Inquiry Teachings From "Ask Anyone Anything?..." Live Event

To give the core inquiry teachings provided in this April 26th Insight Timer live event a call-in via the Wisdom app is edited out as well as my multiple repeats of the changes surrounding the monthly Ask Us Anything shows. (It's based mostly on two past blog posts while only including minor live relevant feedback/audience comments)

Transcript

Alnest and welcome.

This is Josh Dippold,

Integratingpresence.

Com.

Today's title is Ask Anyone Anything With Whom?

Potential Ask Us Anything Live Restart.

Okay,

So the main teaching here,

Why and why not to inquire,

Is one of the blog posts that I've had in the past,

And then possibly be drawing on wisdom snippets,

Inquiry and investigation.

This has been a big part of my path is inquiry and investigation.

So I think a good starting point for all this would be just the public schooling system.

Probably many people listening this,

If they haven't been involved directly with the public schooling system,

Then they know plenty of people who have.

And I will just give my experience,

Which will show my age here,

Date me a little bit,

Is that I went through high school in the public schooling system in the 90s,

Mid to late 90s,

Let's just say.

And you know what I get with investigation is,

Well you get people that are like teachers pets,

Right?

They'll ask questions to,

You know,

Get admiration and affection from the teacher,

Asking a custom question like that,

And you know getting a pre-prescribed answer in a really,

You know,

Formatted way in a box.

Then you've got people that are rebels that will like just ask basically to piss people off,

To harm,

For kicks or whatever like that.

So those are two main types that I'm familiar with,

And there's plenty more.

Well you know the classic one where the teacher will call on you and then you have to answer or what the dreaded,

Oh don't call on me,

Kind of thing.

But so that whole thing I feel is structured in where the teacher in the public schooling system is the authority and it's handed down from them.

And so a lot of times it's taken as a challenge if a question's asked,

Like oh you're challenging my authority,

You're challenging my knowledge,

I might look stupid,

I might have not the right answer that people want to hear,

And if I don't know then people will think that I'm you know not qualified to teach or whatever.

And so this dynamic I feel runs rampant or did when I went to school if I'm not completely off.

And so that mentality is taken forward after school.

So now if somebody comes up to just anybody that's not really considered a teacher and asks them a question,

That whole dynamic,

Unless it's been,

It's really conscious that it's going on,

It's still there,

Right?

So somebody asks a question a lot of people will take that as a challenge to them,

Like okay who do you think you are asking me a question about something?

Do you think I'm stupid or do you think I'm not,

You know,

Who do you think you are asking me a question kind of thing?

Again when people don't know they think okay well I have to kind of make something up to either look like I'm not stupid,

Look like I'm qualified or not instead of just coming off oh I don't know,

You know,

Just as simple as that.

Or they don't want to disappoint people by saying I don't know.

They feel somebody just really wants an answer to either appease their emotions or something like that kind of be mollycoddled in that way.

It's another dynamic.

When I would go even after the schooling system and go into these groups that I thought were you know they're really after truth,

They're pursuing truth at all cost,

You know,

They should encourage inquiry,

Investigation and to get after the truth,

Right?

Well no,

Unfortunately a lot of these dynamics are still in play.

Egos are involved as well in these types of situations and sometimes just questions can be really challenging and they can be really taxing on the emotions,

Personality.

People might have just a lot going on in life and questions can be really intense and they can bring up a lot of things people aren't ready to see or deal with,

Acknowledge,

Make some uncomfortable,

Trigger things in their past.

Things will come up where they're relating things to the past.

You know there might be anxiety about the future,

Come up with certain questions.

You know some people might think they're stupid for not being able to know the answer or there might be dissatisfaction and the answer is given and that might not be able to be properly expressed,

I guess integrated or handled or responded to by the questioner.

So there's all tons and tons of dynamics involved in this thing.

Nicole Amber says,

Great topic all my questions were not the type that could be answered.

Big questions and yes these are the lovely questions right and I love those because yeah and so this is even if we can't get to the answers of these just asking them I feel are really worthwhile because they show how mysterious life can be right.

They show the vastness that goes beyond just the prescribed program we're given to run with the house,

The car,

The kids,

The job,

The eat,

Sleep,

Repeat,

Entertain,

Vacation,

Maybe some time to talked about this in the past and that's all okay but for those who want to go beyond that that's kind of more what I'm looking at you know how do we address that too.

