Aspiring for the Ultimate

Preparatory Inquiry

The following questions are designed to enhance your capacity for self-reflection and to encourage you to use your own experience as a guide. Write your responses down so that you can review them later.

1. Describe the circumstances that first prompted your interest in spirituality. What people, places or events were associated with your first exposure to spirituality? What or who contributed to the further development of your interest?
2. You may have read, explored or tried different religious and spiritual practices. What were you looking for in your search? What were the criteria that you used to evaluate those religious and spiritual practices?
3. Describe the need or aspiration that prompts you to seek a method of meditation. What do you aspire for? What goal do you want to achieve? What benefit do you expect to reap? How would you or your circumstances be changed if this aspiration could be attained? Specify what would be different about your life.