Your Questions, My Answers ~ INTRODUCTION

Sometimes, people say to me: "May I ask you a question?", and I respond: "Certainly, you may ask whatever you like, but the answers are mine."

This book contains questions that people have asked me. I do not know if they will feel satisfied with my answers, but would prefer it if they were not; I would be more pleased if they were stimulated to find their own answers, and make their own decisions, as the answers of others are second-hand. If my words provoke disagreement, that might also be good, as people must also think about what they disagree with.

When we ask questions, we often have our own answers in mind—partly formed, at least—and are looking for confirmation; it is like a person needing surgery going to more than one doctor for a second or a third opinion before submitting to an operation.

If we know how to ask our questions, if we think about them, and formulate them carefully, we might find the answers contained within them.

It is my intention, therefore, not to provide definitive or final conclusions, but more to turn people back to themselves—to hold a mirror up to them and say: "Maybe this is what you are looking for". My answers are only possibilities, and are not necessarily more valid than your own.

YOUR QUESTIONS, MY ANSWERS is a joint-effort; without your questions, there would be none of my answers. This illustrates how, by ourselves, we are nothing and nobody; ‘I’ exist only because of ‘you’. So, let me thank you for helping me write this book.