Nicole Amber says a lot of my questions start like this what if we did something totally different than yeah yeah it just so saying yeah what if we did something totally different than the way we're doing things now right what if we flipped everything upside down or started over that's right and so many people and then this is also tied to a comfort zone so a lot of these are tied to a comfort zone right and people don't they'd rather stay comfortable than even just ask these questions even some of them just a consideration can sometimes be uncomfortable with some people so when you actually start to seriously consider even just making changes or doing something different now I know for me in the past sometimes changes the ones that I wanted couldn't come quick enough though changes that I didn't want were dreadful right and then flipping everything upside down and starting over yes and especially in meditation practice just starting over being comfortable with that because how many times we have to just start over and over and over again in meditation practice just have to be it's almost be okay with infinitely starting over and turning up sight everything upside down that is pretty much given a requirement for me a lot of times because so many things are inverted reversed distorted that it just a good exercise to just look at the exact opposite the pluri and pluri and opposite of that okay so now on to this why and why not to investigate these things were triggering people when I was asking questions with them and so I how would I take responsibility for this well I had to come up with what is my intent for asking questions and I wrote here a few reasons some simple some setting a very high bar I've noticed in myself and others on perhaps why to inquire and mostly why not to inquire and ask questions this all comes with the intent of inquiry so I'm just gonna read these here first and foremost zero not having any kind of intent of harming when asking questions and it's not for to ask questions for denigration to invalidate or say something is being done wrong and that goes to the comment we just had about non-judgment right non-judgmentalism not to challenge anyone's knowledge not to discredit anyone or anything not to challenge authority not to promote one viewpoint over another not to upset the surrounding status quo and certainly not to a divide not to test anyone not for domination not for control not to inquire for distraction not for delay to delay something not to move not to question in order to mislead or misguide not to disrupt anything not for uneasiness not to enact in any agendas known or unknown or otherwise other than valid reasons to inquire a question not just ask questions for grandstanding gaining favor merit credit or brownie points not to impress anyone not to destroy anything nor to uphold anything not to rebuild or reconstruct from a place of loss or defeat so that one would be like okay so now I feel defeated I got this answer back from this question I feel defeated so now I need to rebuild or reconstruct and so I take a different approach and ask different questions and in a way I think that's what I was getting at there with that one not for any specific changes now I don't know about that one some changes need to be made but it would probably have to be agreed on before we start an inquiry right instead of just jumping in there and saying well I have this agenda of what I want to change and this is the questions I want to ask to in order to get these specific changes but I'm not going to tell what I'm trying to change if we weren't obviously what specific changes that would probably need to be clear and with the line of questioning not to question to prove who's right and who's wrong from a place of righteousness it's a big one for me especially in the past we just oh this person is not right I'm better I have the moral high ground which may or may not be true but then to go and prove that I'm right the other person's wrong people argue for days and days and days about who's right and who's wrong this next one not to ask questions in order to or inquire in order to prove one's doubt you know so we might go and doubt someone and then oh I'm gonna just find out you know whether they're whether I my doubts worthwhile right the skeptical doubts okay for getting to the truth but again this goes to proving I'm right they're wrong kind of thing not for the requirement to receive an answer so sometimes we question we will have to have an answer that's not necessarily all the alls of the case because you can it's a valid way to answer a question is by complete silence too it's one of the ways the historical Buddha was said to answer questions out of four ways one of the reasons for that is depending on the situation somebody might come in flustered want a yes or no answer to something and then either way if you answer it yes or no it's going to cause harm either way so it's staying silent in those cases can cause even less harm than answering yes or no depending on how it's how it's coming at you not for any unskillful unwise unwholesome reasons associated with modern-day schooling systems aka educational and institutions so that's a big one it's pretty vague to I don't really have time to get into all the unskillful unwise unwholesome reasons associated with modern-day schooling systems not to nitpick and get lost in the weeds so sometimes it can get into arguments and just start losing the entire main thread of why we're asking the questions right just go all over the place and start nitpicking and get things that are irrelevant also not to leave any others behind right to kind of be that star inquirer to stand out and look like I'm the best or the opposite where I just think that oh I'm not good enough I'm just gonna if I'm forced to pipsqueak up a question then I'll only if I have to this goes again to division right so you don't ask question I mean it doesn't make sense to divide people and inquiring not to patronize or speak down to anyone as well when inquiring not to dumb down oneself for a better chance to be understood or over stood that's a big one in our society to a challenging one because it seems like the news is on like a sixth grade level so people have just been kind of conditioned to not be very smart I guess just say it but then to go and dumb down oneself just because they want to be understood better it's