual path. The best part is that you will get out of it what you put into it. If you just keep the word on a sticky-note on your computer, it will still work it’s magic. But to dig deeper, delve in, dive in, and see what you find.
The ABCs: Q is for (Radical) Questions
"We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers." ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
Though much spiritual teaching appears to be about answers, spirituality is really about questions. At the root of all spirituality are the fundamental questions of life, death, the cosmos, reality.
All those questions can be boiled down to Three Big Questions:
Who am I?
What is the nature of reality?
How do I live in relationship to that?
Though all the religions have doctrine and dogma to answer those questions, any living spiritual path stresses the process of inquiry. We keep asking. We keep exploring. To do so, we must start from a place of not-knowing. As Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki says, “’I don't know’ is the First Principle."
The spiritual journey is one of deepening questions. It’s a quest. We question, we learn, we question again. We ask better questions. Harder questions. We accept that we may never know, but we stay in the unknowing. Questions point us toward the Mystery, to the unknown. That’s where all the juice is.
But the radical spiritual path goes even deeper. It’s an experiential inquiry. We can read all the texts, do the spiritual practices, listen to the teachers, but ultimately, it’s our experience that matters. Life itself is the text, the practice, and the teacher, and we just keep our eyes, ears and hearts open, paying attention to everything, and inquiring what it all is and means.
And, if we are lucky, we will find a whole bunch more questions.
This week, we explore Questions: What questions do you ask? Are you willing to stop seeking answers, but sit with the questions?
Deeper Roots
For many, not knowing is uncomfortable. That’s why religions try to give us certainty. They give us doctrine and dogma to explain it all. If we believe the answers, things are easier. And yet, every tradition – at its spiritual root - teaches us to question.
Judaism is based on questions. Jacob is renamed Israel, He Who Wrestles with God, after wrestling (asking questions). Abraham, Moses, and Job all question God, and God questions them back. The Talmud has blank space around the text for our own questioning and interpretations, and rabbis are notorious for answering questions with more questions. Faith is only real if it has been earned through questioning.
In the Gospels, Jesus (who was a rabbi) is constantly posing rhetorical questions –at least 307 of them, according to one count –asking his followers to dig deep for their own answers. One of the most potent is “What do you seek?” (John 1:38).
In Islam, followers are encouraged to use their reason or ask questions if they have doubts about the teachings. As the Qu’ran says, “Thus Allah (God) explains His signs to you, so you may use your reason.” (Qu’ran 2:242).
Buddhism, Daoism, and Vedantic Hinduism all are fundamentally inquiry-based: we begin with not-knowing and probe our own consciousness for truth.
Ultimately, the spiritual path is one of ongoing inquiry with ourselves, our experience of life, what is happening around us, and whatever-we-call-sacred. It’s about formulating and asking the right questions. Questions are how we learn, how we grow, and how we get closer to something we might consider truth. Easy answers shut out deeper truth. The mystery is far more interesting.
Like ever inquisitive children, we keep asking: there are always more questions.
“It’s better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” – James Thurber
Reflection Questions
What does it mean to question?
Where do I seek answers more than ask questions?
What prevents me from asking questions?
How can I be more curious, more open to questions?
Suggested Practice
What are your big questions? Write them down. Pick one (or a few) this week to ponder. Even if you think you know the answer, dig deeper. Be a three-year-old: “Why?” “Why?” “Why?” Keep asking. Ask again.
“The answer is not that important. It’s where the question brings you that matters” - Adyashanti