Right question
I never quite understood what he meant here:
TWO IMPORTANT POINTS ARE TOUCHED upon by U.G. Krishnamurti in the preceding chapter, as shown in the following four excerpts:
If somebody asks me a question suddenly, I try to answer, emphasizing and pointing out that there is no answer to that question. So, I merely rephrase, restructure and throw the same question back at you.
What exactly is the question? Because the answer is there; I don't have to give the answer. What I usually do is restructure the question, rephrase it in such a way that the question appears senseless to you.
Understanding is a state of being where the question isn't there any more; there is nothing there that says “now I understand!”
It is the questioner that creates the answer, and the questioner comes into being from the answer, otherwise there is no questioner.... That's all that I am interested in in this kind of a dialogue: to help you to formulate your own question. Try and formulate a question which you can call your own.
First, the question itself is the obstacle to progress, not lack of an answer. The question is the key. Once we truly understand the question, we'll have the desired answer. The desired answer is always the removal of the obstruction a correct question represents. The question, understood correctly, is the obstruction. If it's not, see the second point.
Second, come up with the right question. There's always only one. Wherever you are right now is where you're stuck, and the only question that ever matters is the one that gets you unstuck, that takes you one step further. All other questions are fear-based ego-sparing time-killers. Forget concepts and ideas, forget past and future, forget mankind and society, forget God and love, forget truth and spirituality. Find that one question; the exact question that ego doesn't want you to ask. Put your full attention on it. That's how progress is made. Everything else is a stall tactic.
To move forward, you must figure out exactly what is obstructing you. Whatever it is, it isn't really there; it has no reality, no substance. It's your own creation, a phantom lurking in the shadows of your mind, a shadow demon. Your obstructions are your demons, and your demons are shadow dwellers. They live and thrive in the half-light of ignorance, so the way to slay a demon is by illuminating it with the full force and power of your focused attention; by looking at it, hard. Banish shadow with light and see for yourself that no obstruction exists, nor ever did. We create our demons and we feed them. To awaken we must slay them. That's really the whole process: Slay one demon, take one step.
Repeat.
I can read it. Understand it. I just don't quite get what he MEANS by it.
Anyone wants to chip in?