The Two Essential Questions To Ask

At the end of life, when someone has lived a life with consciousness,  and they look back on it, The questions are simple:

Did I live fully? And more than anything else, Did I love well?

Jack Kornfield Cited in Mystical Hours

Brother Teasdale gives us this important background behind these two essential questions:

“There is no escape from authenticity!

Buddhist teacher and writer Jack Kornfield brings us to the essential questions of a human life, and each one of us will ask ourselves these same questions in our own way and in our own time. So much of our awareness has to do with the sensitivity required in understanding how to achieve fulfillment. It takes awareness to really love selflessly, to be free of ego-cherishing.

To live life with awareness is to live each moment with real sensitivity and an open receptivity to others, their suffering, and need.

To live fully is to be aware of the opportunities to be compassionate and loving towards others.

To love well is to love unselfishly and to strive to be ever more inclusive, extending one’s care to those with whom we would not ordinarily associate. It is to be spontaneously open and receptive to those whom we meet who may need us in some way. In this sense, life is a school where we are learning how to love more authentically and more comprehensively, including more and more people into our circle.”

When honestly confronted by the difficulty of these two profound questions, I would have to say that they have been an important part of my conscious decision-making; and they have served my imperfect attempts as a continual aspiring ideal…

The openness and vulnerability these questions demand of me is daunting, and yet very little in the spiritual life is attained if I am guarded, timid, or self-serving… No genuine spiritual tradition or even poetic outlook that I know of allows for a fearful heart to be maintained, or will justify any unwillingness to serve, or not to be sincere and compassionate.

Given how Kornfield teaches from a Buddhist perspective and is quite knowledgeable of the other mystical spiritual paths, I would add to his questions about authenticity, our collective human need to be as selfless as possible.

On this side of enlightenment, I find myself always needing to check my motives to see if there is any ego based reward or selfish feeling of satisfaction in what I have done. These questions challenge all of us in the best ways to live simply, honestly, and as lovingly as we can…