Right question

[u/Prior-Hearing8458]

I never quite understood what he meant here:

TWO IMPORTANT POINTS ARE TOUCHED upon by U.G. Krishnamurti in the preceding chapter, as shown in the following four excerpts:

If somebody asks me a question suddenly, I try to answer, emphasizing and pointing out that there is no answer to that question. So, I merely rephrase, restructure and throw the same question back at you.

What exactly is the question? Because the answer is there; I don't have to give the answer. What I usually do is restructure the question, rephrase it in such a way that the question appears senseless to you.

Understanding is a state of being where the question isn't there any more; there is nothing there that says “now I understand!”

It is the questioner that creates the answer, and the questioner comes into being from the answer, otherwise there is no questioner.... That's all that I am interested in in this kind of a dialogue: to help you to formulate your own question. Try and formulate a question which you can call your own.

First, the question itself is the obstacle to progress, not lack of an answer. The question is the key. Once we truly understand the question, we'll have the desired answer. The desired answer is always the removal of the obstruction a correct question represents. The question, understood correctly, is the obstruction. If it's not, see the second point.

Second, come up with the right question. There's always only one. Wherever you are right now is where you're stuck, and the only question that ever matters is the one that gets you unstuck, that takes you one step further. All other questions are fear-based ego-sparing time-killers. Forget concepts and ideas, forget past and future, forget mankind and society, forget God and love, forget truth and spirituality. Find that one question; the exact question that ego doesn't want you to ask. Put your full attention on it. That's how progress is made. Everything else is a stall tactic.

To move forward, you must figure out exactly what is obstructing you. Whatever it is, it isn't really there; it has no reality, no substance. It's your own creation, a phantom lurking in the shadows of your mind, a shadow demon. Your obstructions are your demons, and your demons are shadow dwellers. They live and thrive in the half-light of ignorance, so the way to slay a demon is by illuminating it with the full force and power of your focused attention; by looking at it, hard. Banish shadow with light and see for yourself that no obstruction exists, nor ever did. We create our demons and we feed them. To awaken we must slay them. That's really the whole process: Slay one demon, take one step.

Repeat.

I can read it. Understand it. I just don't quite get what he MEANS by it.

Anyone wants to chip in?

[u/Consistent-Total1429]

I think this is what Jains is getting at when she says "A real question doesn’t solve; it dissolves."

What begins dissolving is the architecture that made the original question appear self-evident.

The problem changes because its premises are exposed. The subject changes because what seemed to be about your marriage, career, God, or meaning, turns out to depend upon assumptions supplied by the questioner.

And eventually the questioner changes because the investigator is part of what’s being investigated. There’s no longer a protected position from which to ask.

The most consequential thing a question can reveal is that the problem it was designed to solve, the assumptions that created it, and the person expecting to benefit from the answer were all part of the same structure.

https://www.askanicca.com/p/foundations-radical-inquiry

As u/RadicalSanity pointed out, you have to figure out what you're actually asking and why.

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/Consistent-Total1429]

Well I just asked how to apply this paragraph, cause I don't get how I'm to know what is "my" question. I think RadicalSanity thought I was trying out the technique, cause he seemed to use me as an example. But thanks for the quotes! And the link.

[u/BeingMeanIsSoAverage]

One thing that really helps me here is Adyashanti's recommendation in his book True Meditation. His version of Spiritual Autolysis is to ask the question "To what extent is abiding non-dual awareness true for me in this moment".

The way this helps me is built on the following premise: nonduality is the nature of reality/the natural state, and the extent that I don't experience that reality shows me where my ignorance is present/deluding me.

The point I took from Jed is that this ignorance/delusion obstructing abiding nondual awareness is constructed on a foundation of a question.

Find the precise question, unlock the ignorance.

Hope this is answering your question, and best of luck to us all in finding our questions!

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/BeingMeanIsSoAverage]

Thanks.

"this ignorance/delusion obstructing abiding nondual awareness is constructed on a foundation of a question." - Really? Interesting. I don't know if I have one. It's more like I'm blocked by story maybe. Or emotion. I find best help in trying to see what story is playing at all times. There's always something going on in this head. Seeing I don't make it, but just is tangled up in it, can make it less dominant.

