Enrich yourself by asking these profound questions. Talk about your ideas with your lover.
Mind Puzzleby Al Link and Pala Copeland, the Official Guides To Tantra
Time for Exercise:
15 minutes to one hour
Properties Required:
none
Steps:
Ask
yourself the following questions. The first question is the most
important one. All the other questions follow from that one. The first
question is: “Who am I?” Some common answers might include: your name;
your various roles (occupation, parent, child, employer, employee,
lover, spouse, friend, neighbor); your personality; your beliefs; your
values; your accomplishments; your knowledge, skills, and abilities;
your possessions; your goals and vision; your body; your thoughts; and
your feelings.
These next questions can be taken in any order. Pick and choose as you like.
What
if all of the things mentioned above were taken away from you—one at a
time, or all at once? Who would be left? Don’t let this question scare
you. Just let it play around in your consciousness and see what comes
up.
Is the “self” something that can be contained within the limits of any or all of your answers and the above categories?
Does a body have consciousness, or does consciousness occupy a body? What is consciousness?
Does the body have a soul, or does the soul have a body? What is the soul?
How
can you explain experiences when someone’s consciousness travels
through space and time separately from his body? What do such
experiences suggest about the nature of consciousness?
In what
sense is your personality only a mask you present to the world? Can you
allow yourself to change your mask? Why? When? How? What is the “self”
if you change your personality?
Is the nature of “self”
material, like matter and particles, or non-material, like energy and
consciousness? Is the “self” both material and non-material? Can the
non-material “self” exist/operate/know independent of and separated
from the material body?
What is before birth? What does the “self” come out of? What is after death? What does the “self” return to?
We know that bodies die. Can the “self” die with the body?
We
know that energy and matter cannot be destroyed. Can consciousness be
destroyed? Or like energy and matter, can it just change forms, or move
to a different place/level/reality?
If your existence is
neither limited to nor dependent upon the body, how would that change
how you live, what you decide to do or not do, how you treat the people
you love, and how you treat neighbors or strangers?
If your
existence is neither limited to nor dependent upon the body, how would
that change how you think about birth, life, and death?
Who or what is God? Can you know God as a direct personal experience?
Variation:
Talk about your ideas with your lover.
Comments:
Enrich yourself by asking these profound questions. Be open to some surprises. Let the mystery enter into your experience.
