The Question Is The Answer

The Value of Questioning

Everything begins with a question. Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? It does not matter whether it is a spiritual, philosophical, scientific, psychological or if it is a practical question; all pursuits begin with a question. A pursuit of knowledge begins with one set of questions and a pursuit of Truth begins with another. The psychological pursuit entails a similar but distinct set of questions from the spiritual pursuit. Even in economic life it all comes down to the question of one occupation or another. Life is turned this way or that due to simple questions that are generally, "yes" or "no." There really is no such thing as "maybe." Some questions are simple and some are more complex but all answers are simple.

Most questions take the form of an "I don't know!" and are an acknowledgment of the limitations of our own knowledge, experience, capacities or faculties. To question is to keep oneself honest. When there is a genuine not-knowing there is also an openness to seeing, looking and learning. The beginners mind of Zen that Shunryu Suzuki spoke of is impossible without questions and an openness to learning. There is another more basic and important value to questioning and it is to not begin with any presumptions, assumptions or premature conclusions. This is a principle that Richard Rose spelled out very clearly that one must not begin with any preconceptions about what one will find in the spiritual search, if one is not to delude or deceive oneself. The questions are more important than the answer because the wrong questions will mislead and the right questions will bring one to Truth.



Spiritual awareness is realized when the right questions meet a questioning mind. 


Questions by there very nature shift awareness into a more defocused frame and just like the Koan of Zen, the correct question in the proper context can be a catalyst for Self-Realization. The question is the questions. What questions get at the very essence of human being? What questions get at the roots of creation? Are there any questions that are unanswerable that will stop thought and precipitate Self-Awareness? Can the finite mind realize the Infinite, without cracking or breaking? How can the mind be tested or stretched to its limits, without producing insanity but in a manner that induces Enlightenment instead? There are such questions and there is such a question. Life is one. Self is another. I offer only a tentative or partial list of questions to add to any that you have already read, heard or posed to yourself. I offer them as much to challenge as to Enlighten.



Questions for Enlightenment (and for other things)

Where do I end and you begin?
Does my self have a beginning or an end?
By what and how do I define where my self originates or terminates?
What is "my" self? What is "your" self?
How do I find the limits of my existence?
Is my existence limited? By what? By whom? Where? How?


How do I know that I am who and what I say I am?

When others describe me, can their description ever be accurate?
Who can know my self better than I can?
When I define myself from within, is my self-definition a true one?
What if I don't know my self?
What if I deceive my self?
How can I reality-check my own self-definition?
How can I test the other-perceptions of my self against fact?
What is the ultimate measure of "who I am"?
Even if I am certain of "who I am," does that answer the question as to "what I am"?


How can I measure the reliability of an externally imposed or an internally generated "self-image," as being an accurate reflection of "who I am" or of "what I am"?



Am I:

a.) physical?
b.) psychic?
c.) spiritual?
d.) all of the above
e.) none of the above
f.) a little of this and a little of that




What Am I?
Who Am I
Where Am I?

How do I determine what I am?
How can I know who I am?
What is the location of my knowing?
Is knowing somewhere, everywhere or nowhere?
Is knowing changing or is it a constant?
What is knowing? How is knowing known?

Am I constant or am I changing?

Is change seen or is change my being?
What is constant?
What is changing?

What fills this gap or space between awareness and the physical body?

What exactly is "psychic" energy? Is it really gaseous-plasma?
Can the psyche be described by plasma physics?
Are psychic energies merely gas fueled plasmas that are shaped, formed and maintained by electromagnetism?


Are the operations of psychic phenomena due to known chemical elements in gaseous and plasma phases that can be described by a physics of psychology?



What is energy and what is information?
If energy carries information, does information carry energy?
Are information and energy equivalent?
Is energy defined by a particle?
Is information described by a wave?
Are these two forms of the same phenomenon?
What is the relationship of both information and energy to awareness?

Is not a human being merely a composition of informational waves and energetic particles arising within a medium of awareness?


What differentiates the physical from the psychic?
Is the physical mostly solids and liquids?
Is the psychic mostly gases and plasmas?


How do the physical/psychic relate to the soul/spiritual?
Is evolutionary development based upon bodies composed of gaseous-plasmas?
Are the energies of life and of healing gaseous-plasma based?


Does magnetism govern all relationships through polarity, spin and charge?
Does sound pattern all forms through tones or frequencies of information?
Is light merely an expression of magnetism and sound?



What are the spaces, frequencies, particles, spheres, vortices, matrices and resonances of the human being?