If we play with it a bit, we see the absurdity of this need to protect our psychological selves. This seeing does not expand our territory, in fact it shrinks it! It happens when we are alert and attentive, and it has the same quality and energy as when we hold a question without looking for answers. As mathematicians we are often told: if you really understand a problem, then the answer lies in it. It appears to me that the key to understanding ourselves lies in this ability to ask questions of our inner world, without judgment or defence, and without settling on answers.