Is inquiry an actual discovery in the present moment, or an entertaining rehashing of ideas and opinions with others?
Am I looking at questions raised, through the shadows of fixed assumptions and firmly held conclusions? Am I looking “through the glass darkly”? Often, I sit in a circle and share these conclusions (subtle or otherwise) with others; and I call this, inquiry.
Or, is there a completely new way to inquire?
Is there a very different way of communicating with each other in dialogue that goes beyond a mere exchange of well-worn psychological viewpoints? Can we look more closely at something – question what we already assume it to be – so that it may appear in a completely new light?
However, our very minds are already deeply programmed to interact with others in this way! Why would conditioning stop operating just because I am involved in inquiry? Are we stuck then? Or, is inquiry the perfect space to find out about this conditioning as it is activating between us?
The conditioned mind directs us to look to others for answers; it also dictates that I blame or judge others if they fall short of this expectation. Or, I may look for an objective cause of my problems. What I “find” makes me feel safe: conveniently, I assume it to be real. I remain informed by my own assumptions and consequently, it means that I do not observe and gather information from what is actually taking place.
For example: I am confused; my mind assumes a need for clarity, without observing the fact of confusion present. We move away from the actuality of confusion and move towards its opposite. So called clarity, is born from confusion and so cannot be real clarity.
We shall be looking at all these questions, not as a conversational pursuit, but as a deeper and more serious inquiry. Looking and thinking together in dialogue, the intent is to carefully and patiently examine whether what I perceive can be faced directly. Without thought dictating what it has already understood (or concluded) a perception to be, our perception is in fact unknown and undiscovered.
Can I carefully observe and find out what makes up this very thought process? A process influencing me now and in active operation as I engage with my friends in dialogue. If I can’t, then I shall be honest and begin noticing the barriers to this attention with a fresh energy. Can a simple yet completely new observation of the old me come into operation?
Inquiry is not a stairway to heaven; it begins with seeing that first step.
To understand the mind you cannot interpret it according to somebody else’s idea, but you must observe how your own total mind works. When you know the whole process of it, how it reasons, its desires, motives, ambitions, pursuits, its envy, greed and fear; then the mind can go beyond itself, and when it does there is the discovery of something totally new.
That quality of newness gives an extraordinary passion, a tremendous enthusiasm which brings about a deep inward revolution: and it is this inward revolution which alone can transform the world not any political or economic system.
J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life
