Here's a dynamite self-inquiry.
Pick a moment when you're feeling at peace. Not fighting with the universe. When you have that "ah, life is good" feeling, be it from practice or just a nice chair on the right beach at the right time. It may not happen for a while. Fine. Just wait for it.
Then watch your mind. Closely. Observe what takes you out off it. It's very very interesting and very very useful.
The practice is exceedingly difficult, because the process that derails your peace will also derail your observation (i.e. you'll forget to observe right at the point when you'll most want to be observing). So one trick is get a timer that beeps every couple minutes. When it beeps, drop everything to examine your peace, your happiness, and (most importantly) the center of your mental attention. Try to piece together the chain of thoughts and feelings that brought you there, and work backward. Don't take time to mull it over or draw conclusions. Just scientifically observe, note, then go back to your business. Do the analysis and draw the conclusions at a later time.
If you're imaginative, you can do this right now, in retrospect. Visualize yourself at one of those peak periods we all have (I like the beach image)....and notice what derails it. I'd suggest NOT posting your conclusions here. Let everyone try it freshly. You'll find your preliminary findings are rough and sketchy, but you fine tune it as you really work on this. Best for all to do it individually, IMO.
