Answering your own questions?
‘A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.’ ~Lao Tzu
Do you ever feel like your mind is running all over the place, like it’s filled by a herd of wild horses? You can’t think straight for the rush of pounding hooves and the dust stirred by the stampede? You are spinning inside, but have no clear direction?
Do you have times when you wonder why you seem to have more questions than answers? Do you think others have all the answers? Where do you look?
Good researchers start with the question, when seeking answers.
What makes a good question? A powerful question:
-Is simple and clear -Is thought-provoking -Generates energy
-Focuses inquiry -Surfaces assumptions -Opens new possibilities
http://www.theworldcafe.com/articles/strategicquestion.pdf
Where do we find answers?
Our parents, our culture, our education, our spirituality?
Where are the answers to all our questions or who knows best where to look for the answers to our questions?
You have everything you need.
http://www.ijourney.org/audio.php?op=play&tid=773
Look inside. Listen to your soul. Seek your truth.
In a fascinating synthesis of indigenous wisdom, non-Western spiritualities, depth psychology, social activism and ecology, Plotkin introduces an ecopsychology of human development that reveals how fully and creatively we can mature when soul and wild nature are allowed to guide us.
http://www.ecopsychology.org/journal/ezine/archive4/plotkin.html
Author Bill Plotkin bases his work on three premises:
#1 a more mature human society requires more mature human individuals
#2 nature (including our own deeper nature, soul) has always provided and still provides the best template for human maturation
#3 every human being has a unique and mystical relationship to the wild world and that the conscious discovery and cultivation of that relationship is at the core of true adulthood
Do you find answers in Nature? The Cherokee and other Native Americans founded their belief systems on nature: animals, trees, direction of the sun.
http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/Culture/General/24405/Information.aspx
In contemporary society, we think of maturity simply in terms of hard work and practical responsibilities. I believe, in contrast, that true adulthood is rooted in transpersonal experience — in a mystic affiliation with nature, experienced as a sacred calling — that is then embodied in soul-infused work and mature responsibilities. This mystical affiliation is the very core of maturity, and … overlooked — or actively suppressed and expelled.
http://www.animas.org/newbook/aboutBill.htm
Life is about discovering the right questions more than having the right answers.
Contemplation is not first of all about being religious, introverted, or pious — it is about being emotionally and mentally honest! Contemplation is an alternative consciousness that refuses to identify with or feed what are only passing shows. It is the absolute opposite of addiction, consumerism or any egoic consciousness. Paul called .. “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) or a “spiritual revolution of the mind” (Ephesians 4:23).Only with this new mind can we also develop a new heart and a new emotional response to the moment. Find your own practice and learn a new mind. Contemplation really is the change that changes everything.
Father Richard Rohr, OFM, editions of Radical Grace. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fr-richard-rohr/contemplation-finding-ourselves-finding-god_b_1035271.html
This is the age of information. There is no limit to what you can explore, where you can go and what you can learn through the web. Be careful. Use your common sense and your “inner voice” to guide you as you search for your own answers. Just as we can spend time in nature, listening to our small still voice, any activity that helps you connect with your core will allow you to hear your answers.
Where are you looking? Inside or outside?
Have you ever lost something?
Your keys, or your favorite sweater or a tax form? Did you notice that when you stopped feverishly searching and pacing about in a frantic frenzy that you were more likely to discover what you were looking for? How many of us have learned to sit quietly, when we find that feeling of “I’ve got to find it” washing over us? If you sit quietly, instead of running about, your mind relaxes. As your mind relaxes, you contemplate where you last saw it. Then, your subconscious mind and memory formulate specific places it “might be”. After you breathe and relax some more, or think about other things, the location will surface and you will go right to it. You don’t consciously recall it. You can’t say how you knew where it was ( after looking for hours and turning the house, car and every nook and cranny upside down without success), but you know that it couldn’t have gone anywhere on its own and it HAS TO BE THERE. That confidence, that you will find it and you don’t have to worry, is your source. Your inner self is telling you to go sit down and let the answer come to you. You cannot hear, when your mind is chattering. You cannot find, when you are looking in the wrong places.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwqV0QU0i8&feature=related
When the student is ready, the teacher will arrive. A time tested and proven “old saying”.
