I’ve done a few of these posts that list questions without answers.

Flickr photo by Brian Hillegas

The Thinker

This one is a list of reflective questions, meant to get us thinking about ourselves and our relationships to the people and things of the world. Greater self awareness is possible through exploring questions like these, and there perhaps some new ideas here which you haven’t been exposed to previously.

If you have sometimes felt like a puppet controlled by people and events who hold the strings, is it possible that you tied the strings to yourself and can untie them when you wish?

If you need to use a saw to cut wood but see that you are not the saw, why when you need to think to do things in the world do you mistake yourself for the thoughts and ideas you use?

Can you sit quietly and watch a thought or feeling arise in you – and then choose to not do its bidding?

Are we seeing the truth in our complaints, or do low-level thoughts color what is seen in order to validate themselves?

Are our ideas of how things are “supposed to be” of any real spiritual use, or are they exactly what keeps us forever discontented with and ungrateful for the way things are?

How many millions of people will drive by a homeless man or woman this Sunday, on their way to hear the sermon of the Good Samaritan? Will one of them be you?

Is morality something which is inherent in us as humans, or do we have to be morally “educated” to have a conscience?

Is our desire for an inviolable moral code which can be put into words really a desire to avoid the responsibility of carefully considering what is the right thing to do in each and every difficult situation?

Where in your religion or in your heart does it say that to love another he or she must be lovable?

When you look at a possible job or a business, do you ask what value you can offer in exchange for the money you hope to make, or do you just look for the quickest and easiest way to get it?

Are goals merely whims if you do not do the things necessary to accomplish them?

If you look at your life as a story in a book, who would you say are the authors?

What step toward something good have you taken today?

If you want to ad to this list of reflective questions, please do so below.