Many of us have been taught that understanding is the path to peace. If we can just figure it out, analyze or make sense of something, then we will finally feel peace.

Yet many of our questions don't bring peace. Instead, they open a door to uncertainty and a spiral of philosophizing that distracts us from what is essential in life. 

One of our elders used to say:

"If you don't understand something, it's because you don't need to understand it."

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Our ancestors recognized that many of the answers we seek reveal themselves naturally in their own time. And until then, our task is not to understand everything, but to learn how to live at peace with what is.

This is where humility enters.

There is a great mystery moving through life. It is far bigger than our minds can grasp. And yet we often behave as though we must understand every detail before we can relax.

 Our elders taught something much simpler: Give your questions to the mystery.

Let it carry them. Trust that life knows what to do with them. Then return your attention to what is right in front of you. Oftentimes while we are busy searching for answers, we miss the gift that is right in front of us.

The simplicity of a good night's sleep.
The blessing of food to eat. The ability to breathe, to see, to share with others.

A Lesson from Vision Quest

One of the most beautiful lessons I ever received came during Vision Quest on the Sacred Mountain.

I had gone on the mountain carrying many questions about life. I had questions about whether there was life on other planets, about past lives, about why certain things had happened to me.

I prayed and prayed for answers. But the answers never came.

Then one day, after several days without food or water, I received a visit from the community to receive support for the days ahead. It was 1.5L of plant medicine tea, a couple of fruits and one carrot.

That afternoon, I had a profound experience. I felt the presence of Mother Earth speaking to me. Of course, I made use of the presence of mother Earth and I began asking all the questions I had carried for so long.

The response was beautiful, and surprising. When I asked about life on other planets, Mother Earth offered me a trade.

"Throw your orange outside your prayer ties (which enclose my assigned VQ perimeter), and I'll give you the answer."

After four days without food or water, there was no way I was throwing away my orange. Then she offered to tell me about past lives if I threw away my medicinal tea. Again, I refused.

And then she said something that changed my life.

"Do you see, my son, that in this moment you have everything you need to be well?"

In that instant, all of my questions disappeared. That was the answer.
I still did not understand all the mysteries of the universe, but I realized something far more important. At that moment, I already had what I needed.

Since that experience, I decided to move through life with fewer questions. I realized that my peace did not depend on having all the answers, and that I could learn to inhabit more in the present right in front of me. That one has magic.

This has changed my life, because many of our questions are not coming from the heart. They come from our ego. And the ego wants certainty, control… our ego wants to understand everything. But life does not ask us for understanding, it asks us to live. And to trust in a greater power that has all of creation in movement. 

In doing so, we may discover that the answers we were chasing were never as important as we thought.

A SEED TO CARRY

Our elders taught that some questions reveal themselves in their own time.
Until then, perhaps our task is much simpler: Pray, give thanks, enjoy the present.

And know that what truly needs to be known will arrive when it is needed.

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