THE LINEAGE OF QUESTIONS
Seven Questions
for the Week
ongo.blog/aporia · October 28, 2026
Seven questions for the week ahead. One a day is plenty — read the question in the morning, carry it through the day, and return in the evening to fill the blank lines. It is fine to leave a day unfinished. A question only deepens when it stays beside you a while.
Three hundred sixty-five such questions live in The Lineage of Questions.
Seven Questions of the Week
The Lineage of Questions · Day 105
If even a sick, bent, twisted body is what the maker gave — do I resent this body that will not obey me, or accept it?
If in time my left arm were transformed into a rooster, I would use it to call the dawn.
First asked by Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi's question — accepting whatever the body becomes — sits within the lineage divided over one's stance before the body's transformation and ill…
✍️ Your Answer
There is no right answer — you need not fill every line.
Seven Questions of the Week
The Lineage of Questions · Day 106
If my body was received and passed on from my parents — is it entirely my possession, or does it belong to something beyond me?
Body, hair, and skin are received from one's parents; not daring to harm them is the beginning of filial care.
First asked by The author of the "Classic of…
The Classic's question — that the body is received from parents — sits within the lineage split over ownership of the body.
✍️ Your Answer
There is no right answer — you need not fill every line.
Seven Questions of the Week
The Lineage of Questions · Day 107
Looking back at life's end on a body guarded carefully all one's life — what will I say of how I lived this body?
Look at my feet, look at my hands… now, and from now on, I know I am freed (from the fear of harming it).
First asked by Zengzi
Zengzi's deathbed — finishing life with the body kept whole — sits within the lineage of one's stance toward the body.
✍️ Your Answer
There is no right answer — you need not fill every line.
Seven Questions of the Week
The Lineage of Questions · Day 108
If pleasure is complete in the absence of pain — do I tell the craving that has no end from the satisfaction that stops once filled?
The limit of the magnitude of pleasure is the removal of all pain.
First asked by Epicurus
Epicurus' question — that pleasure has a limit — sits within the lineage split over desire and satisfaction.
✍️ Your Answer
There is no right answer — you need not fill every line.
Seven Questions of the Week
The Lineage of Questions · Day 109
If this body comes from dust and returns to dust — does that finitude make life empty, or make it precious?
All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
First asked by The Preacher (Qoheleth)
The Preacher's gaze — that all return to dust — sits within the lineage of how to accept the body's finitude.
✍️ Your Answer
There is no right answer — you need not fill every line.
Seven Questions of the Week
The Lineage of Questions · Day 110
If the sweat of the brow and the return to dust were given together — are the body's toil and finitude a punishment, or the human condition?
For dust you are, and unto dust you shall return.
First asked by The author of Genesis
Genesis' declaration — you shall return to dust — sits within the lineage of how to understand the body's toil and death.
✍️ Your Answer
There is no right answer — you need not fill every line.
Seven Questions of the Week
The Lineage of Questions · Day 111
If seeing a child drink from its hands made him throw away even his cup — how little does my body truly need?
Seeing a child drink from its hands, he threw away the cup from his bag.
First asked by Diogenes the Cynic
Diogenes' experiment — that the body needs little — sits within the lineage split over possession and need.
✍️ Your Answer
There is no right answer — you need not fill every line.