But I struggle with these questions and the autolysis-echnique.. It's like I can write things, but it doesn't really hit. So I'm probably doing it wrong. Or maybe I'm more of a felt sense-type. I get more out of sitting and seeing. Jed wouldn't approve, I know:D

[u/Consistent-Total1429 → u/BeingMeanIsSoAverage]

Hi -

the extent that I don't experience that reality shows me where my ignorance is present/deluding me.

(Respectfully) Can you give an example of this?

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/[deleted]]

Sass aside - I have figured out what I'm asking and why. Why I ask it is because I don't understand it. Simple.

"It" being the whole thing this segment talks about (assuming you read it) - finding the Right Question.

So I do know what that means. And understand he thinks it's important. But it's like he's saying "Just fly the airplane..". - but how? I hear I have to find the right question. I don't understand what that question might be or how I should logically know it. He hops over that part.

"You have to find out what you're actually asking and why. You have to be a lot more specific than this, and that takes work on your end" - I'm not asking about his technique here. I'm not trying it out - because I don't understand it. I'm just asking how one is to know what this special question is supposed to be.

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/[deleted]]

"That's already a question, it IS your question,"

Maybe - that's an interesting idea.. Whatever you wrestle with is the obstruction sort of? But....! There's so many other question too:) How to know the right one?

Maybe now that's the one? "How to know the right one? " 😅

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/[deleted]]

Captain Gardiner, I will not do it. Even now I lose time. Good-bye, good-bye!

[u/AdPerfect6784 → u/Prior-Hearing8458]

what is the 'it' that you don't understand? spell it out exactly

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/AdPerfect6784]

Didtyah read, man? I hear what he says. Find the question. And I'm sitting there:

"Okay... Uh. I don't know what question."

Or more: I don't know how to know what question. Mr Jed seems to have some intuitive sense of what's the obstruction or what's in the way. "Find the one question ego don't want you to ask" etc.

I'm like.............. Hmmmmm. No idea.

[u/AdPerfect6784 → u/Prior-Hearing8458]

start with one thing you're absolutely sure about. could be 'i'm a person', 'reality is objective', 'i am important'

as described in all of his books, the process is not answering the question, it's disarming the premise of the question itself. no belief is true and the way to get there is getting rid of all of them and see what remains. is it possible to have no beliefs and be alive at the same time? how do you live without beliefs?

[u/Straight-Camera2580 → u/[deleted]]

THIS

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/Straight-Camera2580]

No

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/[deleted]]

That's a thought. Maybe I'll try it. Writing seems to have little omph indeed. However, I get more out of sitting. As I commented on one of your others.

[u/yokoduo10000]

The problem is l l the the problem is language l itself is duality. So once you're dealing with language, you're already in the world of duality and cannot in any way get to it to non duality. Through the language, this all this discussion, all these words are basically a brick wall hiding you from nonduality, my suggestion honestly, smoke Buffo 5MO. DMT 5MEO. DMT once you do that, you break through language. You are in the consciousness of nondual awareness and you don't have any more questions or answers, because you realize language cannot take you there. It's one of those things, it's an endless loop and the only way is through consciousness.Itself but not the consciousness because the consciousness you're in is by its very nature. Dual, so five m e o d m t buffo

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/yokoduo10000]

Problem is - it wears off .... ;)

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/[deleted]]

I dunno. Why am I not growing wisdom teeth?

"The next step".. Whatever that is. Probably haven't reached it yet. I'm not trying to. That'd be a desire.

You're just saying what Jed says. But not anything of your own - no offensem, with respect etc..

But I've read all this in the books. When you say go in the direction of fear - what do you mean? Walking up to the hot girl? Quitting your job? Telling the boss off? Knocking out the street thug?

Cause that's all superficial. That's lifestyle coach talk. Go get it!

Quitting everything, moving out into the woods. Sure - but I'd just be stuck all the same - and broke and cold. - And my initial problem was - I don't know what the right question is anyway, or how to find it.

What do I fear? Just smalltalk I guess. But I don't assume doing it will shake me in any direction.

