What is the question that I am trying to answer?

I had a wonderful time chatting about the truth today with my neighbor friend, Samoan.

We talked about evil, free will, and awakening, among other things. At some point in the conversation I said to my friend that she needs to do an investigation. I gave her a choice of possible questions to answer. I encouraged her to pick one.

1) What was here first, matter or consciousness?

2) Is Consciousness limited or not?

3) Is this a dream?

What I like about the path of intelligence is that the more we investigate, the more true the truth will become. Likewise, the more we investigate, the more the lie will be revealed as not true.

It therefore follows that if we do a real investigation at some point we will need to choose. Ignorance or Intelligence? Direct experience or beliefs? (It's always God's choice BTW). In response to a question that I asked Francis onetime, he said "At some point we need to choose what we are"

The question that Francis Lucille most often encourages his students to answer is this:

"Is Consciousness limited?"

It's a fantastic question. We assume that it is limited, and located, and separate. Is this true? How do I find out? Do I understand the question?

Unfortunately, I think that most investigations never get off the ground. They never start for some reason. Perhaps Samoan can explain to me why? (since I don't think she has started).

Regarding the rare truth seeker's investigation that actually does take flight....what are it's chances of succeeding? I don't know but I would guess that most fail. The reason for the low success rate has everything to do with their existing biases.

Who? Me? I'm not biased. That's what we all think about ourselves isn't it? It's kind of funny. How could we not have biases? I always strive to be unbiased but it seems pretty normal to me (and perhaps healthy) to have some biases. For example, I will probably not lend money again to a person that did not pay me back the last time.

Samoan's investigation probably hasn't started because she already knows the answer.

You see, my friend deeply believes that she is an old woman. If we start our investigation from this point of view, we are kind of wasting our time....it's not really a true investigation.

Unfortunately, like all of us that grew up in this material world, Samoan is incredibly biased. She believes all kinds of things. For example, she deeply believes that time & space is some kind of baseline reality. She believes that she is an object that has it's own consciousness existing temporarily...a tiny fragment in a gigantic universe. You get the idea? You fill in the blanks as to what you believe. Writing them down is probably a good idea.

The problem isn't what we don't know. The problem is what we are certain to be true, but just ain't so. So I need to ask myself, am I digging deep enough into my investigation?

Can I truly start from the the not-knowing-what-I-am? Once I understand the other possibility, can I experientially travel there? For example, what happens when I remove the concept of time from my perceptions?

Lately I've been contemplating the following theory of mine. The theory I propose is that successful awakening is guaranteed if the student A) Understands the question and B) Takes the question seriously.

A) Understanding the question requires enthusiasm and intelligence. We all have the necessary level of intelligence to discriminate our experience. But if I don't have enthusiasm, I won't take the time to understand the question.

B) Taking the question seriously requires interest and openness. This may also require some courage. Why? Because the answers can be unsettling. As Jesus apparently said in Gospel of Thomas, "At first you will be disturbed"

In other words, am I open to another possibility? Do I understanding that other possibility? Do I care enough to investigate?

I can think of lots of different questions to ask. I would like to suggest to my friend that she answer the following question:

Is Samoan a thing, or a thought?

I'm saying that it's one or the other.

Am I being clear? Does this make sense? Is the question understood? Do I take it seriously enough to investigate? Am I open to the 50-50 possibility that it could be either? If yes....then awakening is just a matter of when, not if.

I like my question because it does a better job of moving the person away from their biased point of view. It also helps add clarity, otherwise, we might be digging in the wrong direction. In fact, the digging itself is usually just re-enforcing the root of the problem. In other words, the act of digging often has the inadvertent effect of creating the digger.

I also like my question because it is new and fresh and therefore delicious.

I also like my question because it is perhaps less vague than "Is Consciousness limited or not?" For some people, asking that question might be like me asking myself "Is matter a wave or a particle?" What the hell is a particle? Likewise, one of my friends might equally say "What the hell is Consciousness?"

On the contrary, I know with crystal clarity who Samoan (or Scott) is. She is...fill in the blanks. Whatever follows is what you believe. Is that true? How do I find out?

Whatever question we choose to answer, what's key is truly starting from the not knowing. I do my best to always be 50-50 when I run experiments. All of these questions have the potential to lead a truth seeker to a glimpse. As Francis says, "it's always the same glimpse"

Perhaps the point of the blog is for a truth seeker to understand why most investigations fail. In other words, the main obstacle to awakening is that the person wanting to awaken is not what she believes herself to be. Unfortunately, the seeking itself often reinforces existing beliefs about the self.

We need to investigate until we are certain either way. Eventually the digging stops naturally on its own when we realize that the investigator is an illusion. (If you believe that you have free will then you need to keep investigating).

Follow-up 3 days later after draft blog:

It just occurred to me that I've been using this question the past few days to take me to the glimpse. In other words, without trying, by just following my enthusiasm for the truth, I proved that my question works really well. Cool. (at least it did for me)

Asking and answering my own question reminds me of a Francis Lucille dialog on YouTube called "Finding your own answers" It also seems more obvious that it is always the One seeking itself.

"You become your own teacher...because you have your own teacher within you. Your presence, your consciousness is the teacher." - Francis Lucille