You have a multitude of questions, But there is only one answer: The road is right in front of you, And the guide is waiting for you. How can it be that to a multitude of questions there is only one answer? Perhaps we are offered a clue to this mystery in the Isha Upanishad: “In the heart of all things, of whatever is in the universe, dwells the Lord. He alone is reality.” To truly know something, we must probe to its very heart. That is how we will find the answers to our questions. The poet William Blake wrote: To see a world in a grain of sand And a Heaven in a wild flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. The road to knowledge and understanding is right in front of us. Whatever question we pursue wholeheartedly will bring us to the ultimate truth of life. Inactivity will not bring us towards our goal. Only when we begin to move do we discover the answer. The road, the path we must take, is directly in front of us: it is in an awareness of our lives, thoughts, actions and circumstances that we can discover the essence of life.
http://www.wisdomofyoga.org/teachers
When you are ready to learn something, the world moves in sync with your wishes. You don’t realize it but you are making it all happen. The teacher is not some external object or person, its the symphony of your reactions and your internal guidance vibrating to a certain rhythm. When you integrate the new information and increase your awareness, your reactions become more intelligent and focused. You are unconsciously working out your questions, like we often do in dreams.
Almost as if by magic people and situations are drawn to you and you find yourself constantly in the right place at the right time. You think you are just lucky- but what you want and what is happening are in perfect alignment. The reality is -we- are both teacher and student. And, we have the inherent ability-” to seek and find”- answers to our own questions.
Do you dream? When you wake up, do you let yourself ask “why did I dream that?, what am I struggling with , that disturbs my sleep? what could I learn from this?”
What would you think if a friend told you she had a night full of dreams covering multiple scenarios, but one stood out and it reflected a recurrent dream. She was driving and she recognized the exact location, although the landscape was slightly different from her childhood. Where homes had been, there was one large parking lot. She drove across one bridge onto an isthmus of land that was situated between two bridges. The time to transit this small area was less than 3 min, but in the dream, time stood still on the land separating the two bridges. She first noticed the parking lot to the right. Waves were washing in from a usually quiet creek. It looked like cars were driving playfully into the edge of the waves. Then, she looked off to the left and saw the water over the roadway of the bridge she had yet to cross to reach her destination. The cars were floating forward across the bridge, in formation moving at a reasonable pace in the water, but there was no rhyme or reason and no visible bridge structure. She wondered how that was happening, it was mid-day, not a cloud in the sky, no weather channel warnings, the water wasn’t rough and the wind wasn’t blowing- but then her eyes moved right. The cars on the edge of the parking lot at the base of the bridge were being washed out and the land was disappearing. They were floating. In that split second, she realized there was a child passenger in her car. Sitting beside her was a little girl, who seemed familiar. The little girl, was this same grown lady- just as she had been 45 years ago. The child was calmly waiting for her to find a way out of the “situation”. As the dreamer looked at her choices, water breeching the bridge ahead, water covering the parking lot to the right, she looked behind her and water had breeched the bridge where she had come from. There was no way out. At that moment, the car started sounding like it was breaking apart as a wave washed it ever outward and she lost traction. At that moment, her chief thought was, “How did I get in this situation?” Not, how do I get out, that was left to fate. It was also concern for the child. “Can this little girl swim, do we have a flotation device, where can I put this child or what can I do to give her the best chance of survival?” Thankfully, as usual, we wake up when we’ve gone as far as we can without dying….in these kinds of dreams. If you were in tune with subconscious thougths, you’d quickly tell the dreamer-
“You have found yourself in uncharted territory, traveling in a seemingly familiar area, but with surprises you couldn’t possibly imagine”. Perhaps you should look at where you are and what you fear- maybe not knowing what to do and being surrounded by frightening choices- dabbling along the edge of what seems to be innocuous but threatens your inner child? Who could tell this dreamer better than she herself, what this manifestation of her subconscious really means? What kinds of feelings it evoked, what real life situations came instantly to mind upon awakening or continuing to reflect on the images? Could it be that she was feeling “washed away” defined as “to move or be moved by water” by events out of her control? Only the one experiencing the dream, can answer.
Use widsom, experience and trustworthy sources to guide you in finding the answers to your questions. Then, honor those who have helped you by sharing your heartfelt lived answers with others, when they seek your guidance.
Everthing within the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself. -Rumi