Eldon Taylor

At a very early age we begin a process of conditioning. There are many facets to this process and its influence on all of us, and I have written about much of it. However, there is a particular form of conditioning that can set us up for disappointment and failure. I am thinking of the conditioning that teaches us we should have an answer.

Our schooling insists that we have answers in order to pass. Our parents often ask us questions for which we have no answer but they insist we find one, so we do, even if that means we make it up. Consider how many times, for example, that you may have been asked something like, “Why did you do that?” The fact is, you probably did not think about everything you did and reason an answer in advance, so the best you can do when asked is take a 20-20 hindsight guess.

Einstein is credited with saying, “I want to know God’s thoughts—all else are details.” Do you honestly think Einstein ever learned the answer to this enquiry—God’s thoughts? How many people do you think truly possess the secrets to life or to our spiritual possibilities? I hear “answers” everywhere to every conceivable question. It’s as though we’re addicted to “answering” and need absolute answers to be happy.

The number of people that claim to have answers and have literally no foundation for their statements bemuses me. Perhaps some do have answers—I don’t know for sure, but what I do know is that I have spoken with very many that really don’t have a clue. When someone claims to have spoken with God I listen—but then many make this claim and many tell different stories. Are there different gods?

I watch so-called illuminated sages, channels and the like teach one thing and behave in another. One might teach the law of attraction and the nature of the unlimited source for all, for example, and then turn and act in such a way as to stop others from spreading this teaching on the basis of their proprietary ownership.

For me, questions are the way we activate our thought processes but they should not be necessarily considered answerable. After all, how could one expect the finite to comprehend the infinite?

I love questioning. I love the process of enquiry. I seek thesis, antithesis and synthesis in all those grand areas of metaphysical enquiry and feel deeply enriched by pursuing the process, realizing that I will probably never know in this lifetime with epistemological certainty the absolute answer to many of my enquiries. I hope you find the process worthy and recognize that the “pat” answers rarely serve more than a childlike curiosity.