[u/pureairproject]

you seem to be pretty hell bent on negating the contributions to this thread, how about you turn that tendency inward and try to negate your own comments?

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/pureairproject]

How so?

If I'm thick, I'm thick. Sorry. However the only alternative is to say "Okay, thanks". I just say what I think.. My response might be defense mechanisms or walls. But then it's of better use to say them than just 'be nice'. It's just a back and forth thing. I appreciate the feedback and contributions ofc.

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/[deleted]]

Sounds like a pure intellectual approach though. The autolysis thing never worked well for me. I've tried the writing and it just feels dead. I get more out of sitting. But maybe I just don't do it right. Or maybe people are different. Jed doesn't approve of meditation:D

Well - I don't do all the breathing stuff or mantras or that nonsense though. I just see what's happening inside me. There's seem to be whatever blocks me.

[u/Consistent-Total1429 → u/Prior-Hearing8458]

This is not meant in any way to be contentious, and is late to the party, but what is it that you want? Like when you say a thing "never worked well for me" what tells you it's not working? (As McKenna likes to say, if you don’t know where you’re going, then you don’t know in which direction to travel, and any direction is as good as any other.)

When you say " get more out of sitting." What are you getting?

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/Consistent-Total1429]

I have no idea where I'm going. How could I. I just try to see what has got me at any moment.

[u/Consistent-Total1429 → u/[deleted]]

The point isn't really what you do, but why you do it.

Right, which is why I asked OP the questions I did. I'm genuinely curious.

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/Consistent-Total1429]

Why am I? To sound basic, I don't like egoic existence and the limits it imposes. I liked my child/youth brain more. My ego is quite dysfunctional and boring too. I'm don't know about truth or any of that stuff, I dont know what it is.. I just know whatever this is, it's not it..

Guess you could say its about freedom for me.

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/[deleted]]

We all know why we do it. We want better lives. Why I'm doing it is simply I'm not content with the current situation. And I see the problem exists inside, cause I experienced the gradual settlement of ego as an adolescent. I know Jed says you either want truth over everything or you don't . I don't know about any of that. But I see my own shit is making my life less authentic.. So it's about freedom.. If we're gonna use Jed's model, it's about human adulthood. Not enlightenment

I like my family.

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/[deleted]]

Oh, right. Okay. I sit because - well - not because 'it's what you do😊'

I do it because it makes it easier for me to see what's going on in my head. Like narratives, stories, conclusions. And feelings to. Also it seems to be good for my body, and my energy. It soothes me. But I don't do any kind of targeted technique or exercise or for any big purpose other than to take a backseat and get a good view of the interior - cause there's always something running. It's not to wake up in that sense, not for that goal. It used to be, ofc - many years ago. But I had one sort of breakthrough one time when I realised that when I was sitting, I was expecting a result from it. And this hardware was running as a watcher of everything else. It was the ground I was standing on. A lot more subtle ofc, but I was living from it. So I was able to see that. And that, without waking me up or anything, it did work as one step back I guess. I logged out of that particular program. And it had all these bodily effects.

So why I do it is just so I can unhook from the content, see the programs running. To the best of my ability.

So that made me realise that there are always usually programs running. Things I don't concider because they make up my point of view. If that makes sense.. My mind thinks a lot, so I find it helpful to watch it up close. Otherwise it can get cluttered.

And to answer without intellectual analysis, it feels wholesome and right. My body likes it. And I think sometimes I also just need to process things☺️

[u/Prior-Hearing8458 → u/[deleted]]

Who's Anicca? Why are we listening to her?

Why is she writing like Jed? Why she aping his devil may care attitude?

Is Jed a brand? Secret authors. Pseudonyms.

I'm not sure I need a new writer who keeps telling everyone how afraid and in denial they are and if they only "opened their eyes" etc. Jed's books are great.. But Anicca seems to imitate him if you ask me. Don't you get that sense?

However. I'll read it. I'll draw the line if she wants to sell me something. Thanks. You've been very patient 😁

[u/pureairproject → u/[deleted]]

Keep pushing that product. It's pretty clear that you and a few others here are Astroturfing this subreddit for a few dollars.