42 and The End of All Questions

Hello again everyone. If you keep up with my content, you’ll have surely noticed that I’ve been on a hiatus for the last 6 or 7 months. I’ve taken a break entirely from writing, creating videos, doing live talks, Q&A’s, and interviews. From this side looking back, the break was a natural one. In other words, it wasn’t a conscious decision so much as it was a natural happening taking place in the process of my own experience, whether conscious or unconscious.

This hiatus of course was filled with the waves of life, experiences, challenges, and realizations, but all of these almost on an exaggerated or rapid level! As I reflect on what was my 42nd year of playing this character called “Rick”, I somewhat stand in awe. Forty-two…42. I find myself with a profound sense of completion. The completion that is existence itself.

The Answer to Everything

You might have heard or read the infamous phrase, “the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is 42,” from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Ironically, it just so happens that 42 seems to have been the year of the answer.

You may be asking, “Well, then what is the answer?!”

Most people at this point would drag this post out, making you scroll on and on reading all kinds of fluff and filler to get to the point. And some would say that’s what makes for great writing! They’re not wrong. Life itself is fluff and filler between the initial burst of concentrated consciousness we call birth and the explosion of DMT in a cataclysmic event we call death. Likewise, you wouldn’t want to open a novel to read the words “The End” on the very first page.

However, I’ll give it to you now, and I’ll save the fluff and filler (which is what life is made of don’t you know?!) for after, and you can decide whether to take part in it or not.

Quest(ions)

For many years, I had been on a quest for answers to the deepest questions of life. Years of a quest of nothing but questions! I’ve explored the depths of existence, seeking answers to these profound questions, beginning with Christianity, swinging to atheism, migrating through Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Advaita Vedanta, and other nonduality philosophies and paths. But in what I recognize now as the “quietude” of my 42nd year, amidst the waves of chaos and calm, I found myself at a place I had never quite been before.

In this place I stumbled upon the realization that…. I had no more questions.

Had I answered all of my questions? Had I arrived at the answers and conclusions that unravel the meaning of life?

In a way I had, and have. Yet, this realization is impossible to grasp simply by hearing it from another. This realization is one that has to come from deep within, from existence itself, from the real You. This realization that the answer is……that there are no questions. In fact, there really isn’t a questioner at all!

Yes, that’s right. Ages and ages of humanity seeking answers to questions that are ultimately, just human. And “human” is just a word that we’ve given to what we imagine are separate entities, or a separate species among other species. Illusion. Questions do not exist.

A question implies a questioner. “Question and questioner” implies duality. Duality is ultimately an illusion. Question and questioner do exist; but not as a real duality. Question and questioner exist as one. It is existence moving and dancing like the patterns of flowing water or of the grains of wood. To use an analogy I’ve used thousands of times before, question and questioner are like waves of the same ocean.

Isn’t it hilarious? We have some serious questions don’t we?! And to realize that it’s simply the ocean dancing in the form of waves, that it’s not really a question at all! A cosmic joke if there ever was one! (It causes me to laugh even while writing this!)

The End of Questions

It’s a peculiar feeling, akin to reaching the last page of a captivating novel. Looking back I can see the phantom footprints I, pretending to be this character “Rick”, have left on the shore. Footprints of Christian Rick, asking questions about God, Jesus, Heaven, Hell, eschatology, and what to make of it all. Atheist Rick, asking questions about string theory, the Big Bang, evolution, causality, and free will. Zen Buddhist Rick (although I never was a Buddhist), asking questions about Buddha, enlightenment, Nirvana, maya, and meditation… I cherish it all. And, while I cherish it, I watch as the waves erase the prints, revealing the illusion that it all is, whispering “So long, Jesus, and thanks for all the fish…” (and bread and wine).

There are no questions. There is no questioner. There is the one ocean of existence dancing in the form of waves.

Beyond Question/Questioner

A zen master was once asked, “What is the secret of Zen?” His response was something like, “When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep.”

Let existence move and flow as it is. When you’re hungry, do you not eat? When you’re thirsty, do you not drink? When you’re tired, do you not sleep? Let existence flow.

Does this mean that you will never ask another question? Will you not even ask your neighbor, “How are you?”? Will you ask deeper questions? Existence will flow. Waves will form. Questions will be asked. “You” will ask questions. “You” might possibly be in this moment of your process asking what seem to be the deepest questions. Yet, existence, the real you, asks no question. Existence waving in the form of whatever your name is waves in the form of asking questions. Let it. It also waves in the form of sadness, happiness, confusion, anger, joy, pain, frustration, and excitement. Let it. The deeper knowledge of who you are knows and recognizes the process for what it is. It’s a happening. The flowing of life. The One. Existence. It isn’t wrong, it isn’t right. It just is.

In this realization, you move, not so much “beyond” the question/questioner duality, but you see the oneness of question/questioner. You see the illusion of separation as just that, an illusion, and you let it flow. And, whether you realize it or not, existence still is. Whether you “let it flow” or not, both are existence flowing and dancing in the form of “you” knowing or not knowing this deepest of truths.

So Long…

Here in this profound sense of completion and peace, even in the midst of the supposed ups and downs of the life of “Rick”, I eat when hungry, I sleep when tired, I cry when sad, I laugh when happy. I watch the footprints disappear, thankful for it all, the illusion that it is. And I let it come, I let it go, while whispering, “So long…”

When D. T. Suzuki was asked what enlightenment was like, he replied, “Enlightenment is like everyday consciousness but two inches above the ground.”

With a lightness in my step, now at 43, I smile and understand.

Got Questions? (Ha!)

I’ve just launched a new page here at Rick Questions Things. I’m excited to announce my One-on-One Private Sessions where I offer 30 minute and 60 minute sessions, as well as, I-Ching readings with various options! The path to realization is one that can be helped by those who have walked and are walking it. I can’t wait to connect with you and navigate the journey together as we work to discover your own path.

Click here to read all about it. You’ll find “What to Expect”, “Qualifications”, “Expertise”, “Prices and Services Offered”, and an explanation of “Why I Charge For My Services”.

Also, as always, feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!