We live in a state of uncertainty. You may be certain about some things, but the overall experience in any moment is one of uncertainty: What will happen? Why did that happen? Why is this happening? When will it be over? What will be the result? These questions are our constant companions in life. We are doomed to uncertainty, or so the ego feels. That's not the experience of Essence, however, which enjoys the uncertainty of life. Essence isn't what asks those questions. The ego poses them and tries to answer them to try to gain some sense of control over life, which is essentially uncontrollable, unpredictable, and unknown.

Let's take a look at some of these questions, because people tend to think they are valid and valuable, but really, they belong to the ego and its way of thinking and are related to its desires and fears. The desire for life to be a certain way and the fear that it won't be drive those questions and every other activity of the ego. The problem with these questions is they presume an overly simplistic answer: What will happen? This will happen. End of story. Why is this happening? Because of this. End of story. When will it be over? Time and date. End of story. What will be the result? This will. End of story.

None of those questions can be answered so simply. It can't even be said when something will be over. At what point is an experience actually over? When some event is over or when our tension around it is over or when something else about it is over? What does “over” mean, anyway? “Over” is a concept, not a reality. And “Why?” is a question people ask all the time, but it rarely has a simple answer. There are many reasons why something happens, many of which can never be known. Why is part of the great mystery of life, and we rarely ever learn the whole truth. This fact is hard for the ego to swallow.

The mind wants answers to those unanswerable questions because it thinks it will finally be able to relax and accept life once it has them, but relaxation and acceptance aren't dependent on answers. They result from a choice you make right now about your relationship to life: Will you relax and go with and accept the flow of life right now or not? Will you say yes to life right now, no matter what is happening, or not? Will you be present to what is happening instead of complaining about it or dreaming of something else?

Paradoxically, being able to be present and accept life actually depends on being willing to not know the answer to those questions! Saying yes to life is a lot easier if we aren't presuming something false or negative, which is generally the result of believing the ego's answers to the unanswerable questions in life.

The ego's answers to these questions—why something is happening or has happened, what it means, what will happen—are made up and actually take us away from the very happiness and peace we are searching for. The ego's conclusions are often negatively slanted and erroneous. They are too narrow and short-sighted to be the whole story. The ego often answers those questions pessimistically and with little wisdom, so we are left with a bleak vision, which can make us feel unhappy and discontent. The ego tells us a bad and sad story, and we believe it and take it to be the truth. And since we can never know if its conclusions are right, we often go round and round mentally, adopting one conclusion and then another. That takes a lot of energy and attention away from being present in our life, which is the real source of happiness.

Life is much wiser than the ego. It is wise and good and can be trusted. So even if you don't know why things are happening or have happened or what will happen, everything that happens is taking you back Home to Essence, toward being the loving and wise being that you really are. That's all you need to know. When knowing that is enough, you land in a place where all is well and always has been. And that's what you have wanted all along, not certainty or answers.