Center for Action and Contemplation – Father
Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation – Tuesday, 7 January 2014 “The Questio”
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Yes, And
“The Questio”
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
What the Sic et Non/Yes, And approach allows
you to do, quite frankly, is to be non-reactionary and non-rebellious. You do
not need to prove that your statement is the last and final statement, which is
what the ego always wants to do. Rather, you just ask others to consider it.
Abélard and Lombard laid the foundations for what we call Scholastic
philosophy. [1]
When Scholastic philosophy was at its best (in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries), the development of an idea proceeded by
what the great teachers called the questio (Latin, “to seek”). Our English word
“quest” may come from that understanding. The systematic asking of questions
opened up wonder and encouraged spiritual curiosity by drawing out pros and
cons for answers to the question, thus refining the question itself instead of
just looking for the perfect answer.
Unfortunately, in later centuries this practice
degenerated to needing answers, and preferably certain answers. We moved from
wondering to answering, which has not served us well at all. This need to be
right reached its nadir in what we today call fundamentalism, common in almost
all religions, and in most political discourse today. [2]
[1] Adapted from Sic et Non; Yes, And webcast
recording (MP3 download)
[2] Adapted from The Naked Now: Learning to See
as the Mystics See, pp. 46-47
Gateway to Silence:
Yes . . . and . . .
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