“Find out if X is true” is a call to empirical exploration, “Is X true?” when unanswerable brings things to a halt. The vibe is very different. The former energizes, the latter stymies. That’s my experience, others will feel differently.
I’m going to assume that this is the correct version of what you are saying
Are you saying that the self cannot support doubt?
What is it that is being energised? It is an old energy, isn’t it? It is yet another way for the self to continue.
And you know this because your brain is not “confused or limited”?
That’s not the question. Why don’t you know it? Why do you resist a statement like this? What is the real core of the resistance? Or you don’t hear the statement; you hear only a lot of reactions to the speaker.
Deflecting the question, as usual…
I am not deflecting the question. I am putting it back to you because you are putting a question from inside the limited brain. Why? Why bother with any of that?
Because unlike you, enlightened one, I am a limited brain.
The desire to see if X is true or false.
It stands to reason that a brain dominated by fear ie. only looking for an escape - is limited by its narrow focus.
The idea of hanging around and merely being the experience (of wanting to escape) is of course totally out of the question for such a brain (brains of course being products of habit)
No need to be enlightened to follow this train of thought.
Very narrow focus - and will only lead to an insignificant fact (its true! [or false] for me) - that will however give great weight to my point of view (my knoweldge - the wall between me and you)
By merely widening the focus from the desire for an answer, to a picture which includes the mind in the grip of its own desire - the picture of what is, is already less fragmented.
Desire involves time when it is broken up desire, one urge fighting another. Is this your sole desire?
Don’t be anything, neither limited nor unlimited. Then you have removed any distance between you and the others. It is a limited brain that says, ‘I am limited,’ or, ‘I am enlightened,’ thus creating more noise for itself. From that noise we seek the pleasures of relationship. We don’t have to live this way.
Maybe something like that.
Thought hates existentially important questions to remain unanswered. It yearns for answers, it’s driven to search for them and, if necessary, make them up. If all else fails, it will arrive at the answer: X is (for me, at this time) unanswerable. Thought wants closure, so it can pat itself on the back, press Clear, and move on to its next challenge.
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Then why don’t you say, ‘To hell with thought’? Here is the most existentially important question. Thought has never yet provided you with one definitive answer. Why do you continue to use it?
In general I like that thought is driven to answer existential questions. The process is, for the most part, exhilarating, thrilling even! I feel like I’m along for the ride.
You don’t know whether or not thought has provided me with any definitive answers. You can guess from what you know about thought, humans, and from what you’ve gleaned from my postings here. But you can’t know.
That said … … … in this case I’d agree with you! I have not one single definitive answer to any of the Big Questions I’ve grappled with. I have a lot of good solid provisionals, but these are all ‘works in progress.’
So why do I (do we) continue to use thought as a tool to investigate the Big Questions? It’s a great question. And of course I shall use thought to answer it, provisionally, not definitively.
Outside of thought, meditation seems to be the most promising tool for investigation. I have tried several types of meditation. Each has its charms, but thought seems to do the best job, provide the best answers and understanding. (Which is not a definitive answer, it might be I am doing meditation wrong or poorly.) When thought needs to transcend the intellect, I do contemplation, which is a thought-meditation hybrid, and is for me the most effective method of investigating.
After reading the present forum discussion that happened for the last 2 days, I understood that there is something in listening to question without having a desire to get an answer. Facing the fundamental question immensely will dissolve the question into the “self”. @macdougdoug has said that brain dominated by fear will look for an answer. What is the role of fear in facing fundamental questions happen in life? What happens if the desire to get an answer is energized? Why there is fear inside if the question is not related to brain?
For me, fear seems not to be the main driver, rather discomfort. A gnawing feeling that something is awry, incomplete. “A disturbance in the Force” (thank you, Obi-Wan). This awry-ness wants to be un-awry’ed by finding answers to the Big Questions.
How about for you?
I haven’t had definete answers to many questions in my life.
What is the role of fear for you in facing these questions?