Mindfulness Meditation (For Everyday Life)

my job?" as you are fixing a car, walking to work,
doing the dishes, listening to your daughter sing on a
starlit spring evening, or looking for a job.
Problems of all shapes and sizes come up all the
time in life. They range from the trivial to the profound
to the overwhelming. The challenge here is to meet
them with inquiry, in the spirit of mindfulness. It would
mean asking, "What is this thought, this feeling, this
dilemma?" "How am I going to deal with it?" Or even,
"Am I willing to deal with it or even acknowledge it?"
The first step is to acknowledge that there is a
problem, which means there is strain or tension or
disharmony of some kind. It might take us forty or fifty
years to even come close to acknowledging some of
the big demons we carry. But maybe that's okay too.
There's no timetable for inquiry. It's like a pot sitting
on your shelf. It's ready to do the cooking whenever
you are ready to take it down, put something in it, and
heat it on the stove.
Inquiry means asking questions, over and over again.
Do we have the courage to look at something,
whatever it is, and to inquire, what is this? What is
going on? It involves looking deeply for a sustained
period, questioning, questioning, what is this? What is
wrong? What is at the root of the problem? What is
the evidence? What are the connections? What