Question

How can I cope with the self-aversion that I feel. When I can't think of any questions?

Answer

You were obviously not feeling self-aversion when you put this in the box. Self-aversion doesn't help at all. Period. Did Rosemary tell you in the talk on the first night what happens if you don't have questions? In the Scriptures, somebody comes to the Buddha, and they ask, what is the cause for a person to be born beautiful, ugly, wise, smart, rich or poor, and lots of Kammic questions. The Buddha explained each one. And when he got to "wise or stupid", he said that a person is born stupid if they have chances to ask questions to their teachers, yet they never ask them. And a person is born wise if they always take the opportunity to ask questions to their teachers.

So let's think about how that works. You're sitting here for almost 45 minutes listening to questions and answers. Have you gained any wisdom during this time? Shake your head if you didn't. Okay, I did my job. Now imagine, what would happen, if you would sit here for 45 minutes, and I wouldn't say anything? As to learning anything new from me, you wouldn't. Maybe in your meditation you might have, maybe not. You just might have had wandering thoughts or whatever. But the thing is, there is less chance of getting any wisdom growth if there are no questions and answers going on.

In the scriptures, the Buddha said that they are two ways of developing wisdom. One is through Wise Reflection (Yonisomanasikara), and one is through listening to others. We have to reflect on what we hear. If you remember that you gain something whenever you ask a question, you won't miss an opportunity to ask. Even if it is a question you might have asked or read before, or one for which you think you already know the answer, go ahead and ask. You might discover that there is more to the answer, or another way to approach the question that you hadn't thought of.

So reflect that by asking questions you get something, and if you don't ask questions you may miss out on something. If you encourage this as a thought within yourself, there may not be as much hesitation. There may not be any chance of developing self-aversion, because you will think of at least one question.

Consider the statement "I can't think of any question". Why not? Go through the Ten Paramis. Which one are you not sure of? Go through your life. What about your activities at home? How does this Parami relate to your activities at home? Start to mix and match things so that you end up with a question. Get those thoughts going and your questions will come, too.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.