We witness in daily life such interesting events that we take for granted as having no significance: A child sleeps and the toys they obsessed over merely moments ago are seen strewn on the floor, abandoned. Likewise, when we are blessed with deep sleep, all our debilitating challenges of the day simply dissolve, seemingly becoming irrelevant. Peace arrives not in finding answers to all our questions but rather in the ending of our curiosity.
Once a seeker asked the Buddha if he would answer a question that was tormenting him for long. To this, the Buddha replied, “Sure, same time same day next year and if you still have the question, I shall answer”.
Our questions themselves loose significance or change as time passes, and so our job is to endure these questions that have emerged in our hearts like we may "endure" an unwelcome guest - albeit uninvited but we may treat them too with gentleness and grace, we could learn to coexist with them and use this as an opportunity to practice patience rather than to rush to find answers. This is the wisdom
And yet sometimes it occurs that we are unable to resist the heartfelt need to invest ourselves in the pursuit of an answer or solution such as for example in wanting to bring respite to the millions suffering from poverty. But eventually, we arrive at the same understanding (in this case that poverty cannot be eliminated). This is not to say that the good work that was done in the interim was without value, but the grand purpose it served for us was in giving us the understanding and acceptance that life is as it is, and ultimate answers cannot be found in the realm of realm reason and logic - a key lesson has been earnt.
One of the Vedic stories starts with a seeker who having tried everything else possible to "know" the ultimate truth finally arrives at the doorstep of a teacher and asks, “reveal to me that upon knowing which everything is known”. And the instruction to teach the unteachable starts.
Our life is a search for that.
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