If I had to pick the single most significant principle guiding my life choices right now, I would choose curiosity. In other words, I’m living the questions. To me curiosity means asking questions from a place of not knowing. I am making choices from a place of not knowing.
For example, I started a PhD in East-West Psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies this past fall semester, and I honestly don’t know how I want to use the degree at this point in time. Why pursue a PhD? Since I started training in martial arts in 2014, I’m really curious about understanding the mind-body connection and learning about other spiritual and philosophical perspectives.
What has changed for me within the past two years is the realization that asking questions doesn’t mean that I will always be able to find answers—or that I need to even find the answers. As Rainer Marie Rilke said in Letters to a Young Poet:
Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. (letter 4)
Live the questions now and maybe the answers will come later. I love how Rilke said that. I can stop seeking the answers, which, if found, suggest an endpoint or stopping point. By living the questions, I’m open to the possibility of more questions and more understanding.
Truthfully, I don’t have to know yet what I’m going to do with my PhD. For now, I can simply pursue the PhD for the sake of learning and perhaps find my way into an answer to Why am I pursuing a PhD? later on in the program.
Athe question becomes, which questions to live? We’ll explore questions more in future posts.
Kindly,
David