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The Deeper Purpose of Questions
by Matt Kahn

Often times, we come across questions in life and through our conditioned impulses, we immediately believe an answer must be found. Perhaps we scour our brain to find the answer, like children trying to be the one that "gets it right" during a classroom pop quiz. Yet, the impulse to "get it right" keeps us from noticing the deeper purpose of all questions.

While social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, are extensions of our daily egoic functioning, they offer us a chance to either remain fast asleep in our prior assumptions, or to deeply examine the patterns of behavior we may not realize keeps us nestled in a prison cell of personal certainty. This prison cell forces us to respond to any comment or question suggested with whatever repeatable phrase we have learned sometime before. We usually tend to impose so much value upon our favorite anecdotes and memorized wisdom, that we can find ourselves assuming the role of the "voice of reason" for those who appear uninformed.

But who do the authors of these supposedly short-sided statements or questions, appear uninformed to, other than the perceiver of such perceptions?

Could it be possible, that the corrections we offer, and comments of making a better point that follow any posted statement on Facebook or Twitter (like a feeding frenzy in a mental shark tank), are only correcting the assumptions we are having about others?

Without such assumptions about what we think about others, or who we think they are, or what we have decided to conclude based on the momentary evidence collected in perception, every post is simply an opportunity to explore the vast gift of infinite possibility.

It is like a philosophical potluck where you don't have to go back for seconds to the ideas that don't please your taste buds, but don't let your preferences keep you from appreciating someone else's effort and innocent intention to share.

Sometimes we overlook how lucky we are to be in a position of having so much to explore, and with so many distinct voices willing to share that which provides us with the opportunity to consider what is liked, disliked, seemingly correct or appearing somehow different from our perspective. This simplicity of appreciation isn't interested in being caught up in the many conclusions of what is or isn't, but allows one to step back and value how much is always being offered.

So, what is the deeper purpose of all questions?

Perhaps questions are not asked because the one asking is in need of an answer, or for the purpose of inviting the reader or listener

Perhaps, questions are like Zen masters, who ask in order to help expose the impulse of "the knower," who blindly steps into the battlefield of conversation with a certain point to prove. The Zen master within every question also invites one to impulsively write or repeat answers that can only be retrieved by remembering something once read or learned from the past.

Whatever is perceived as the past is merely a vehicle that delivered you here, and now that you're here, the past has nothing else to offer you. Questions can help one be aware of what is trying to be carried from the past, and lugged into a current moment circumstance, where those ideas, teachings, and strategies may seem to apply, but have nothing to do with why you are here, and what is being revealed.

In the spiritual journey, we often associate our memories with being nothing more than the many stories of the past, but we rarely seem to acknowledge all of our past knowledge as being equally out-of-date. The need to repeat it, over and over again, on countless group pages, w all postings and Twitters, or in endless conversations is either building a more elusive and spiritually-educated ego, or is actually helping you relinquish the need to hold onto it, by dissolving your desire for personal certainty through the agony of repetition.

In many cases, the impulse of ego recreates itself as a spiritually-educated ego, and one can spend many years lost in this type of spin cycle. Repeating past information, challenging other people's observations, correcting other people's ideas, which in and of itself, is just as fruitless as any maintainable spiritual practice. In any such practice, we imagine the mastery of it will somehow open up a door of further spiritual achievement, and miraculously change the perceptions of life we haven't yet allowed ourselves to fully accept.

For example, one can meditate for years and eventually realize the point might simply be to find out what doesn't need maintaining, to be as it already is. Yet, it is far more difficult to realize this, in the throes of the spiritual ego, since the ego does not perceive being "right" as containing any arduous effort or maintenance. It believes it is right, therefore, everything it perceives is seen to be there, as a means to unconsciously educate others, and fuel its need to be more spiritual, non-dual, or even more liberal, open-minded, or perhaps more loving than others.

It is nearly instinctive that a spiritual ego engages the spiritual ego in others, as we unknowingly jockey for position, and unconsciously play out these roles.

We soon find ourselves bringing our favorite concepts out to play, in a verbal exchange that is intended to celebrate the inherent beauty of diversity, uniquely existing in all, as the one infinite truth of awareness.

The deeper purpose of all questions is a chance to recognize unconscious tendencies of personal certainty that are only maintained by repeating the past, and projecting it upon this fresh, exciting, and ever-evolving present moment of existence.

Perhaps this moment is equally an opportunity to appreciate what has never been appreciated before, just as you might assume you are here to correct whatever arrangement of words you are meant to correct.

The deeper purpose of questions plays an essential role in our evolution, which is difficult to notice and appreciate whenever we are unconsciously responding to others, and insisting what is so.

May every person you meet, every post you read in every social networking interaction, and every conversation you participate in, offer you the opportunity to appreciate the many dishes created by a vast array of chefs in our Universal potluck of infinite perception. Let us compassionately remember that every chef, each at various levels of expertise, only provides their best attempt, so you may celebrate the ability to choose what ultimately serves you.

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