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[–]i_cansmellthat 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Doesn't it depend on the question?

In terms of survival, I'm not sure humans could have made it this far without questions. We aren't capable, instinctual beings that have survival skills instilled. We are problem solvers, and therefore need the question before us in order to provide for our needs. At least, we did before supermarkets and farms and such.

But going deeper into enlightenment and spirituality.....I think our instinct drives us to ask questions. These questions ultimately have no defined answer, no hard truth. I think searching different religions and perspectives and methods for enlightenment is so important, but at the end of the day one must be content with “I don't know” as an answer. Maybe some suffering comes from an overwhelming desire to define and the inability to do so. Finding peace within the phrase “I don't know” frees you to accept the answer isn't for you at this time. I'm not well read in this area yet (working on it) so sorry if I'm being thick.

I guess my thoughts are that we can't stop questioning, it's how we operate. Maybe through conditioning and meditation we can apply better filters to our questions. And maybe we can smile when we think, “I don't know” and reflect on the possibilities.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don't mean to say that all questions are bad, just that many are drowning in questions that don't actually provide any net benefit, while they think they're doing themselves a favor.

The right questions are the most valuable things in the world, but carrying around the wrong questions is a weight that wears us down, and I'd posit 95% of the questions we lug around in our minds every day aren't actually a net useful thing. They're just a bad habit, a compulsion.

So I'm not saying "don't question" but rather "use your ability to question very very carefully". Everything looks like a nail when you're using a hammer. Everything looks like some riddle that must be solved when using the lens of questioning. This can cause problems. But questioning is definitely useful in the right context.