The Answer that has No Question

What is the one question that you have never asked a teacher, a guru, or a helper?

I can tell you I never asked, and nobody has ever asked me, “Could you go back to the part about how there is something here that is always peaceful? Could you tell me again about how there is an abiding peace?” It’s curious – why does no one ask that? Because, they don’t have to. Because they already know this peace as the bedrock of their existence, the backdrop upon which all daily dramas appear, the wellspring from which all the other questions arise. They already know.

Nobody ever says, “Now, wait a minute, I don’t think I know this peace you’re talking about. I don’t think I’m familiar with that.” Have you ever felt a need to be convinced about this? Think about it. This clear, peaceful awareness is completely present and obvious all the time, even in the midst of all the distractions of a fascinating life and its page-turner plot. Oh, sure, you’ve got questions – an endless stream of them. But one thing is so obvious that it doesn’t even occur to you that you don’t have a question about it.

You don’t ask, “This peace, this clarity – is it present?,” because you don’t need to ask that. You don’t need to ask it because you know it to be true. It is the one thing you have no doubt about. Of course you have plenty of doubts: you doubt whether this life, this body, and this existence are even real. You have doubts about the possibility of ever ending your seeking. Those things can really agitate the mind sometimes. But not this. This is not even a question. It is simply so obvious and so present that it never occurred to you to doubt it, to not doubt it, or to question it. It is so obvious that it never even occurred to you to acknowledge it.

Don’t take my word for it. Find out for yourself right now. Has this question ever come up? Of course you’ve had myriad questions, and they never seem to stop. But have you ever doubted for one instant that there is something constant, always present at the heart of all you know and experience? Have you ever doubted for one second of your entire life that something stays the same? Have you ever not taken completely for granted the fact that something survives all the drama, all the loss, and all the pain – unscathed – and that this “something” observes it all with equanimity, and even affection?

Sure, it is not “you,” the person, who is unscathed by the losses and the pain. “You” are the very center of all of the loss and pain! All the fear, the vulnerability, the weakness, the crushing self-doubt – it is all about “you,” because of you, and from you. “You” are your drama, your questions, your search for enlightenment, your search for safety, your search for love. “You” are an endless parade of shifting moods and declarations of having it all figured out. One day “you” are feeling great and connected to spirit, and your girlfriend is being nice to you. The next day, “you” get yelled at by your boss and you can’t seem to do away with that pesky ego that causes you to suffer. It’s all the same! It’s the story of “you,” made up by you, perpetuated by you, and believed in by you.

This personal life, unfolding in Technicolor, all centered around the idea of self, sweeps us up into its spell from the time we are very small and entangles us deeply in the story. And there is nothing wrong with that! It only becomes a problem when we suffer, believing the personal story to be real, and forgetting that the constant clear peace within which all the stories unfold is all that ever existed.

Knowing this, it’s really over. There is no more to do. The drama of life will continue to unfold. Questions will continue to arise. And so the next time the questions arise and present themselves as important, and as needing answers, remember that there really are no more questions, since the only answer you ever needed didn’t even have a question before it.

This is your birthright. This is grace. Acknowledge grace, and it is seen that this search has been for nothing all along.