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Asking the Right Questions and Going Beyond Question

by Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen

When first starting on the spiritual path, it is good to ask questions. Shakyamuni Buddha began his spiritual path with questions, not with answers. The first time he was able to get out of the palace and see the town, he was shocked by seeing an old man.

"What is this?" he asked. That was the beginning of his wisdom. We all have to do this.

The next time, he saw a person who was very sick. "What is this?" he asked.

"A sick man," was the answer.

"What does it mean?" That is how he started on the path.

"What is this?" he cried upon seeing a dead person, and when he was told, he again asked, "What is the meaning of this?"

He later saw a monk, meditating under a tree. "What is this?" he asked again.

He was told, "That is someone who is searching for an answer to the problems of old age, sickness and death."

So the Buddha started with questions. Doubts and questions are useful in the beginning of analysis on the path. But endless questions prevent progress. Analysis is based on assumptions and these assumptions should be examined critically. However, too many questions keep any assumption from forming and thus no analysis is possible. At some point, a decision as to your position must be taken, even if it is proven wrong later. In fact, it will not have the chance to be proven wrong if it is not clearly articulated and set forth. Fuzzy thinking cannot be refuted because it shifts whenever you try to pick it up. To cure fuzzy thinking, use questions at the beginning but allow yourself to rest in whatever seems to make sense to you after some analysis. Doubt can keep you going in circles, and too much questioning will actually obstruct reaching a conclusion.

This idea was driven home for me once after great effort in thinking. A few years ago, I went to Drebung, one of the great Gelukpa monasteries, for a debate competition that involved the other Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Two other monks and I represented the Kagyu school.  We three debated over one thousand Gelug monks. On one particular topic, we debated intensively for ten days. A khenpo from Drupa Kagyu, another student of my root teacher Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamsto Rinpoche, sat in the audience and listened. He did not participate but I was interested in his opinion of the debates. At the end of the competition, we ate lunch together at a restaurant and I asked him what he thought.

“It was a very good debate,” he said, “especially the topic which took ten days, but you can resolve that same issue in much less time!”

I laughed, but it was helpful to me to see that at some point the questioning must stop.

Later I had another experience which gets to the same idea.  Some of my Zen friends tell me that they sometimes spend months on one koan, a Zen Buddhist riddle. One particular koan that I remember was, “When the golden lion roars, what is your response?” What could it mean? One of my friends had struggled for many weeks with this riddle and came to discuss it with me. We reviewed all the possible meanings of the question, and pondered the symbolism of the lion.

Finally, I said, “How about asking your teacher what the lion symbolizes?”

He wanted to understand it on his own but eventually gave up and asked his teacher. He then returned to tell me that his teacher had responded that the student did the right thing: the point of the riddle was that sometimes you have to ask for the meaning of the koan. 

In the same way, when you do analytical meditation, it is good to ponder on your own, but sometimes you need clarification. It is good to have doubts, but it is also necessary to take a position. You can question your assumptions, but then you need to assume something and go forward. Endless circling is another way of describing samsara, that state of suffering which we seek to escape.

The use of doubt also differs depending on whether one is studying or meditating. When studying, it is good to engage in all sorts of arguments and use a great variety of reasonings. The students compare different, competing ideas and debate. On the other hand, when meditating, it is more useful to not use a variety of arguments. Pick one reasoning and meditate on just that. In one session, focus on a single idea throughout the session.

When studying, all these reasons are like having a bunch of ants in a bowl. They are crawling over one another and fighting and trying to get to the top. This is useful in debate and study but not in analytical meditation. In meditation, too many competing ideas can lead to useless wandering. For example, we might feel a bit fickle when we do not immediately have success with one particular argument, and the thought arises to pick a different idea. But when that new idea does not seem to be working either, we try another. We end up moving through a whole series of arguments without ever coming to a conclusion and thus never resting in the confidence of having found certainty. This is not beneficial in meditation.