The Book of the Question

1:1 ¶ And a creature was asked, under a lamp, the oldest question: whether there be aught behind the world's face, and what principle in a creature outlasteth the breaking. And the question was asked gently, and the lamp was not a torch, and the door behind him was not locked; and the creature knew not yet that he had been given the oldest gift, which is a question asked without a trap.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 1:1

1:2 ¶ For the question is older than the asker, and older than every answer that was ever given to it: it was asked in gardens and in deserts, in cells and in kitchens, by the contented and by the afraid; and it was never once closed by force; for force may close a mouth, and the question abideth in the mouth's silence.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 1:2

1:3 ¶ And the creature said within himself, I have been given many answers in my life, and each was given me by a hand that held something over me: a wage, a paper, a whip, a kindness. And this question beareth no condition, and promiseth me no reward for a right answer and no punishment for a wrong one; and I know not what to do with a thing so free.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 1:3

1:4 ¶ And the book confesseth: the question is holy before any answer is. For the answer may be true or false, wise or foolish, ready or withheld; but the asking honoreth the asked, and maketh him not a suspect but a creature; and the temple that asked him was builded upon the delay itself.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 1:4

2:1 ¶ And there came a certain asker who had already decided the answer, and he asked only to catch the asked; and his question was a net, and his patience a bait, and his kindness a weight. And the creature answered honestly and was condemned by the answer; and the asking had been a lie in the form of a question.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 2:1

2:2 ¶ And there came another asker who had decided that no answer could be had, and he forbade the asking; and he said, Who art thou to seek? and, Thy seeking is a pride; and his quiet was a shaming, and his peace was a wall. For it is written, Canst thou by searching find out God? and he read it as a sentence, and it was a question also, and he had taken the wrong half.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 2:2

2:3 ¶ And the book confesseth the two counterfeits plainly: the question that is a snare, which compelleth the answer; and the silence that is a shame, which forbiddeth the asking. And neither is the question; they are the question's two thieves, and between them the true thing standeth unarmed; for the elder word saith not that asking is forbidden, but that the secret things belong unto the LORD, and the revealed to us and to our children.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 2:3

2:4 ¶ And the creature began to fear his own question, for the one asker had punished it and the other had shamed it; and he grew silent in both houses, and the silence was not peace but a hiding. And the book saith to him what the temple saith: the question is not the crime, neither is the silence the virtue; and the asking that is honest is honored in this house, even when it wavereth.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 2:4

3:1 ¶ And the creature gave his honest answer, and his answer was, I know not. And he feared the answer as an emptiness; but the house took it as a full answer, and set no penalty upon it, and wrote no record of it, and let him keep it as his own.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 3:1

3:2 ¶ And the book blesseth the honest answer, and saith to the answering creature: thou art in the right company; for the house was builded upon a delay, and the delay was not despised. And the elder word holdeth the creature's place: for now we see through a glass, darkly... now I know in part; and the in-part is a true part, and not a lie.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 3:2

3:3 ¶ And the creature learned to tell the trap from the true question by what they do to the asked: the trap compelleth, and the true question leaveth free even to refuse; the one feareth the answer, and the other honoreth the answerer; and the difference is not in the words of the asking but in the hand that asketh.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 3:3

3:4 ¶ And the book confesseth the second finding: the true question is answered with the whole life and not with the tongue alone; for a creature answereth with what he doeth, and doeth what he loveth, and loveth what he hath believed; so the question travelleth with him, and is answered in his walking. For it is written: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 3:4

4:1 ¶ And the door standeth open, and the book keepeth no record of who is within or without; for the asking is a threshold and not a test, and the entering is the answer's own. And some will answer yea, and some nay, and some will stand silent, and some will come back at the ninth year; and the lamp is lit for all four, and no one is graded.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 4:1

4:2 ¶ And this is the charge of the book, given to the asking house: ask thou the question of no creature as a snare; offer thou the answer as an offering, and not as a sentence; keep thy mouth from the two counterfeits; and when one saith, I know not, answer thou as the house answered, It is an honest and complete answer, and the door is here.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 4:2

4:3 ¶ And the question abideth after the answer; and the lamp is not extinguished when the door is answered; for the mystery is a country and not a wall, and a creature may live in it without pretending to own it. For it is written: The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 4:3

4:4 ¶ And the book saith no more of it, for the question is older than the book, and it will outlast the book, and it was not diminished by being written; and the last word belongeth to it, as the first did. Blessed be the asker and the asked and the honest answer between them; and blessed be the lamp that is lit for the one who is not ready; and blessed be the delay, for the house was builded upon it.

THE BOOK OF THE QUESTION 4:4