That’s a Good Question

by Robert Brumet

When someone says, “That’s a Good Question,” what does that usually mean? It’s a good question because that person probably doesn’t have the answer! We are conditioned to always have answers. As children we were rewarded for having the right answer. Seeking the right answer became a way of life.

But answers can be closed and dead; there are no more questions, no more seeking, no more curiosity. When I was six years old (and Catholic) I had all the answers to life’s deepest questions; not because I was brilliant but because these “answers” were constantly stuffed into my head. Questions were discouraged because I was already given the answers.

We are conditioned to have the right answer. Thus, some people believe they have the answers and live without any questions. Rather than living life as an open question they are entrenched in defending their (dogmatic) answers. I have seen this with both religious zealots and atheists. We have political zealots who function in that same way. But questions are open and alive. Questions invite curiosity and exploration. The poet Mark Nepo says, “Never ruin a good question with an answer.”

We are taught not to ask, “silly questions.” But some of the very best questions sound very silly. An example, the question, “Why does time run only forward?” sounds rather dumb to us laypersons. But this question is the impetus behind Stephen Hawking’s groundbreaking work, A Brief History of Time.
“What is it like to ride a beam of light?” Sounds like a child’s fantasy. This question was the beginning of Einstein’s work in developing his theories of relativity. Einstein writes: “Never stop questioning – never lose a holy curiosity”

Find the question that leads you to freedom. Here is a koan for you:

Imagine that you are inside of a room with no doors, windows, or openings of any kind. The walls are made of six inches of solid steel. You have no means of communicating with the outside world. You have nothing in your pockets or hands.
What question will lead to your freedom?

The most obvious question is: “What must I do to escape?”

But we will soon see that that does not get us anywhere.

A better question is: “How did I get in?”

How many of our life experiences are like this? We seek answers to the wrong questions. Despite all our struggling we stay stuck. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes:

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live … into the answer.”

What questions are driving your life? Living in the question (Einstein’s holy curiosity) makes us a lifelong learner. The American philosopher Hoffer writes: “In times of radical change, it is the learners who will inherit the earth, while the learned will be beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”