fWhy are you here and reading this right now?
Can it ever make sense to seek external solutions for internal improvement?

One may argue that we need external help to find our internal way but before we embark on a solution-finding quest,
we should at least know the problem we are attempting to solve.

We must (internally) identify a problem before we can (externally) look for help to solve it.
So have we done the internal work?  Or are we looking externally for your problem too?

Should we let others tell us what our problem is (or may be).
Mind process loves to measure, identify, and then attempt to solve others’ problems.

Especially when it comes to the unknown of mind, too often we see something like:
“I know what your problems are. Here is some helpful advise.
Do this. Do that. And you can have what I am trying to find myself.”

(please question if this is what I (the writer) is doing now?)

With this in mind, before you try to gain anything from anyone else, start inside.
Be curious about why you are the way you are.
Ask questions.  Investigate your thoughts and how they relate to your problems.

From my experience, the journey of life becomes more enjoyable when we explore the process and our questions versus racing towards any particular destination or answer.  

Ask simple questions like – what destinations do we ever arrive at?  Or is it all just a process?
Even the moment of our death will be experienced as it happens, as we work our way through it (whatever ‘it’ is).  
And after that..? 
Well, if there is a you, you’ll continue on with your journey.  ie – there is no final destination.
And if there is no you in that moment? Well then here won’t be a you to notice anything has ended.
Problems solved!  🙂

From that perspective, life really is a journey with no conclusion. 
And if there is no conclusion in life, can there be any answers? Any conclusions arrived at? 

Let’s start again – What are we doing here?
Here, right here – reading / writing these words.

Are we searching for the meaning of life? 
As far as searches go, the meaning of life must be one of, if not The search, with the lowest possible probability of ever finding a sufficient answer.

Of the countless humans that have preceded us over the thousands and thousands of years of human history, we can name only a few that (apparently) figured it out.  Seems like the odds are stacked against us! 
Of course the prize for beating the odds may include getting a religion named after you! 
Not a bad prize, until you consider some of the problems those same religions have caused for humanity.

And please note, I cautiously say they ‘‘apparently” figured it out because how can we really know what they thought or how they experienced existence?
How do we know Jesus didn’t have a savvy marketing genius within his entourage of 12 that was optimizing his exposure within the social media networks of the day?  Jesus was trending and went viral!

All those classical teachings and stories, retold and modified over the thousands of years,
influenced by the personal interests of the story tellers,,,
it’s highly likely some of the messaging was (is) a little misunderstood at best.

Consider this fact:
Approximately half the world’s population believe ‘the answer’ resides within Quran, Veda and King James versions.
Three books – full of answers – yet nearly every human alive continues their search and suffers immensely despite having all those answers on their bedside table or gathering to study those words at least once a week.
If the answers are so available, why are we so lost? 
Something seems amiss.

I am not a religious person and I hope that doesn’t trouble you.
My search for ‘enlightenment’ has more of a Star Trek-esque feel to it – a journey, a final frontier of strange worlds and the uncharted/ unknown.  Be that my mind or something greater, if it can even be known.

Don’t get me wrong – the aforementioned books are chock-a-block full of valuable insight, which I have and do study, but so is the little piece of paper in a fortune cookie.  So why limit yourself to finding answers at Church Sunday when you can also enjoy a stale cookie on a Tuesday night?

Maybe I am just jaded.  My search has gone on for years and I have arrived at a place where the idea of someone (a religious leader, a teacher, a book, a website,,, ) interpreting ‘The answer’ and then preaching it/ explaining it/ or attempting to seduce me with it, well, I guess I have trouble making that fit what I understand all this to be about. 
The lessons all claim that the answers are inside, and yet the lesson all continue to be external.

When I compare my journey of exploration to those successful explorers that have come before,  
whatever ‘it’ is that they found, they realized it through a first-hand account.
They experienced it for themselves.  They didn’t learn about it.  
You don’t get it from learning, you get it from living.

