Best questions for introspection?

[Stick]

what are the best questions to ask ourselves? the best ones, I will ask my self tonight lol

[WonderSeeker]

Depends on what you want to know.

"What do I want to know?"

"What's something that bothers me and how can I get to the bottom of it?"

"What do I want out of life?"

People are gonna flood this thread with what they think is best. But I'd start with you. What do you want to know personally?

Edited 10 hours ago by WonderSeeker

[Leo Gura]

You need to be asking whatever is most interesting to you.

It does no good asking questions you don't care about.

[Rishabh R]

@Stick In my experience asking these questions is great.

How do I live the best life possible ?

What is the most wisest way to live life ?

What if I'm wrong ? 

[Stick]

Dang! Thanks so much for the replies but it seems like I have failed to translate my intention into words.
I meant that I was gonna do meditation today and what would be the best question to be more aware. 
things like "Am I aware?" or "Where are these thoughts coming from" work really great but I would love to view what kind of questions you guys have stacked in your resume after years of this work.
Cheers!!

[Human Mint]

With introspection?

I would go with questions like:

How is best to do introspection? What is keeping me from doing good introspection? Where can this lead me?

I personally like those more general questions.

[Hojo]

How can I know the qualia of nothing if it dosent exist in physical reality.

[UnbornTao]

8 hours ago, Stick said:

what are the best questions to ask ourselves?

Ask that. But your assessment of 'best' will be decided according to your own criteria, based on your personal values.

Make it real and about your experience.

For example: What is pain? Look into that as you sit bored and pained by having no distractions.

Edited 2 hours ago by UnbornTao

[Sincerity]

6 hours ago, Stick said:

Dang! Thanks so much for the replies but it seems like I have failed to translate my intention into words.
I meant that I was gonna do meditation today and what would be the best question to be more aware. 
things like "Am I aware?" or "Where are these thoughts coming from" work really great but I would love to view what kind of questions you guys have stacked in your resume after years of this work.
Cheers!!

What am I?

It’s the #1, bullseye question for me. But one meditation ain’t gonna do nothing. It takes practice.

Optionally: Who is seeing this thought?

Edited 1 hour ago by Sincerity

[UnbornTao]

4 minutes ago, Sincerity said:

What am I?

It’s the #1, bullseye question for me. But one meditation ain’t gonna do nothing. It takes practice.

'Who' first.

[Sincerity]

Just now, UnbornTao said:

'Who' first.

Doesn’t resonate. „What” works.  

[UnbornTao]

6 hours ago, Stick said:

Dang! Thanks so much for the replies but it seems like I have failed to translate my intention into words.
I meant that I was gonna do meditation today and what would be the best question to be more aware. 
things like "Am I aware?" or "Where are these thoughts coming from" work really great but I would love to view what kind of questions you guys have stacked in your resume after years of this work.
Cheers!!

If it is a meditation, then maybe focus on "what is the act of being aware of being aware?"

Or again, focus on what's present in your experience now. Just pay attention and "ask" what is there - not intellectually but actually.

Maybe it's just boredom, it doesn't have to be transcendental or fancy, just what is really going on for you.

[UnbornTao]

4 minutes ago, Sincerity said:

Doesn’t resonate. „What” works.  

"Who's the tree that is asking?" before considering what the nature of that tree is - kind of thing. If we start with what resonates the investigation is already biased from the beginning.

As an aside, if we use the question in the background to subtly validate our own already-established "knowledge," it's not really a question but a confirmation of preference, ideas, etc.

[Sincerity]

10 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

If it is a meditation, then maybe focus on "what is the act of being aware of being aware?"

That’s rather convoluted to me. Why not go direct?

Are you genuinely getting value out of this? (Whatever value means for you)

[Sincerity]

9 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

If we start with what resonates the investigation is already biased from the beginning.

Nonsense. You only ever follow what resonates. If it doesn’t resonate, reality will not move that route, until it does.

Following one’s curiosity is the key. Embracing what resonates and going fully in - and when that’s completed, something different resonates, usually „higher”. Well, that’s what works for me at least.

Edited 1 hour ago by Sincerity

[UnbornTao]

1 minute ago, Sincerity said:

That’s rather convoluted to me. Why not go direct?

Are you genuinely getting value out of this? (Whatever value means for you)

Direct relative to what? He said he wanted to become more aware, and that he was going to meditate.

I get the sense we fall into worldviews and forget that the truth doesn't fit into any of them.

Why exclude things? What are awareness, deception, fantasy, preference? What is value? Why do we like some things and not others? What is pain?

[Sincerity]

4 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

Why exclude things? What are awareness, deception, fantasy, preference? What is value? Why do we like some things and not others? What is pain?

Okay. I’d say it’s more contemplation than meditation. Sure, these overlap, but I think we can agree on a distinction.

Nothing wrong with these questions. Interesting too. But not as direct. I think we can agree that directness does exist, if we’re honest.

Edited 58 minutes ago by Sincerity

[UnbornTao]

5 minutes ago, Sincerity said:

Nonsense. You only ever follow what resonates. If it doesn’t resonate, reality will not move that route, until it does.

Following one’s curiosity is the key. Embracing what resonates and going fully in - and when that’s completed, something different resonates, usually „higher”. Well, that’s what works for me at least.

It actually makes complete sense, if what's actually true is the goal. (Not our mental picture of "the truth.")

Of course we don't want to investigate what pain or hate are, for example. We want love and spiritualism and to feel good. But this will subtly and grossly taint the investigation throughout.

What is dislike?

[UnbornTao]

8 minutes ago, Sincerity said:

Okay. I’d say it’s more contemplation than meditation. Sure, these overlap, but I think we can agree on a distinction.

Nothing wrong with these questions. Interesting too. But not as direct.

My questions above, yes.

If what you want is to become more aware, there are better questions for that than 'what am I?' For example: What is attention? What is awareness? 

Edited 49 minutes ago by UnbornTao

[Sincerity]

6 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

Of course we don't want to investigate what pain or hate are, for example. We want love and spiritualism and to feel good. But this will subtly and grossly taint the investigation throughout.

I really like to dive into the „gross/difficult.” That resonates with me a lot.