Why?
When I was a little girl I liked asking “why?”. My mum would answer “Warum, warum? Weil die Bananen sind krumm” which means “Why? Why? Because bananas are crooked”.
Apart from it rhyming in German, I still find this really isn’t a satisfactory answer to my questions. (I am not sure that the English equivalent “Just because” is any better.)
As a 6year old I would lie in my bed trying to work out where was I before I was born. This then led me to ask the questions ‘how did the earth begin?’ and ‘how does a beginning begin, when there is nothing?’
I recall the distinct feeling of falling backwards into a void, like floating in space as my brain just couldn’t fathom the concepts and didn’t know how to formulate an answer. Eventually I would fall asleep.
Recently, I have found my 6-year-old self lying in bed free falling into the same unfathomable conundrums. How did the earth begin? How can something come from nothing? Where was I before I was born? My brain still grapples trying to make any sense of this.
A story
Last night, by chance, I came across this story and wondered if the gods/the universe/ the void/ the unknown were toying with me…
A monk met the Buddha and asked: “Please tell me is the universe eternal or will it end? Or is it both eternal and not eternal? Or neither eternal nor not eternal? Is the universe finite or infinite? Or is it neither finite nor infinite? And tell me is the self identical to the body or is the body separate from the self? And when a saint dies does he still exist or not? Or is he both existent and non existent, or neither existing nor non existing?”
The Buddha replied with a parable: There once was a man who was wounded by an arrow that was dipped in deadly poison. His friends and family quickly brought a doctor to him, but before the physician could tend to his wound, the man stopped him.
‘Wait before you remove the arrow. I must know who shot me. Why? Was he an enemy or was this an accident? And where did the arrow come from, who made the arrow, from what bird did the feathers of the arrow come and from what animal was the string of the bow made? I need to understand all this’.
The doctor then replied to the suffering man. ‘I can try to answer your questions, but in the meantime the poison will kill you; or I can get on saving your life and end your suffering’.
Conclusion
The official conclusion to this parable is: “There is no value to know these things. Instead, invest your time in finding the end to suffering that is afflicting you. Right now, let go of desire, hatred and your confusion about the causes of suffering.”
My conclusion to the parable is ‘shut up, get on with life as it is and use your time wisely for things that matter’.
But that is a rubbish conclusion, because it doesn’t answer the question(s). And the questions do matter.
Do they?
Don't they?
I am currently researching why bananas are crooked. *(It’s to do with negative geotropism)
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