Ask a Beautiful Question

From Alice Paul Roderick

The idea that you know what is true is dangerous, for it keeps you imprisoned in the mind. It is when you do not know, that you are free to investigate.

~Nisargadatta

*

The poet David Whyte often speaks of “questions that have no right to go away,” which is a bold invitation in a culture that is built on certainty and bottom-lines.

He says we would do well to shift our emphasis to the “art of asking beautiful questions,” because the question itself is what shapes our identity.

So in those crucial times when we feel pressured to decide between left or right, we can be sure that our question needs ripening. This means letting go of the way we have been having the conversation, and finding a way to “walk between things.”

~ Toko-pa Turner

*

The ladder whose ascent implies spiritual progress has a long pedigree. The Hebrews, Greeks, and Christians all gave special value to the heights…By the last century, growth became inexorably caught in this ascensionist fantasy. Darwin’s thesis, The Descent of Man, became, in our minds, the ascent of man…By now, the upward idea of growth has become a biographical cliché…

Hasn’t something critical been omitted in the ascensionist model? Birthing. Normally we come into…