I am taking a short vacation from the blog. Nothing serious; just a few days.

I’ll be back on December 31st with a new question of the week: What is Compassion? It will be posted in response to the current article over at Urbanmonk.net called:

Spread the Love NOW! Group Writing Project

For details, head over there and check it out for yourself.

Actually, this is a joint effort by the “Three Monks” – Wade of The Middle Way, Kenton of Zen-Inspired Self Development, and Albert of Urban Monk.Net.

If you want to participate, be sure to do so before January 5th. It is a bit time sensitive. As of this writing, there are already nine responses.

Until then, I will be available for emails and comments and such, but I’ll otherwise be away from the site.

You can also check out my tumblelog to see what is happening.

I am also planning a slightly new design for Takuin.com. I should have it up and running by the second week of January.

Akiko and I are going to Toyama for New Years, and we’ll return to Tokyo on January 3rd.

I am also taking ideas for an ebook I am going to release for this site. Anything in particular you would like to see? (It will be free, by the way.)

What? No Question this week?

OK, OK. I’ll give you something.

As most of you know, I give little importance to the past. But many people feel the need to reflect upon what has happened in their lives. (I have nothing against reflection, but the problem arises in how to see it.) With this in mind, I will give you a tiny question of the week. Here we go:

What event in 2007 touched you deeply in a profound way? Did anything occur that struck right to the core? How has it affected your life?

Of course, it is quite possible that nothing fits the bill. If that is the case, don’t feel disheartened. Your answer will be whatever it will be. Just lay it out as it is.

Happy holidays everyone. See you soon.

What if there were no more questions?

What if tomorrow you woke as Gregor Samsa, but instead of being transformed into an insect, something entirely different occurred?

What if there were no more questions? Try as you might they will not come. All of your questions about enlightenment, all of your questions about god, and all of your questions about inner peace are completely wiped out. No doubt remains about anything.

Of course, that also means there are no definitive answers, either. If there are no answers, there are no questions.

So there you are, lying in bed staring at the ceiling. There are no questions and no answers.

What happens next?

(I received an e-mail a few minutes ago with this very question. This is very important to see for yourselves, so I will not lead you in any way. Post your own discoveries in the comments, and we will take it from there.

Also, I will no longer append your replies to the post itself. Instead, I will just quote and reply using comments. Now that I have the subscribe to comments plug-in working, it is more practical to do it in this way. For an example, check out the comments on last week’s Question. Kris and I have been having a great discussion over there, and it is still underway.)

Please enjoy the video below. Narration by Carl Sagan.

It is quite true that this is all we have.

The other night, I was on the train with Akiko. We may have been on the Yamanote line, coming back from her work. She told me about her day. I listened.

I looked out the window and could see the people standing on the platform waiting for the next train. As the train pulled out, leaving those people behind, they slowly became blurs. Just a mixture of paint on a palette.

I looked around inside of the car, and it was packed with people. There was no discomfort or nervousness within. Even though people were everywhere, and every time you took a deep breath you could taste them, nothing within told me it should be any different from what it was.

And you COULD taste them. The sweat, the smoke, the over-powering perfumes. But that wasn’t all. You could taste their nervousness, their need to be alone, their need to have private space on a train that was completely full. The energy in that car pulsed and screamed to be let out, but I could not join it. All I could do was see.

I turned to Akiko and said, “I’m in Japan, huh?”
“Yes. You just noticed?”
“Yes,” I said.

I had no way of knowing where I was.

There is knowledge, of course. I know where I live, and I can get around anywhere in Tokyo. I know my phone number, and Akiko’s phone number. But thought doesn’t interfere with what is happening around me.

Even though I sit in my kitchen as I type this, I do not know I am in my kitchen.

Let me go slowly.

In order to know something, I have to have a memory of it. Otherwise, I cannot know it. I can only know things based on the past. I can never know anything in the present. I can only have memories of the past invading the present.

How is it possible to know someone or something when there are only memories? It is accurate to say that while I have memories of knowing something, I can never know it. How is it possible to really know something?

I may go to school and study a subject until there is nothing more to learn, but does that mean I know it? Or is it simply, I have memories of what I have studied?

To know implies that it is finished, and never again will it breathe new life. It is essentially dead. Can something really be known, or can there only be memories of knowing?

This is important to see for yourself. If you say you know your wife or husband or partner, is that true? You have memories of them, sure. But do you know them? If they are known, then they are doomed to be unchanging. You have to decide on a final design before you can claim to know anything. Is that what you really want? To say, He or she is this way, and that is it! You essentially strangle the beauty out of your so called loved one.

Some say that to know means direct perception. But the word really means to recognize. And you can only recognize what you already know.

Direct perception implies that you see without interference; that what you see is directly connected to you. Direct perception is to see beyond what you have known.

It is not that you become connected to what you see, but what you see is you.

There was a delayed recognition on the train. I sat in the silence, and for whatever reason the thought, “This is Japan,” arose. It was understood, and that was all. Even so, I still didn’t believe it.

I had to ask my wife if it were true.

Question of the Week: 12/10 - 12/16

“You have said that there is nothing to search for, but isn’t all of this questioning a search as well?”

Yes and no.

As Takuin goes about his day, there are no questions asked, apart from “technical” questions, i.e., I wonder what time the next train arrives? OR Should I put this thing in the laundry? It is not as if there are absolutely no questions, but who will answer them?

Let me re-phrase the above: As Takuin goes about his day, questions come and go, but there is no one here to ask or answer anything.

No self is asking anything, nor is it answering. If a question comes up, it simply comes up. No one is searching and no one is hoping for an answer. There may be genuine curiosity, if it falls within one’s interests, but there is no hope or desire to own the answer.

Looking for the Answer

If the self asks a question with the aim of finding enlightenment, what is going to provide the answer? The knowledge that one already possesses? Can any answer provided by the self have any meaning in this situation?

Many people go into the world of Zen and read the koans with the intention of finding an answer. But what will interpret the question in order to find the answer? Can the question arise without the need to ask it in the first place? Does the question need the questioner?

If the self asks, it can only answer with what it already knows. And what it knows always comes before the question, so all of the questions of the self arise from the answers that are already present. Can there ever be a new question?

Who is Asking?

If “I” ask the question, it only happens out of a need to reach the result. It is something that the self feels is needed to progress to another stage of development. But are there other stages? Is there anything inwardly that needs to be developed? The self cannot search without separation.

The questions I ask, although seemingly logical, are not meant to be answered with what you know. And since the questions come from what we already know, is it possible to answer them?

Who is Answering?

If I ask a question, and you answer with, “Yes it is,” or “No it isn’t,” how exactly do you come to either conclusion? For example, if I asked you, “Is it possible to be free of all belief?” how do you answer? If you answer YES, then what gave you that answer? And what if you answered NO?

If you answered yes, you might say that your own experience has shown this to be true. But are you there? Are you free from all belief in order to find out? No? Then how can you possibly know the answer is yes? If you are not there and you answer yes, then it is just a theory; just a fantasy that you think MAY be true.

And if you answered no, you might say that people in the world are not doing it, and therefore, it isn’t possible. So, you know everyone in this world? You have seen the entirety of their lives and absolutely know the conclusion? No? Then again, it is just a story you wish to believe.

Why Question at All?

Certain questions may have the effect of bypassing the self, so to speak. And if that happens, then there would seem to be great value.

If you are able to see through all of the stories that you believe, all the illusions of your life, then what might happen? There is the possibility that as one sees through the illusion, it is destroyed entirely. But I am not saying that it will.

In the end, questioning is just a means of pointing in a particular direction. But if it points at any-thing, that thing cannot be known.