Classic meditation book helps in experiencing mindfulness

By Megan C Tschida

November 6, 2006 | Recently I decided to try meditation by the book Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. This is described as a universal Buddhist meditation that brings us closer to ourselves in our everyday life.

The book contains three parts: The Bloom of the Present Moment, The Heart of Practice, and In the Spirit of Mindfulness. The first part of the book explains what mindfulness is, capturing your moments in life, practicing meditation, patience with it, and how to meditate. It tells you how to capture all the moments in life that you sometimes miss. How to sit back and enjoy a minute out of your day, because usually we just pass by the day without really stopping and enjoying how many minutes of the day we actually have in life.

The second part of the book focuses on practicing meditation. It goes through the different kinds of meditating like mountain, lake, and walking, standing and lying-down meditation. It also talks about how there is no right way to meditate.

The third part of the book goes through everyday things that we encounter and how we can find things in everyday life and acquire them into meditation. Two of the last couple chapters talk about parenting as practice. It talks about how parenting brings us to not only bring up our children but it serves as a mirror upon ourselves.

For me, the book gave a sense of self by bringing me to realize how many things in my own life I have surpassed. The book was given to me by my mother and at first I was not up to the idea of meditation or even just reading about it. I decided to give it a try after opening it to a random page and reading it. I found that after reading even the first part of the book, I was interested in seeing how it would affect me, by trying to meditate at least two minutes out of the day. It brought me closer to myself, not the things on the outside that I enjoy, but me on the inside. It brought me closer to my feelings and my inner voice that I turn to when making ethical decisions.

It sounds funny, but after reading the book I have noticed that I talk to myself a little bit more than I used to talk with myself. Not out loud, but inside about the little things as well as the big things I go through every day. It also gave me quotes that I can write on sticky notes to remind myself to do little things everyday to keep myself on my toes. For example, in part one there is a chapter called Waking up, and at the end it says: "Try: Asking yourself from time to time, am I awake now?"

Another thing that I like is that there are quotes and poems throughout the book, which I enjoy reading. This is a particular quote that I have grown close with: "When you really look for me, you will see me instantly -- you will find me in the tiniest house of time." -Kabir

What I like about this book is that it reads like a novel instead of a book that explains how to meditate and what to do. It brings in situations from the author's life and he explains how they relate to meditation and mindfulness in his life.

All together I would rate this book four and a half out of five stars. The book was interesting and provided a sense of the inner self. I would say that it is not a super easy read, but it is a book that is enjoyable to read if you focus on reading a chapter a day. Also, it is a book that you can keep in your mind throughout the day.

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