Asking the Right Questions

Whether or not you successfully work through IIH boils down to whether or not you can do two things. 

1. Ask the right questions

2. Figure out the right answers to the right questions

If you can do these two things, then you will successfully work through IIH. If you cannot do these two things, then you will not successfully work through IIH. That's really all there is to it. 

Someone needs to write an exhaustive treatise on how to identify what questions are the right questions to ask and how to figure out the right answers to the right questions. Currently, I don't have the time to do this, but I hope the following tidbits of information will at least help you get started. 

- When you ask the right question, the answer to the right question will likely lead you to the next right question to ask. For example, if you ask yourself "Why am I stuck on Step 1?" the answer may be "I can't really observe my thoughts." This answer will lead you to the next right question, which is "Why can't I observe my thoughts?" The answer to this question is "My container of awareness is not big enough." This answer will lead you to the next right question, which is "How can I expand my container of awareness?" Once you identify the answer to this question, then the possibility for progress finally arises. 

- One might say that wisdom will help your ask the right questions, while understanding and knowledge will help you figure out the answers to the right questions. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but it's not wrong. Hopefully this will inspire you to pray regularly for wisdom and understanding, and to read good books that contain useful knowledge (as opposed to books that contain useless knowledge or pseudo-knowledge).

- For many people, one right question to ask is "How can I become proficient at resisting temptation?" The reason is that these people know what they need to do in order to advance, but they don't do those things because they give in to the temptation to do other things. 

- The student of magic who advances rapidly often asks himself questions that the student of magic who remains stuck on Step 1 forever would never think to ask. This is because the student of magic who advances rapidly has a lot more wisdom, understanding, and knowledge than the student who remains stuck on Step 1 forever.

- I would say that many students aren't asking the right questions, but the truth is, many students aren't asking any questions at all. If you've been stuck on Step 1 for several years, you've got a mystery to solve, and that mystery is why you've been stuck for so long. When detectives try to solve a mystery, they often ask themselves, witnesses, and suspects many questions. You need to be asking questions. 

- It is of no benefit to ask the right question if you can't figure out the right answer to the question, but asking the right question is a necessary step toward figuring out the answer to the question.  

- When I first began trying to work through IIH, my lack of a background in meditation put me at a disadvantage when it came to becoming proficient at the mental exercises of Step 1. For me, one right question to ask was "How can I overcome the disadvantage I have as a result of not having a background in meditation?" Once I figured out the answer to this question, I began to really make progress and saw improvement on pretty much a daily basis. It was not long before I moved on to Step 2. 

Comments

  1. TomasAugust 29, 2022 at 7:11 AM

    Keep writing Virgil please. I like your articles and books very much. I found it very useful. You are able to explain exercices from IIH that I am able to understand better.

    ReplyDelete

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