Everyday Musings > Q&A

My friend Bilat sent me a forward today on questions that haunt. Some of them were quirky and interesting - 'Can you cry under water? How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered? Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground? Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?'

I used to read Open Space, in the Sunday Times, which talked of such questions. They would invite readers to research and send in answers, and publish the correct answers with some funny ones as well. Questions have always intrigued us. And all progress is a result of constant enquiry. Fish questioning why they couldn't get out and walk, Early Man questioning what would happen if he struck two stones, or lay his meat on the fire. Eve wondering what would happen if she ate an apple. Newton asking 'why did the apple fall.' Questions are catalysts for evolution.

Even in religion, where the presence of God is a matter of faith, questions and debates are encouraged for further understanding of the nature of reality and God. Buddhist teachers wrote Zen Koans, or 'checking questions" to validate an experience of insight and put a great thought into a couple of words. Koans are not rational questions with final linear conclusions. They are especially designed for one purpose - to open the mind that has been closed by habitual responses to the world and reality. Like once when Zen Master Unmon said to his disciple, "The world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your robes at the sound of a bell?"

As children, we all asked questions. Profound questions that adults sometimes had no answers for, or wondered 'where do kids come up with all these questions'. But as we grow up, we shy away from questions, and believe that only people who do not know ask questions. The wise ones have answers. And thus life becomes all about killing the questions and having the right answers, the quick answers, the witty answers, the noble answers, the perfect answers.

I always believed that my life was a quest for answers, for a purpose, for that one thing I'm on Earth for. But I have come to realise that my life is really a quest for questions. The nature of my questions will determine the quality of life that I have. What do I have for breakfast? or 'Why can't I get an auto when I want one?' will lead my life in one direction, and 'How can I eradicate hunger ?' or 'How do I give senior citizens a fulfilled, joyful life?' will lead my life in another direction altogether.

Answers can never exist without definite Questions, whereas a Question can always exist without an apparent answer. And even if it is answered, unless the answer doesn't fit our understanding of what its answer should be, chances are, we'll keep asking it again and again. Like our quest o know the meaning of life. As far as I know, Douglas Adams, in his book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, answered 'What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?' The answer is 42.