Conscious Questioning
Ajahn Munindo
Conscious questioning as a form of meditation is nothing new. Lots of people use it as a way of directing their interest and travelling the inner journey.
Asking the right question, your own question, is an important part of practice. There are times when concentrating on a meditation object is a pleasant, agreeable thing to do; but maybe we should see it like Ajahn Thate. He used to tell monks that for them entering samādhi was like going on a holiday; he would encourage it. But going on holiday is going on holiday; it isn’t work.
Some of the most interesting work I do is asking questions like, ‘Who’s aware?’ It’s pleasing to think about the architectural plans for developing the monastery, but the more valuable work is asking inner questions: ‘Who?’ ‘Who’s asking the question?’ That’s an extremely interesting question, if it’s asked in the right way and not because I or somebody else told you to ask it.
The mind is longing to ask such questions. Many people see their mind as an enemy. All they want to do is make their mind shut up, so they concentrate, concentrate, concentrate, in pursuit of peace. It’s true that quietening the mind and concentration are part of practice, but only part of it. There are other aspects as well. Maybe you can make your mind your friend. Your friend the mind might really want to share this journey with you and have interesting contributions to make.
There are traditions where teachers specifically encourage asking questions. Again, we need to take care that we don’t turn this into another technique applied in a perfunctory manner. Asked in the right way, at the right time, in the right direction, our heart-question will begin to tease out the tangled threads of contracted egoity.
Master Hsu Yun, the great Chinese Ch’an meditation master, used the technique of asking ‘Who?’ called in Chinese hua-tou, the profound question practice. When Ajahn Fun, a disciple of Ajahn Mun, was caught up in fear in practice, he went to consult Ajahn Mun. Ajahn Mun didn’t just say, ‘Go and concentrate on your breath.’ He asked Ajahn Fan, ‘Who’s afraid?’
Remember these ‘pointings’ to the way are not to be grasped. If they are clung to, they will be deluded ego building itself yet another shelter. Don’t grasp the idea of asking the question, ‘Who?’ It’s not the mind itself that is the problem; what we need to deal with is the deluded ego, self-centredness. That’s our issue; all our energy is being gobbled up by this construction. So how do we release that energy; how do we undo it?
There’s certainly a stage where learning to bring the mind to one-pointedness, to steadiness, is needed. That’s one aspect of our training, but do we take it all the way? Not necessarily, not everybody. Some people may take that form of meditation nearly all the way.
And I’m told that at the very last stage of practice, at just the right time, they ask some very subtle questions and the whole tangle unravels; they find the freedom they’ve been seeking.
But that may not be the way for all of us. Indeed, I suspect it’s not the way for many of us.
This reflection by Ajahn Munindo is from the article “The Art of Meditation,” (pdf) pgs 5-6.