This idea of ‘believe it only once you experience it’ is fundamental in some religions and taboo in others
but when I consider even my own exposure to the answers (I was raised with the Bible), 
what good have all those answers been if we so many continue to search?
First-hand experience may not be THE answer, but it certainly seems to be in there, somewhere.

Perhaps it comes down to something like this –
I find myself looking for answers,
but a good suitable requires a suitable question,
so I am left to ask – what is the problem with the experience I am having?

Said another way – 
If I need to define a problem to find an answer,
should I be concerned with finding answers?
or should I be looking for the right questions to ask?

As frustrating as it may be for teachers to phrase infinite wisdom in the form of a question
(we are looking at you, Mr Zen teacher),
perhaps questions are the only way towards understanding! 
Maybe there are no answers, just questions.?

Think about your life – all you have read, all you know, everything you have already experienced.
If you have studied spirituality or religion or fortune cookie saying, why do you have such difficulty accepting the answers those sources provided? 
Tidbits of infinite wisdom are all around us in the form of Instagram memes and motivational email signatures.  From time to time I still see the odd bumper sticker and don’t get me started on the numerous YouTube self-help videos…

Lessons on how to properly live life are literally everywhere! 

Even in the “real” world provides answer –
the cycles of the ocean tides, the rotation of the planet with day and night, the changing seasons and the leaves changing color.  These are all incredibly insightful, should we stop to question what they could mean.

We are given this life and these senses – we are experiencing existence. 
The creation of a reality, in this very moment, and you are in the middle of it.
How amazing is that? What more could you need?

Maybe it’s not so complicated.
Your next door neighbor, right this moment, may have all the answers.
She smiled at you this morning – she was experiencing pure bliss and had not a trouble in the world.
Is it that far-fetched to believe there are beings all around us that really do have it all figured out?  

Or maybe it’s just fictional.  Maybe this idea of understanding the bigger picture is limited to sacred texts and folklore involving little green beings that lived a long time ago and far, far away that said crazy things like “Do or do not, there is no try”
(I managed to include both a Star Trek and Star Wars reference in the same post 🙂

My point – No, answers do you know good. 
Instead, maybe try to work with questions.?

A good question is like a great map.  And this being MyndGuide, we like the idea of maps!
A good question will lead you deeper and allow you to begin the process of connecting the dots.
The dots never fully connect, but there is an abstract picture you can get a glimpse of.

I believe the right self-imposed question will always surpass someone else’s answer as it will lead you to your personal experience and self understanding.   Maybe even wisdom.

Questions aren’t easy.
You need to turn within and search Your problems, not study answers that apply to someone else’s challenges.

Also not easy…
Once you have found what you believe is an answer, it is hard not to push it on others!
If you have kids, or have ever been a kid yourself, you may understand this example –
I have told my child, more than once, the wisest people learn from others’ mistakes.
As a theory, this logic seems so simple.
Why reinvent the wheel? Why make the same mistakes? Why suffer the way I suffered?
We know this to be true. And yet we have all be on that receiving end of unwanted advice. 
We don’t want to be told the answer, we must have the experience ourself.

This is just how our humans mind-process works. 
Put any judgment of good vs bad aside  – that is the same process happening.

Adopting or sharing answers without fully appreciating or understanding them is a very real part of the advancement of technology and society, and carries with it a variety of results.
Think of missionaries spreading religion or scientists breaking down the atom. Or – social media.
Freely shared answers are both wonderful and dangerous.

It is said – “When the wrong person uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way”.
Silly humans, with all we have accomplished over the last several thousand years and we find ourselves in this mess. 
Imagine if we did happen upon the technology that allowed someone to miraculously pull loaves and fishes from a basket – how long would it take our modern-day society to weaponize it? To use it in a measured way – for some and against another?  At the very least we would eradicate those with seafood and gluten allergies.

We really have each been given a miraculous power – we have the potential to understand experience itself. 
I’d like to see humans turn inward and explore their own questions before looking outward to fix everything and everyone else.