Help People

Upon meeting a Zen master at a social event, a psychiatrist decided to ask him a question that had been on his mind. “Exactly how do you help people?” he inquired.

“I get them where they can’t ask any more questions,” the Master answered.

Questions Disappear

When the master says – I get them where they can’t ask any more questions – he means, he helps people to become free of all the questions, with that they will be free from all the beliefs, stupidity and foolishness.

When all your questions disappear – not giving you any belief; all beliefs gone, all questions gone – then all stupidity, all foolishness will be gone. Then there is a flowering, a blooming, and that blooming is the answer.

Once you regularly practice meditation then you might feel – WHY DO I ASK SO MANY FOOLISH QUESTIONS?

BECAUSE there are no wise questions, and there cannot be. A wise question does not exist. Questioning as such is foolish. I am not condemning it, I am not saying don’t ask. But remember, the questioning mind is a confused mind, and out of the confusion comes the question; whatsoever answer is given to it will enter into the confused mind again. That answer will be distorted. The confused mind will start playing on it and will create many more questions out of it. It is a vicious spiral.

No answer is going to help unless you understand that questioning in itself is futile, unless the understanding grows deep that questioning is meaningless.

There is nobody to answer your question. Existence is there without any explanations – and it is absolutely silent. You go on asking, it does not respond.

By and by you will understand that questions are meaningless – then they disappear.

The day questions disappear is a great day. On that very day the answer becomes available. The answer never comes through questioning, it comes when the questioning has disappeared. In fact, to say it comes is not right: when the questioning has disappeared you suddenly find that you are the answer, your very being is the answer. That is what you had been seeking and seeking for.

All questions are foolish; they have to be. And all answers are lies; they have to be – because you cannot answer a foolish question with truth. There will be no meeting between them. You ask a question, the Master goes on answering it – in the hope that by and by your questioning will disappear. That’s the difference between a Master and a teacher.

A teacher believes that he can answer your question. He is also a fool, just like you. The Master knows there is no answer, but he goes on answering you in the hope that by and by you will start looking deeper. Your understanding will grow, and one day suddenly your questions will disappear. You will look inside and you will not find any questions. That very moment you become the answer… you are the answer.

Meanwhile, continue to question. It is an unburdening process: only by questioning will you come to see that questions are futile. And one has to say whatsoever is.

Learning from the story Help People: Questions Disappear

Experience Learning

Life is there to be lived. Life has no question-mark; it is a mystery, there is no explanation. And it is good that there is none: it would be a great misfortune if there were an explanation. If there were an answer that could satisfy you, just think how flat things would become, how boring, how monotonous – because no answer can answer your questions. Life remains an adventure, it remains a constant search.

Searching, one day you come to a point where you understand that you are wasting your energies in searching. The same energies can be put to celebration.

You can enjoy it.

These are two approaches towards life: the approach of the questioner, the seeker, the thinker, the philosopher; and the approach of the religious person, the mystic, the poet, the painter, the man of the heart. When a thinker enters into a garden he starts asking questions: “Why are trees green? Why are roses red?”

When a poet enters he starts singing a song about the red roses and the green trees. When a painter comes, he paints. When a mystic comes, he simply stands there in tremendous awe. His breathing stops, time stops; it is so ecstatic. The question does not arise at all.

The philosopher goes on asking. The artist goes on painting, creating the same beauty again and again. The mystic does neither: neither does he ask nor does he create the flower. He is simply there, standing in deep meditation, enjoying. The mystic knows the way of joy.

Learn the way of joy, learn the way of dance, at least learn the way of poetry; and unlearn the ways of the thinker, unlearn the ways that create questions in you.

But it will happen by and by. You will have to ask many questions.

A convict sits in his cell awaiting a murder trial. In walks a well-dressed lawyer.

The lawyer says, “I am the very best. You have nothing to worry about. I am going to prove that you are completely insane, or were in Europe at the time of the murder. Also, the witnesses are paid off and my uncle is the judge for your case. Meanwhile, try to escape.”

There is no answer to any question. There is nobody to answer them, they have never been answered, they cannot be answered – by the very nature of things.

Meanwhile, go on asking. Because if you don’t ask you will not move from the state where you are, and one should be moving.

That is one of the great secrets of life, that life is a movement. And if you are stuck somewhere you lose contact with life. Then you are fogged and clouded; then you are lost, and you don’t know who are and where you are going, and what is happening. You miss all the clues.

Go on moving. Wherever you are, one thing has to be remembered: don’t get stuck. If your questioning helps you to move. good. A little movement from wherever you are is good; from that place you have to find another place – because you are in contact with life only when you are dynamic, moving. Life is a flux, life is a flow. Whenever you are stagnant you lose contact.