Tag: jesus

Well, here are 11 questions, the answers to which may change your life.

Now that I have written it like that, I feel somewhat daunted by the prospect of attempting to answer the questions that have plagued humanity since the dawn of time. It didn’t feel so overwhelming this morning when I was in my trance-like stake – the answers seemed somewhat self-evident at that time!

What I am attempting to do here is recreate the state that I was in when the answers seemed clear to me – whilst they may not be the “correct” answers [if there is such a thing], they appeared to be correct at the time I thought them].

Is there a God/Universe/Universal Consciousness/Greater Power [that creates everything, knows everything, drives everything that happens]?

Answer: Who knows? Will we ever know? Will it become evident to us after we die? A friend of mine who runs spiritual retreats and coaches people on how to live a fulfilled life says:

• “Nothing has any meaning other than that which we attach to it”
• “Man is a meaning-making machine”

So, either God or evolution turned us into meaning-making machines – looking for meaning in everything – ever since we started thinking! We have sought meaning in thousands of Gods, in sheep’s entrails, in tea leaves, in the stars – you name it, we have sought meaning in it! That, in itself, almost proves that what we think is flawed – as we have learned more about the world around us, as science has given us greater understanding about how the world works, we have given up attaching meaning to some of the things we used to but we still long to understand why we are here…..

This does not answer the question of whether there is a “God” but is does provide a glimpse into the possibility that, in our search for meaning. We create “Gods” to help us navigate the uncertain world in which we live. Imagine if you will, how uncertain life must have been for our primitive ancestors – everything must have been terrifying so they created Gods for everything – rain, wind, sun, storms etc. to try to, somehow, bring a sense of certainty and understanding to their perilous existence! Yet, as we have advanced and come to understand more and more of what causes what goes on around us, the greatest uncertainty still lies ahead – death! And, in our search to understand this, the greatest terror of them all, we have little choice but to turn to some form of God/Superior Power for answers as we don’t have any. So, as “meaning-making” machines [which may actually be an evolutionary  trait that, somehow, contributes to safety and/or wellbeing], we have to find some “supernatural way to explain death because rationally we have not yet come to understand it.

So, the most important question of all “Why am I here?” goes unanswered and always will [until someone comes back from the dead] and our only hope of dealing with this “unanswerable” question is to “make up” an answer!

So, there are a number of unanswerable questions:

1. What is the meaning of life?

2. Why am I here?

3. Is there a God?

4. What happens after I die?

5. Why do bad things happen to good people?

These “unanswerable” questions extend to include the ones that we ask about ourselves and our own behaviour and life outcomes:

1. “Why am I such a dickhead?”
2. “Why do I fuck everything up?”
3. “Why am I so unlucky?”
4. “Why do I stuff up relationships?”
5. “Why doesn’t God love me?”
6. “Why am I not worthy?”etc. ad nauseum

And it just dawned on me that, rather than try to answer “unanswerable” questions, I should try to reframe my questions so that they can be answered!

Try these:

“What can I learn from this?”
“How could I have done this differently?”
“What can I do now, differently from last time, that will give me a better outcome?”

Now, this stuff is not new – I have heard a lot of this from Tony Robbins but, my writing this morning, which really started off from a place of self-pity, self-loathing, a deep sense of worthlessness, has led me here. That, for me, is the joy of writing. As I write [or journal], it takes me forward and the mysteries unfold, all becomes clearer, albeit temporarily! I hope that, by writing more, I can gain a clearer understanding of what there is to learn here.

As some of you know, I also write poetry – it helps me better understand where I am at in a particular moment. The poem that has come to me in this moment is:

“The Unanswerable Question”
As I lay in bed this morning, pondering
Pondering life’s meaning, are we all alone?
Is there a God beside us?
Will he guide me home?

Are you real? Or just imagination?
Wishful thinking, me just hoping
That you can help me, if I just pray enough
And do what I am told

Obviously, there’s no way to prove it
One way or another – it is al a matter of “faith”
But, let’s just consider, if you are there
Can you see me, can you hear my prayer?

Will you answer?
Will I understand?
And, if I do, will I follow?
Or, in my fear just wallow?

The biggest question looms large
“Why am I here?”
When all I feel is fear
Will your answer make things clear?

If I pray even harder can I force you to hear me?
Acknowledge my presence, give me an answer?
Probably not, I know this, why do I persist, anyway?
Out of habit, I just like to pray

Fears in shadow, ghostly
Afraid of myself, mostly
Realise that I like to pray; just for the peace if brings
In prayer I’m blissful, my soul sings