almost condescending to have to dumb down oneself I feel a lot of times not to ask one thing but mean another so how many times in life do we see people saying one thing but meaning another thing but then actually doing something entirely different and so when that was pointed out to me it made a whole lot of sense in one way but I still haven't had an answer to that how why people say one thing won't mean another not to inquire to personally prove oneself right people are out to prove themselves not to suggest preferences or desired outcomes without clearly stating them so again this is kind of like leading the witness right in the trial or something like that where the subtext of what's going on the not directly saying but suggesting certain preferences or desired outcomes without making them clear so it's kind of a deception type thing it would be even more helpful if I could give examples but we'd be here a long time I think not to ask because one can now I don't know about that I might have changed my mind about this because if we do if we withhold on this then we could be kind of limiting ourselves the wisdom in this I feel is just kind of being reckless because you have the ability to just ask anything because I can that doesn't seem all that wise to me but at the same time basing that just on ability alone hmm I have to have to sit with that one more I guess it depends on who it's asked to to one hand we don't want to limit ourselves but on another hand yes and only be reckless number 35 here not to be seen and are heard in order to be seen heard and are seen now this is not discrediting from the fact that yes we need to be seen and heard but can that happen in other ways besides I guess forcing questions on someone just in order to be seen or heard unless it's the right appropriate space right I'm I guess I mean randomly here just for those purposes because there's other I guess more wholesome skillful ways to be seen and heard than just questioning for just that reason alone and not for just mere curiosity not for mere curiosity so I don't know if that's enough to really get a line of inquiry going just because you're curious although wow I can't believe how many times I've broken these and this is I know from experience right and of course I invite questions to these and obviously you're welcome to break these in order to question them you know so then why should we question and inquire and I posit here perhaps inquire assess and question with the intent to lean towards true knowledge liberation in the long term well-being of all so as far as I know as of now that's the main reason to engage in a line of reasoning this is one of the reasons I was drawn to Buddhism is because they have this doctrine of open inquiry and it's funny it's called a doctrine because usually doctrines are in order to put questions to rest right so you have a doctrine so everybody understands everything you don't have to question you already know with a doctrine this kind of turns it on its head and says no it's open inquiry you can ask you're encouraged to ask you have to investigate and see and know for yourself and then this is from a Suta on asking questions a n 5 165 sorry put just said all those who ask questions of another do so from any one of the five motivations which five one ask a question of another through stupidity and bewilderment one ask a question of another through evil desires and overwhelmed with greed one ask a question of another through contempt one ask a question of another when desiring knowledge or one ask a question with this thought if when asked he answers correctly well and good if not then I will answer you answer correctly for him venerable sorry poo just said to be known as foremost amongst wisdom and followers the early followers in the Buddha and then this is I did a thing on fools don't associate with fools I don't think this comes from number discourses three yoni so Suta improper so a fool is known by three things what three they ask a question improperly they answer a question improperly and when someone else answers a question properly with well-rounded coherent and relevant words and phrases they disagree with it these are the three things by which a fool is known an astute person is done by three things what three they ask a question properly they answer a question properly and when someone else answers a question properly with well-rounded coherent and relevant words and phrases they agree with it okay so this other post I have here inquiry and investigation so as I said in the last at the end of the last post here you know why even bother investigating or inquiring and it's with the intent to lean lead towards true knowledge liberation the long-term well-being of all it's also to know the truth of the way things actually are and then align with truth to bring great happiness but how and why does aligning with truth bring happiness maybe it's time to investigate that for oneself right so one of the primary draws to the Buddha Dharma I was just talking about for me is the encouragement to deeply thoroughly and fully investigate horizontally vertically and beyond there's this phrase a he Pasico it's a poly phrase basically meaning come and see for yourself you know don't take my word for it you must look into investigate so you know for yourself some of the modes of investigation I'll go into here in a second but read this quote from a John Suchito that I heard him saying in a podcast years ago I don't know if I don't think I can find the exact podcast and this is just in the middle of the talk he was given a section and he says people are prepared to transcend all moral boundaries to sustain their view and fixate upon it beyond all reason beyond investigation investigation is considered a conspiracy to actually try to find the truth is considered a deviant occupation and I love love that so much and this is the saying like I did on the truth event where a lot of people they don't really want to know the truth they just want to be reassured what they believe is true so now on to some modes of investigation so how do we actually investigate things here's some ideas for that we you can go and discover the root of something the root causes and conditions and so this can be done you know traditionally through you know other people's investigations so you listen and read and watch what other people have to say about the