To ask a question is not to find an answer, but to discover and find out for oneself. Questioning becomes important when this is understood, and the question itself makes the mind sharp. But if one is expecting an answer to a question, the mind naturally becomes expectant, awaiting, and is therefore not clear, decisive and capable of discovery. In asking questions, the conscious mind is deliberately aware of what it is asking. It is aware that any answer must always be verbal and therefore non-direct.
When one asks a question, one has also to find out why one asks it. One should ask questions about everything, but it matters very much why one is asking those questions; what is the background, the state of the mind that is asking those questions? Is it awaiting an answer, expecting to be told? If it is waiting for an answer, who is going to answer it? A mind that is waiting to find the answer is not an active mind; it is just waiting, expecting. So if one is aware of the content of the question, why the question is being asked, and who is going to answer it, then the question becomes very important. Such questions have a catalytic effect; such questions produce an answer in themselves.
Licensed today: the island of Scalpay in the Western Isles...
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