Questions to ask

"It is more important to live with important questions than to collect a lot of answers."

Observe yourself. See what your mind tells you. Listen to the different voices within you.

Do you use reason or emotion or the consensus of others or authority figures to dissuade you from being with something that you see?

What are the ways that you undermine your certainty and invalidate your own experience?

Do you use reason or faith or assumptions or other people’s authority or convention or history—what do you use to betray yourself and your experience?

You must know this. You must know both your strengths and your weaknesses. You must know your tendencies regarding seeing, knowing and acting.

"Whenever you are extremely upset about something, ask yourself

Is there something I need here?

Is there something I need to know here?

Is there something I need to do here? Three questions."

"When you get on board a bus or a conveyance or around other people, do not judge and evaluate them. Just watch and listen. Ask yourself

What am I looking at here? And listen more deeply than the immediate response of your intellect."

"Every day you are reinforcing your beliefs, your habits and your inclinations.

What are those beliefs, those habits and those inclinations?

Are you aware of them?

Do you see how you are reinforcing your weaknesses, your distractions, your vulnerability to persuasion by others?

Do you see, on a daily basis, how you keep your mind preoccupied, rarely ever aware of where you are or what is going on around you, and unaware of the guidance and the power of Knowledge within yourself?"

"Ask yourself

What is coming for the world?

And what must I do to prepare?"

"When listening to others talk to you, if they are presenting something important, ask yourself

What do I really know about this?"

"Look and listen for what people are really communicating through their behavior and their words. Ask yourself: 'What is this person really communicating?' If you listen with this kind of attention, you might hear something very different from what they are saying or from what their appearance might be demonstrating. Then you can ask yourself: 'Is this person ready to take the steps to Knowledge?' If you ask this with this kind of objectivity, you might hear a yes or a no, or perhaps a maybe."

To look closer

Why would people "go through all of this development, exert this effort, expend their energy and make these little sacrifices unless they realized that they were important to the world?"

"Consider for a moment those who demonstrate any great skill that you admire. Did not the individuals who demonstrate this skill have to prepare, perhaps arduously, over a long period of time? And did they not have to make some sacrifices along the way in order to devote the necessary time, energy and focus to their preparation? If you look closer, you will see that their preparation was guided and enhanced by the presence of individuals who trained and prepared them and was also accompanied by tremendous support from those in their immediate range of relationships."

The Deep Evaluation

"Review your past relationships. What motivated you to be in this relationship? What were the signs from Knowledge and from the world that maybe you should not have become involved? And what happened as a result?

What did this relationship yield for you? Did it support the emergence of Knowledge within you? Did it give you real wisdom? Did it acknowledge that you are here for a greater purpose? Or was it about pursuing other things—being safe and comfortable, being happy and secure? Those are all fine, of course, but they are the result of a greater pursuit."

"Perhaps you felt the restraint within yourself. Perhaps someone else warned you. Perhaps you made your decision with a sense of deep resignation instead of joyful anticipation. What was that like for you?"

"Where did you make the critical decisions that had to do primarily with relationships with people, with places, with forms of work? Go back to each one of those junctions. What was it like to be there? What encouraged your decision? And what, if any that you could recognize, were the signs indicating that you should have done something else?"

"Why wait until your financial condition is so deteriorated that it takes all of your time and energy to repair it?"

In the midst of Great Waves of change

The Great Waves of change are coming. They are building. They are emerging on the horizon. They are already affecting millions of people around the world.

What will you do now?

What will you follow?

What voice within yourself will you follow?

What wisdom beyond yourself will you heed?

How much courage will you muster?

How far will you go in your preparation?

How seriously will you take the situation?

To what degree will you compromise yourself to meet the intentions or the expectations of others?

You will be dealing with very difficult circumstances and seeing great tribulation in the world as time goes on.

How will you maintain your bearings?

How will you keep yourself from entering into fear and panic, dread and apprehension?

How will you prevent yourself from falling prey to the admonitions and the condemnations of others, which will arise all around you?

How will you keep yourself from losing heart, from giving up, from feeling hopeless and defeated?

When the rain is falling and the thunder is clashing, how will you be able to maintain clarity of mind and purpose?

These are all important questions for you now."

"Think about the plight of the elderly. Who will take care of them? Think about the plight of children. Who will take care of them? For if you do not prepare for the future, it will overtake you. If it does, you will not be in a position to provide much of anything. Instead, you will yourself require and need great assistance. Who will provide this great assistance?"

Upon establishing relationships

"So, where is the best place to investigate the quality of your relationships? The best place to start to investigate is in looking at how you start relationships—

who do you start them with,

what are your motives,

what are you looking for,

what are your criteria,

how quickly do you move,

how do you gauge your progress,

what qualifies a person to be in relationship with you and

what disqualifies someone?"

"The real question in relationships is, 'What can we do together?'”

"Are we going the same direction together?

Can we live together for the rest of our lives?

Can we work well together?

Can we deal with suffering and disappointment together?"

"Listen to your own inclinations regarding your attraction to another person. Why are you attracted to this person? Ask yourself this: 'Why am I attracted to this person?' and objectively listen to the reasons that your mind provides. Then ask yourself: 'Can I live with this person day in and day out, given the real adversities of life? Can I really live with this person?' If you are not certain, do not commit yourself to that situation. Wait and see. It is all right to wait and see. Beyond a certain point it will be time to either give yourself or to withdraw. But at the outset you have the luxury and indeed the responsibility to wait and see."

In your relationship with God

"You have to come forward understanding your own intentions. Why are you seeking this relationship? What do you expect that it will provide for you? What are your secret wishes? What do you want to hide from God? What is it you do not want God to know about you or your past behaviors? Are you coming forward with the desire to be in relationship alone, or are there other incentives that are operating here?"

See also

Outset

Questions asked

Questions to consider

Further study

• Deepening Your Spiritual Practice : Spiritual Retreat

• Building the Foundation for a New Life: Understanding Money, Wealth and Power