roots of something we can also sit and ponder this and think about it actively sit and reflect and contemplate it another the other way most people aren't taught is to go into meditation about it you just go in there with the that intent and I guess one way to do it now I don't know if this is the best way to do it or not but you can just take that as the meditation object with just holding an awareness the intent okay what am I trying to inquire and find the root of the root causes the root condition so you can just say okay I want to I would like to investigate the root causes of fill in the blank and hold that intent in awareness and just keep coming back and back to that over and over again and answers will come not necessarily in words and images although that will happen too it can kind of be like a just maybe even a download or just a knowing and the body can be involved in this too the body doesn't lie as much as the mind especially starting out the idea of muscle testing some people talk about not necessarily an act of muscle testing but along those lines of the wisdom knowledge memory intelligence inside the body another mode of investigation would be looking into the origins of things with traditional investigation who all is involved is there a who involved in this and as you go deeper and deeper into meditation start getting into some of the not self teachings and I won't go into that but that's an interesting deeper dynamic of who all is involved right beyond the just everyday mundane levels and then of course discover and examine any and all core intentions involved in what's investigated because the intention will drive decisions actions usually starts with an intention as far as I know and even if things are done by habit patterns over and over it seems at some point along the line there was an intention involved even if we learn something from our parents or grandparents or their great-grandparents at some point along the line something happened where an intention was made then an action was carried out and repeated and then that was repeated again down through the generations and tell someone well you know investigate and find out why that is and you don't have to know the exact intention or who did it but usually there's an intention involved in as far as I know in most of our actions even the repeated actions that seem to go on autopilot more or less in a way of speaking the Buddha taught about the three things gratification danger and escape so what is the gratification of whatever we're trying to investigate some kind of maybe behavior we're involved in sometimes it's easy to see you know with the gratification the benefits what we think we're benefiting from for the behavior sometimes it's elusive so investigating you know why might what's the upside what's the positive part of this and then the danger sometimes we might think something's all good but usually there's a danger involved somehow in it a lot of times so the downsides what are the danger to whatever we're investigating what we're looking into and then the escape how do you go beyond what is there an escape involved in going beyond the gratification and the danger of what we're investigating and then who benefits a lot of times I mean just in traditional life if you look in the newspaper and news you know who's benefiting from whatever's going on in the news or who's writing this kind of the agenda behind it and who's really gonna reap the benefit involved in this one of the things I learned when investigating a lot of times I would cling to having to have an answer so it's okay not to get an answer and then the other danger of this again is okay well I get one answer but then it just leads to way way way more answer questions to find more answers to or you can get a satisfactory answer but then you know there's also other answers that are involved that are pertinent and so it's like I say the only thing I really know is that the more I know the more I realize I don't know so again this is where discernment comes in and to you know prioritizing investigation well what's really important to look into and I just talked about that the beginning for me it's true knowledge liberation in the long term well-being of myself and others there's a site Buddhist inquiry org if you're looking into kind of the Buddhist way of our inquiring in what the Buddha taught was important to inquire into and I mentioned this before practice of sitting with the question holding it an awareness and meditation contemplation reflection and then inquiring about what's behind and underlying each answer so that's like peeling the layer technique so like a five-year-old kid why get an answer why get another answer well why kind of thing so we're like okay you get an answer what's under that what's under that get another answer but what's under that and so getting it down to where there really can't be any more answers to the answers or any more answers when questioning the answer again and then there's this question of feeling into the truth of something or not question but practice of feeling into the truth of something kind of an abstract thing but if you feel into something bring to mind oh well I want to feel into what it's like to be joyful so we can feel into the last time we felt really joy we can bring that memory to mind and just know the feelings of that that type of thing but with the truth you're presented with something and it just had the intention well I want to feel into the truth of that so if I could really get to the truth of whatever I'm looking into what would that feel like you know what does that feel like so feeling into the truth of something and then there's this zen practice kind of thing of actually being the koan question itself so how do you answer these almost impossible koan questions you be them what is the sound of one hand clapping will you be that question if tree falls in the woods no one's around to hear it does it really make a sound being that question we had to leave it there there's a line of inquiry I go into on a Twitter thread I included on this post but I don't it's really kind of detailed and not relevant to a general teaching so if you want to look over that and it's commenting on a sounds true episode and with that I wish you all the best in your pursuit of inquiry and investigation and any and all other required levels of consciousness and energy