Inviting contemplative and reflective questions into our lives- into our conscious awareness- and into our own experience- is a fundamental aspect of cultivating ‘mindful intelligence’. The questions we ask can help us to look deeply into our own experience and into the mystery of our own being. In this process of exploration & inquiry, it is our Way to embrace and sustain a curious outlook for we are driven by the intent to ‘see’ and to ‘know’ what has been veiled by our own habits of confusion. Clear seeing and clear knowing can only manifest from a direct experiential inquiry. To realize this clarity of mind, we need to move out of our own way and abide calmly and peacefully with questions that may not yield any immediate answers- and with a challenging and often frustrating process that requires our full and immediate attention.

In general, the questions we ask direct our attention. They help us to explore and examine our underlying feelings such as fear, prejudice, and attraction, etc., as well as their corresponding mechanisms for operation such as aversion, indifference, and attachment.

Let’s consider four probable questions surrounding our ‘storyline efforts’ to live in a certain way… to sustain and perpetuate egocentric dispositions and intentions…

1.         Only being with and around people we like?

2.         Avoiding people we don’t like?

3.         Working for what we want?

4.         Guarding what we have?

How often do these efforts consume us? How does our habituation relate to any or all of these efforts? The key insight here is to look deeply into the questions about our own existence- how they relate to our suffering due to habituation, and ultimately restricting us from living fully with the freedom of mindfulness and presence of being.

To ask the question is to open inquiry into who we are from where we stand. We may not like what initially reflects back, but it is here from where we start to see the nature of our dispositions and intentions as they relate back to our actions. The questions about our ‘efforts’ must be ‘sensed and ‘felt’ to be truly understood. They are beyond mere intellectual appraisal as they entail so much more than just the constructs associated with our thoughts and perception.

Attending openly and objectively to our questions are the beginnings of our emerging nature. A shift and rotation of consciousness is a transformational process embedded in the questions surrounding our experiences to be or not to be… habitual or free. Sit with your questions- journal them- reflect on them. Let them unfold and truly be with them. Even in the darkness and shadows of our difficult questions, there is always some light for revelation. The light to be known starts with the disposition and intention to be aware…

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