Forget about answers, and focus on asking the right questions instead

Sometimes the point of our spiritual struggle is not to find the right answer, but to learn the art of asking the right questions instead.

Let me explain.

The story goes that ages ago, a clever lawyer asked a wise Rabbi about the meaning of life, to which the Rabbi replied: "Life is about loving God, loving your neighbour, and loving yourself." The lawyer followed up with: "But who is my neighbour, really?"

Here is where it gets interesting.

Instead of answering, the Rabbi tells a story. Its a well known story of a man that gets robbed, and in the moments after his traumatic experience, when he is at his most vulnerable, gets ignored by all those who are supposed to help him. Eventually he gets rescued by an unlikely source, someone from far behind the curtain of prejudice. [Luke 10]

Like many of the Rabbi's stories, this one too doesn't end with resolution, but with yet another question.

"So then, my dear friend, in your opinion, who was the neighbour to the injured man?"

There's a massive difference between asking "Who's my neighbour?" and "Who's neighbour am I?" The first leaves room for an abdication of responsibility, while the second implies a pending opportunity.

Of course, the unspoken answer to the lawyer's original question is: "Everybody is your neighbour".

The types of questions we repeatedly ask reveal our intentions, attitudes, and above all, our character. Asking the right questions - and just living with the tensions they bring - might just help us mature spiritually better, than desperately trying to figure out a singular correct answer.

Or, as the Rabbi would say: "Don't let us be like those who having ears, are never hearing, and having eyes, are never seeing."