Gertrude Stein’s question

1001 Tales told by the Master

“Life can be loved; but there is no question and there is no answer.”

Gertrude Stein

You are asking a question, but are you aware who the person is behind the question, who is asking the question? The question cannot arise from nowhere, there must be someone hidden inside you who is asking the question. Drop the question and find the questioner. And in finding the questioner, you will find the answer. It is a very strange and paradoxical world. Howsoever difficult it may seem in the beginning, if you just take a single step inwards, everything goes on becoming more and more simple.

Gertrude Stein, one of the most significant women poets, was on her deathbed. Her friends had gathered, knowing that her death was close. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and asked, “What is the answer?” Everybody looked at each other, thinking, “It seems she has gone senile… We don’t know the question, how can we say what the answer is?” Somebody gathered courage and asked, “You are being very illogical. You are asking us, ‘What is the answer?’ but we don’t know the question.”

Gertrude Stein laughed and said, “Okay, then tell me what the question is!” And she died with a smile.

To me, in the West very few people have attained to the state Gertrude Stein attained. In her last moment she certainly became a buddha.

She is saying, there is no question and there is no answer.

Life is so simple, so beautiful, so honest. There is no place for any question or for any answer. Life can be sung, life can be danced, life can be loved; but there is no question and there is no answer.

Osho, The Language of Existence, Ch 8 (excerpt)

Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales
Featured image: Gertrude Stein at Les Charwelles, June 12, 1934 – photo by Carl Van Vechten (1880–1964) – commons.wikimedia.org

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