Chao-ming Chen

What Are Great Questions? Questions which are important to all Questions which help to find the truth Questions which have never been asked Questions which involve the mystery of nature or

supernature Questions which nobody knows the answers to

Why Ask Questions? To know the answers? To develop the perceptive power? To create chaos? To locate wise men? To know the truth? To ask more questions?

Who Asks Questions? Wise men or ignorant people? Teachers or students? Fathers or kids? Gurus or disciples?

Types of Great Questions Religious questions:

Where did I really come from? What am I doing on earth? Where do I go when I die? What is God or what is Jesus?

Philosophical questions What is existence? (To be or not to be, Shakespeare) What is knowledge? (Socrates) What is love? (Plato)

Emotional questions Do I love him/her? Do you love me? Are you happy?

Greatest Questions Ever Asked! Sphinx’s question: What is the thing which walks on

four in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening? (Sophocles)

Jesus: “My God, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?” (New Testament)

Augustine: “What have I to say to Thee, God, save that I know not where I cam from, when I came into this life-in-death—or should I call it death-in-life?” (Confessions)

Greatest Questions Ever Asked! Who am I? or What am I (A Universal Question) (Byron) Jesus asks his disciples: "Who do you say that I am?"Matthew

16:15, New Testament Shakespeare: “To be or not to be, that is a question.” (Hamlet) Goethe: “Am I a god?” (Faust) William Blake: “Did he who made the Lamb make thee [the tiger]?”

(Song of Experience) Shelley: “If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” Shelley: “No change, no pause, no hope!---Yet I endure. I ask the

Earth, have not the mountains felt? I ask you Heaven—the all-beholding Sun. Has it not seen? (Prometheus Unbound)

周瑜：“既生瑜，何生亮？“

Some Contemporary Questions! Primative. 1) How long do you think this ice will last? 2) Who let the bear in my cave? 3) Who's turn is it to hunt the Rex?

Roman. 1) Do I have to sit next to Brutus? 2) Can Nero fiddle or what? 3) Why do I always have to sit in the back of the chariot?

Middle ages. 1) I ask you again Marie, Do you really think cake is worth losing your head

over? 2) What are the symptoms of plague again? 3) If I ring the bell, will you tell them I'm not really a hunchback?

Age of enlightenment. 1) Is this all I am, is there nothing more? 2) Are we alone in the universe? 3) What do you mean I'm not the center of the universe?

Industrial Revolution. 1) Daddy, what's a sweatshop? 2) Does it run on gasoline? 3) You think this horseless carriage is just a passing fancy?

Depression era. 1) Brother can you spare a dime? 2) Did you know Churchil was born in a lavatory? 3) Will social security work?

1960's 1) Mom, can I send my sister to the moon? 2) Dude, what is this stuff? 3) What's wrong with Dallas?

1980's 1) Is the President asleep? 2) How much did you make in real estate? 3) Can I be a yuppie too?

Modern. 1) What’s wrong with Bush? 2) Where did I park my car? 3) What should I wear tonight?

Ask Questions? Or Answer Questions? Questions leading to individual paths! Questions leading to the truth! Questions leading to more questions! Questions leading to the unknown!

To ask or not to ask To answer or not to answer

Now, it’s your turn to ask some great questions!

Why great?