Exploring the Unknown Question of Essence
We are all familiar with how when something to which we’ve ascribed significant meaning, be it seemingly trivial or vital, like family ties, societal structures, resource accessibility, or even basics like food and a clear sky—crumbles, transforms, becomes inaccessible, or ceases to be, we face a demand of a certain question.
If we peel back the language that often shrouds this question, we find its core remains consistent across circumstances;
It’s a question of essence.
In this essay, I aim to question why we neglect this query throughout our lives.
Why does this profound question of essence only announce its presence amidst major upheavals or worse?
Why don’t we, as human beings, naturally exhibit unconditional curiosity to delve into the question of essence?
Why do we prioritize destruction, distraction, and entertainment to the extent that we devote our precious time, mental, emotional, and spiritual faculties to them?
Perhaps it’s time for this to change. Maybe the question of essence doesn’t need a calamity. Maybe it has found its way to you, the reader, without the need for a crisis to jolt your attention. Perhaps this gentle invitation that you’re encountering within these words is enough.
So, how would you approach the question of essence? If you knew how, you would at least make an attempt. But you don’t know. Because anything you do know is not essence; it’s layered over it.
Thus, the gateway is not knowing.
Yet there exists a reflex to give up, to abandon, to withdraw when faced with the unknown. This is where we uncover the root of the question of essence:
To not know, yet not to walk away.
The question of essence is about not knowing. Not knowing is the authentic state of a mind scrutinizing the question of essence.
You may ask, “Why should I concern myself?”
No one else can provide you the answer!
When the question of essence touches you, it evolves into the most precious and tangible sensation your heart has ever felt. Don’t shy away from the question of essence. Don’t await a crisis to expose it.
And above all, don’t turn away from it.
Engage with it in your state of not knowing and stay. Not in order to see what transpires, but to allow it to bloom in its own manner, far beyond the confines of the Known.