How to study philosophy?

Is this a question as to how to begin to learn about it?
Then the answer is: begin with books that explain it simply, like The Philosopher's Toolkit, and websites like The Importance of Philosophy http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/
or just begin roaming around the Britannica Philosophy website. http://www.philosophypages.com/index.htm It is also a great place for beginners.

From there you can go anywhere your interests take you: metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, specific ideas like "transcendentalism" or "Objectivism", or specific philosophers like Ibn Rusd or Augustine or Thomas Aquinas.

But the beginners places are where you begin, or you will have no background from which to decide what it is you want from your study.

I suggest you begin with the study of yourself. What do you value in your life. What has no value to you. What are your ethics. What do you think is right for you. What do you think is wrong for you. How do you work. Are you driven by your feelings, your thoughts or your physical nature. Do you think one thing, feel about it in some way and does your body play a role in your ideas of your self. If you can do this study, you will then have a baseline with which to evaluate the philosophy of others. If you are so inclined, at that point, you can read the philosophy of those who came before you and compare their observations to your own.
A personal observation. Many philosophers come to believe that they are the ethics and morals police for humanity. You can know this because they will tell you that their thoughts are correct and that you should think that their ideas are the only ones worth having.
My suggestion is that you try to avoid this trap if you can. Your philosophy is for you.

You already have: by asking questions and thinking. Now decipher what's true and what isn't, but what is your method for doing that? If it's not perfect then neither will your philosophy be.

Study the history. Find the trees. See the forest,the birds and the bee's.Discover the rock and water too.There in the midst all kingdoms merge into the whole of Earth,

Stop only surviving and start actually living… that will be your philosophy… action speaks louder than thought or words… you do not need to understand life at all… you only need to live Life.

Read all the philosophy you can, but also question everything you read. The dialogue of philosophy begins the moment one puts a tiny toe into it's waters.

Here's a list to get you started.

Introduction works:
"History of Philosophy" by Frederick Copleston, S.J.,
"History of Political Philosophy", edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey.
"Story of Philosophy" by Will Durant
"A History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell

Websites:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/co…

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philos…

http://plato.stanford.edu/


Important Texts and Philosophers
Plato -- The Republic (get Allan Bloom's translation & read his essay), The Laws (get Thomas L. Pangle's translation)
Aristotle -- Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Metaphysics
Thucydides -- The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians
St.Augustine -- The City of God
Dante -- The Divine Comedy
Maimonides -- the guide of the Perplexed
St. Aquinas -- Summa Theologica
Machiavelli -- The Prince, The Discourses on the First ten books of Titus Livius
Bacon -- New Atlantis, Advancement of Learning
Descartes -- Discourse on Method, Meditations
Hobbes -- Leviathan
Locke -- Two Treatises of government, An essay concerning Human Understanding
Milton -- Paradise Lost
Shakespeare -- Hamlet, King Lear,
Spinoza -- Theologico-Political Treatise
Hume -- Treatise of Human Understanding, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Rousseau -- Social Contract, Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
Smith -- The Wealth of Nations
Burke -- Reflections on the Revolution in France
Kant -- Critique of pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason
Hegel -- Phenomenolgy of the Mind
Marx -- Capital
Nietzsche -- Beyond Good and evil, Thus spoke Zarathustra
Husserl -- Logical Investigations
Heidegger -- Being and Time
Wittgenstein -- Philosophical Investigations
Popper -- The Logic of Scientific Discovery, The open Society and its Enemies
Strauss -- Thoughts on Machiavelli

In opposition to the so-called "perfect method" in your first answer,i suggest that you look for one which can "open-up" and shed more light on some of the others.

Begin here:

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/dsa.html#crit

Then look within:

http://www.fhu.com/meditation.html
(read short text here)

EDIT
Oh, did you want to STUDY philosophy, or did you want to personally benefit from philosophical inquiry? There is a world of difference.

Though one. I would go to the Open University website (http://www.open.ac.uk).

They offer many courses, among them philosophy. Use that as guideline to start studying, it should also give you good sources of books and study material