Here's the big cosmic question: "What's the question?"

Back in my true believing days, I figured that I knew both the questions to ask and what the answers were. For example:

Q. How does one return to God?
A. Get initiated by a perfect living guru, and follow his teachings about meditation and other matters.

A Christian, on the other hand, would think along these lines:

Q. How is one saved from sin?
A. By accepting Jesus as his or her personal savior.

Of course, the questions presume quite a bit.

In my case, that there is a God. And it is possible (plus desirable) to return to God. In the Christian case, that there is sin. And one needs to be saved from it.

How do we know that we're even capable of asking meaningful cosmic questions? (By "cosmic," I'm referring to ultimate, metaphysical, and deeply existential sorts of queries.)

Asking a good question means that we know quite a bit about something. At the least, that it exists as some thing. Having come to this conclusion, we can inquire about its thingness.

If God exists, then it makes sense to wonder what God is like. If salvation is possible, then it makes sense to seek a way to be saved. If human beings have (or are) an immaterial soul, then it makes sense to try to experience this state of being.

If. If. If.

A lot of theological and metaphysical discussions, on this blog and elsewhere, assume that a good question has been asked. Much or most of the time, this assumption presumes the existence of something for which there is no convincing evidence.

It took me quite a while to begin to realize this. Once I did, I started down a churchless path.

At first I came to a mental signpost that said, "I know the Big Questions of Life. But I don't know the answers." Continuing onward, I reached another milestone: "I'm clueless about what questions to ask of the cosmos."

Let's take the oft-cited biggie: Why is there something rather than nothing?

Answers to this ultimate cosmic question can be put forth, but they're unsatisfying, whether religious, scientific, or philosophical. That Why in the query... why is it there?

I mean, why not take that word out, and switch the next two words around? Leaving: There is something rather than nothing.

We can all agree with that.

Making a question out of existence's existence could be the ultimate cosmic joke. Understand, I don't know that it is. But it seems more likely to me that we humans have no idea what to ask about existence, then that we know enough to ask a meaningful question.

As noted earlier, something has to exist before we can ask a good question about it. Existence exists -- that seems pretty damn clear.

But is it some thing? That's a great question. Or, an incredibly lousy one. Who knows?

In my wisest moments of mystic intuition, which could also arguably be described as my most vivid delusions, I grok:

The cosmos just is. Religions and philosophies come up with a freaking large load of conceptual crap about ultimate origins. What is, is. That's it. A-fucking-men.

That isn't a question. Or an answer either. Just an embrace of cosmic mystery.

Comments

[The Rambling Taoist]

This is what I find so appealing about philosophical Taoism. The great sages didn't seek to share information other than what they observed. Beyond that, they admitted to being as clueless as the rest of us!!

And I agree with your central thesis -- In order to ask meaningful questions, a person must have a general working knowledge of the topic. When it comes to subject matter that is cosmological or metaphysical, we don't know shit! We truly don't know the difference between up and down or forward or backwards (or even if directions matter). We know so very little that any question we might create is a complete shot in the dark and experiences teaches that those types of questions are almost always so far off the mark as to be laughable.

[Anne Partain]

I think there is a connection between our known by us self and the greater nonphysical part of each of us that cannot be severed. I also think that on an individual basis we can make this connection more vivid, by desire and trust and knowing. I also think there is a way back to a greater experience and understanding and knowing of our connection.

I thought this for a long time from a position of faith. Now, I think it from a position of having proven it for myself.

I don't think anybody finds what I speak of through focusing on how stupid and useless and mistaken things are. It comes from desire and trust and determination. I have these. I don't know how or why.

[Richard E. Hennessey]

You said, "There is something rather than nothing. We can all agree with that."

I myself do agree with that; in fact, I consider the thesis that something exists to be a "first principle" of ontology (or metaphysics). But not everyone has so agreed. Remember the ontological or metaphysical nihilism of Gorgias, who famously said, "Nothing exists; if something does exist, we cannot know it; if we come to know it, we cannot communicate it to others."

[Brian]

Richard, that quote is indeed darn nihilistic. I don't understand what Gorgias is getting at. I assume Gorgias considered that he didn't exist either, so how did he think he could communicate his philosophical realization to others?

[rakesh bhasin]

A question?

Man: "I want Peace"

God : Remove the "I" that's the Ego
Remove the "want" that desire/greed
And Peace will automatically be yours.

[Suzanne]

These comments brush on the usual concepts associated with nonduality, enlightenment, advaita, etc. Most seekers (or even religious debunkers) seem to come around to the general topic of this blog entry; there are no answers, and - this is the difference between depression and contentment - that's just fine. The idea that life is meaningless except in its intrinsic value - mere, or simple, existence - and that all the stories of right and wrong and good and evil and conspiracy theorists and peaceniks, etc ad nauseum, are just that - stories - is very difficult to swallow. However, the present moment (which cannot be quantified) can be taken as existence in its entirety, more or less because it's the only thing that cannot be denied. Past, future - always nonexistent. This sort of immediacy seems to ameliorate the need for questioning, or even the questioner himself; the ego, or self-image, or persona, however you care to label it, is organically denuded; nothing is taken terribly seriously anymore. Or so it seems, from "my own" immediacy and from contact with others who have exhausted the search for meaning and have ridden the wave of existential crisis without wiping out. Or at least not wiping out too badly!

You seem to work very hard on this blog, Brian, I suspect you put a lot of time, effort and energy into it. I appreciate it, and I hope others are polite enough to thank you as well. Well done, it's a lively forum.

[Roger]

Suzanne,

Nice post. Finally, an interesting and thoughtful person.
Best wishes,
Roger

[Brian]

Suzanne, thanks for the appreciation. I do put quite a time into this blog (as well as my other one). However, it doesn't feel like work to me. It's something I enjoy -- though I do also view blogging as sort of a duty or service.

The two viewpoints aren't contradictory, of course. I enjoy feeling that my blog posts are helpful, interesting, entertaining, or whatever to people who come across them. So that's why I usually find the time to write a post a day on one of my blogs.

Currently, for example, my HinesSight post from several years ago on how to kill yellow jackets in their holes is getting its usual summer attention. (My wife and I believe in letting living things alone whenever possible, but sometimes a creature is just too much of a nuisance.)

Anyway, it's people like you who make this blog as lively as it is. So the thanks goes both ways.

[Suzanne]

Roger, check out my blog if you haven't already, you might reassess your opinion of me! Note especially the meant-to-be-lighthearted Rules of Nonduality and the comments that ensued from this blog. And Brian, keep it up. Your modesty becomes you. Even though there are no questions, no answers, no one, nothing, it's all just electical impulses in the brain, blah blah blah and etc.