There are different kind of questions. We have tricky questions, silly questions , accusational questions.
Are there right kind of questions?
I think that is an important question to ask oneself?
It seems to me that questioning your own doing is a right one.
Although K ones said that: if one could ask him the right question, he only could confirm the correctness of it never explain it.
,
When you ask a question, are you aware of the importance of that question in your relationship to reality?
If you distinguish questions according to the characteristics of tricky, stupid or accusatory, then these are external characteristics which they assign to questions. But whether or not a question is tricky is not a matter of the question, but a matter of your ability to find an answer for that question. If you play this out with the other properties, you will see that the properties they assign to questions are not actually about the question, but ultimately about your relationship to the question and the object being asked. The question of why glass is transparent seems silly to the person for whom glass is the material through which one can look. To the one who wonders how it comes about that one can see things at all, the question possibly serves a revolutionary insight into the physical.
Since we think, we see the reality in connections of things. There is e.g. a leaf and we see it in the context of say color and form. I.e. we see one thing and relate it to another. If we now ask a question, then we ask for it, how something, which is object for us, is related to other which is an abstraction. With a satisfactory answer we have knowledge. That is one side. The other side is that we behave according to what we know. The question about the nature of tomorrowâs weather, asks about the relationship of an imagined tomorrow to ideas about weather, and the answer is the basis for planning tomorrow.
But now this means that questions arise from the perception of a context of reality about which we already have ideas, but which are subject to a certain uncertainty as to their concrete expression. And this means that questioning is from the outset afflicted with generating a feeling of certainity within the world of ideas about our reality with regard to the expectations concerning the questioned object. Thinking is the desire for certainty, Krishnamurti once wrote in letters to the schools, and questioning is the expression of that desire.
That is one side of questioning. Another element comes into questioning through doubt, doubt about the truth of the reality context in which we operate and understanding the connection between psychological activity and experienced reality.
1 Like
Do I actually exist? Or is the reality of âmeâ just âpsychological activity â? Is that what âconditioning â means, the illusion of a continuous âindividualâ me apart from all else? It seems quite reasonable doesnât it? And explains a lot about our violence, fear and suffering.
Krishnamurti talks about right kind of question, I search for it.
One of my favourite kinds are those that provoke an insight about the beliefs at stake in the conversation.
This can be achieved by highlighting a potential paradox, or just asking for definitions about the terms being used - and the implications about what is being stated.
Of course, questions are only as effective as the listener - whether we are actually interested in the truth of our beliefs.
Yes sir, may I suggest something? Can we ask the right question? What do you mean by ârightâ, and what do you mean by âquestionâ? The right question will inevitably bring about the right answer. But if we ask a wrong question, that wrong question evaporates into nothingness. So can we ask the right question which will awaken our own intelligence, our own native perception? I donât know how to put all this into words.
All right, letâs begin with something. Are we sceptical?
Q: Generally only when things are bad.
K: Have we a quality of doubt which is not cynical, which is not born out of bitterness, or negligence, but the capacity to question. Not fanciful questions, not romantic questions, but questions about the way we live, the way we think, our actions, question the whole of our existence, as we live. Have we got the capacity to do that? Can we begin with that at least? The way we live, our actions which have become mechanical, our feelings, our reactions, our fears, out pleasures, the whole of our existence, can we question the way we live. Can we begin with that? What would you like to begin with, for godâs sake? (Laughs)
Tunki: One thing struck me, you mentioned that we are a slave of institutions, and all these questions, there should be one fundamental (inaudible) about the nature of us which makes us become a slave of institutions.
K: Tunki, we are old friends. Right? Do you realise the way you live - I am not being personal - do you question the way of your living, of your life, what you are doing, why you think this, why you feel that, why you have certain reactions, sexual, otherwise, question the whole thing, do you? Or do you just trot along in your old pattern which you have established for yourself, or a pattern which your father, your grandfather, your environment, has said, do this, and you follow that?
Q: I think basically we follow most of the time because we have fear of making mistakes.
K: Before you awaken to fear do you question the way of your life? Do I question my way of life? I talk everywhere, do I question it, or do I say âWell, part of my routine, I have done it for fifty, sixty years, and Iâll carry on.â Or do I say âMy god, what am I doing? Why am I doing?â
1 Like
So K is saying right kind of questions are those that question our daily life. How we talk or how we walk or how we react to words and gestures and so on. He says question all of that. Something that we are not used to as humans.
( The teachings has to be new all the time.)
1 Like