Reflect means grasping the totality of a situation, especially our own role in producing it

 

 

What do you really know? Anything?
What can you say for sure, without any doubt? In what way and at what level do you know that? Is it a personal experience? An idea or belief that you’ve been taught or told? Is it something that you found out for yourself? In what way?

What do you idolize?
In what ways are you devoted to matters of secondary importance?
“What is an idol? A thing, a force, a person, a group, an institution or an ideal, regarded as supreme. God alone is supreme. The prophet abhors idolatry. He refuses to regard the instrumental as final, the temporal as ultimate.”
Abraham Heschel, God in Search of Man, 415

Can you accept yourself in your wretchedness?
“To accept himself in all his wretchedness is the hardest of tasks, and one which it is almost impossible to fulfill. The very thought can make us livid with fear. We therefore do not hesitate, but lightheartedly choose the complicated course of remaining in ignorance about ourselves while busying ourselves with other people and their troubles and sins.”
Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul

What is illusory in your life?
“Humbling oneself, expressing gratitude, and admiring another are worldly pleasures.” Rumi, Signs of the Unseen, chap. 26, page 114. “So long as any of those original joys remain in your stomach you will not be given anything to eat.” Rumi, Sign of the Unseen, chap. 26, page 120.

What authority to you submit to?
“Most of us are satisfied with authority because it gives us a continuity, a certainty, a sense of being protected. But a man who would understand the implications of this deep psychological revolution must be free of authority, must he not? He cannot look to any authority, whether of his own creation or imposed upon him by another. And is this possible? Is it possible for me not to rely on the authority of my own experience? Even when I have rejected all the outward expressions of authority—books, teachers, priests, churches, beliefs—I still have the feeling that at least I can rely on my own judgment, on my own experiences, on my own analysis. But can I rely on my experience, on my judgment, on my analysis? My experience is the result of my conditioning, just as yours is the result of your conditioning, is it not? I may have been brought up as a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Hindu, and my experience will depend on my cultural, economic, social, and religious background, just as yours will. And can I rely on that? Can I rely for guidance, for hope, for the vision which will give me faith in my own judgment, which again is the result of accumulated memories, experiences, the conditioning of the past meeting the present?... Now, when I have put all these questions to myself and I am aware of this problem, I see there can only be one state in which reality, newness, can come into being, which brings about a revolution. That state is when the mind is completely empty of the past, when there is no analyzer, no experience, no judgment, no authority of any kind.”
J. Krishnamurti, January 22, The Book of Life

What are you willing to sacrifice?
"If you want to help, share something of yourself – not from your abundance – but until it hurts. Give what costs you – make a sacrifice – do without something you like, so you may share what you have saved thus with those who do not even have what they need. Then your giving will be true giving – loving until it hurts... Be God's hands to serve the poor in your spare time, and be His heart to love the poorest of the poor all the time." Mother Teresa, Stories