(This is Part 9 of a series. Go back to Part 8.)
A few additional items about questions:
In my experience, the really valuable part of asking a good question is not so much in the answer—though that can certainly be very valuable—but in hanging out with the question itself.
When we ask a question like...
How can I make a contribution to this world?
...we'll probably get a number of good answers, such as "Feed the poor" or "Work on the environment" or "Stop telling bad jokes" or whatever. And those answers give us an indication of what's next.
But perhaps even more valuable is hanging with the question itself, just pondering it, just letting it resonate in consciousness. The very vibration of the question, when we hang out with it, helps to raise our internal frequency and attract a more fundamental answer.
Hanging with a question allows more and more profound answers to form over time, answers that perhaps come from our deep internal guidance rather than the shallows of the mind.
It's worth mentioning here that answers to questions can come in various forms. Sometimes the answer simply shows up in reality. For example, we might be asking in the Specific Outcome area "How can I improve the relationship with Jane?" and suddenly there it is; the relationship improves.
The answer can sometimes come in the form of reality itself, because the very hanging with the question tends to generate a vibration and intention that attracts the reality.
The answer to Ramana Maharshi's famous question, "Who am I?" does not come in words, but rather, in a radically different perception of reality. It's an example of a question where the answer comes as reality itself.
(And the fruitful way to use the "Who am I?" question is neither to mindlessly repeat it nor to look for "answers," but rather, to just hang out with the question day after day, looking into the empty space of the question.)
A similar thing happened when the future Zen master Bassui stayed in the forest and hung out with a variation of the "Who am I?" question. If he head a bird singing he would ask, "Who is it that is hearing this bird?" And his answer came in the form of reality itself.
Other times, the answer to a question will come as words: "Let Jane know how much you appreciate her" or "Let go of having to be right" or "Become more open & a better listener" or whatever.
Other times, the answer may come as an image, something that you see in your mind's eye. You may see you and Jane communicating better and how you would do that, or you may see yourself appreciating something about her, or whatever the image might be.
So the answers to questions can come in many forms. However, the most fruitful answers will have a feeling of "rightness" about them, actually almost a feeling of liberation, of pushing through a door to something else.
To be continued...
(This is the end of Part 9. Go to Part 10.)
—jim sloman, 8.18.03 for 4.12.04
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