#5 - Live the Questions
#5 - Live the Questions
This article discusses:
Doing vs. Being
Yin vs. Yang energies
The power of not knowing
Allowing space to be.
“I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Rilke (1929)
Hello beautiful community.
In a previous article, I briefly talked about the power of not seeking answers. It was one of my reflections following the death of my aunt. You must know by now that Rilke is one of my favourite poets. He reflected longly upon the powerful tool of not knowing.
In a world which trusts medicine, science, facts and evidence, it seems hard to listen to your intuitions and gut feelings. I work for NDIS in Australia which is the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It is a government funded organisation that allocates funds for people living with disability. They are very much evidence-based.
As you also know, I love studying. I love reading and learning especially about psychotherapy, the mind, holistic medicine, and the natural world. I also love reading biographies and others’ stories. Being a student kind of forces me to follow rules and academic regulations in writing essays for instance and following a schedule to read material and submitting assessments on time. The freedom is limited. Academic essay writing has to be based on evidence, numbers, quotes, facts and studies.
Being an organiser, a doer, an achiever, a “go, go, go!”, I tend more towards the yang energy. Believe me, it doesn't help in letting go and “letting be”. I like to know and to control. I write a to-do list every morning to organize my day ahead. I also journal to organise my thoughts. I write to organise my mind and what’s inside (millions of things!). I love cleaning, organising and tidying my home and others’. Most of the time, I am more into the “doing” energy. I used to define myself as “a brain on legs” when life gets busier. I also used to say that I am a “human doing” rather than a “human being” when it gets tough. Strong metaphors, right? What about the being? Where is the “being” in your life? I wonder how much space do you allow to simply be?
My studies, travelling and life experiences remind me to be. The yin energy, the being, the observing, the winding down, the contemplating. Being is the embodiment of the now, the present, the moment. It is one of the hardest thing to do for me. I am still learning and forever will. But writing here, to you, is also writing to me and reminding myself to just be. It is okay just to be sometimes. It is okay not to know. It is okay not to have the answer. It is okay not to seek any responses or solutions. It is okay just to wonder.
Allow the unknown to teach you. Allow the mystery to appear. Let the invisible, the dark, the unknown, the intangible guide you. Allow those questions to be unanswered. Allow to not knowing. Allow the answer to exist and stay here for a while. Allow time for the questions just to be. Allow time for the answer to create and rise at a very slow pace. Or maybe, allow the answer to never appear.
We do not know what is going to happen after we die. We believe, but we do not know. Let yourself not knowing. Give yourself this gift of just being.
You are.
I’m sending you pure and genuine love, filled with light and warmth.
Take care of your whole self, each other, and your community.
Nurture and be mindful of the natural world around you and within you.
Resources
R. M. Rilke to F. X. Kappus. (firstly compiled, 1903). Letters to a Young Poet (1929).
Written 16/03/2024
Published 12/09/2024
