Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness

BOOK: Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness
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Arriving At Your Own Door

108 Lessons in Mindfulness

JON KABAT-ZINN

Excerpts from
Coming to Our Senses
Compiled by Hor Tuck Loon and Jon Kabat-Zinn

ALSO BY JON KABAT-ZINN
 

COMING TO OUR SENSES:
Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness

THE MINDFUL WAY THROUGH DEPRESSION:
Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness
(with Mark Williams, John Teasdale, and Zindel Segal)

EVERYDAY BLESSINGS:
The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting
(with Myla Kabat-Zinn)

WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE:
Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

FULL CATASTROPHE LIVING:
Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind
to Face Stress, Pain and Illness

CONTENTS
 

Cover

Title Page

Also by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Preface

1 Befriending

2 Heartfulness

3 Motivations

4 Paying Attention

5 Universal

6 Fixed Ideas of You

7 Mindfulness Is Mindfulness

8 Mindful or Mindless?

9 Meditation

10 Change the World

11 Get Out of Your Own Way

12 Nothing Needs to Happen

13 A Radical Act

14 Self-Imprisonment

15 Practice Makes Perfect

16 Point of Contact

17 Unlived Moments

18 At Home

19 Wholehearted

20 Pain

21 Beyond Thought

22 Any Moment

23 Transformation and Healing

24 Autopilot

25 Out of Touch

26 Actually Here

27 Cultivating lntimacy

28 Turning Toward

29 24/7 Connections

30 In-between Moments

31 Boundless Awareness

32 Somebody or Nobody?

33 A Big Mis-take

34 Dream Reality

35 Richness of Now

36 You’ve Already “Turned Out”

37 Every Moment Is a Branch Point

38 Re-minding Ourselves

39 Doing and Being

40 “Awarenessing”

41 Taking a Stand

42 Sheer Presence

43 Field of Awareness

44 Feeling the Breath

45 Remembering

46 Simply Attentive

47 Seductive Proliferations

48 Are Thoughts True?

49 Self-Centered

50 Rehabilitation

51 Awareness Itself

52 Soap Bubbles

53 Waves

54 A Mutual Freeing

55 Already Happening

56 Being

57 Wanting Some Better Experience

58 Unwillingness

59 Acceptance and Compassion

60 Obstacles Are Allies

61 Passion

62 Time for Yourself

63 Informal Practice

64 Teachers

65 Wakefulness

66 Coming to Terms

67 Inhabited Body

68 Hearing Yourself Thinking

69 Freedom

70 Accepting What Is

71 Rotation in Consciousness

72 The Unfaithful Yes

73 Tenderness and Respect

74 Arriving At Your Own Door

75 Settling into Your Body

76 Be Where You Are

77 No Place Better

78 Without Filters

79 Changing Conditions

80 Stress

81 Spaciousness

82 True Nature

83 Getting Unstuck

84 “Supposed to be”

85 Death and Life

86 Knowing of Death

87 Timeless

88 Re-membering

89 Awake in This Now

90 Coming to Our Senses

91 Loving Ourselves

92 Last Frontier

93 Changing Lenses

94 Tipping Point

95 Bearing Witness

96 The World Will Shift

97 No Absolutes

98 Mutual Understanding

99 Liberation

100 Democracy

101 Unhealthy World

102 Suspension of Distraction

103 Silence Is Prayer

104 Observance

105 Wake-up Call

106 Interconnectedness

107 Owning What We Call Ourselves

108 All Else Will Follow

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Copyright

PREFACE
 

I often catch myself feeling that language has intrinsic limitations that frustrate my impulse to fully express my feelings, my passing thoughts and insights, in a word, my experience. Words cannot, and probably will never, replace the richness of life—no matter how articulately or artfully they are conveyed. In the past, it has been said that meditation teachers sometimes transmitted their knowledge to their students through mental telepathy to avoid misinterpretations. Exceptionally few have managed to capture the essence of their message through writing.

Jon Kabat-Zinn’s
Coming to Our Senses
bears such testimony. Jon seems to be able to drop words right into our hearts, where they can resonate and reinforce our very being and well-being. Every subject that he touches upon suggests an in-depth meaning and perspective on our personal journey that we may not have felt or expressed as clearly or convincingly, even to ourselves. As one example, the use of the word “
Heartfulness,”
as synonymous with mindfulness in Jon’s language, can offer up new and expanded ways of understanding and experiencing peace in one’s own life and in the world.

Jon’s work is to be savored slowly, as in the art of tea drinking ceremony. It is to be relished in every aspect: in the here and now—as mindfulness teaches us. In moments of unhurriedness and non-judgment, freed if only briefly from the ruts of habitual thinking, the truth in his language and what it is pointing to can touch our hearts. In moments of stillness and silent introspection, the wisdom inside and underneath his words gives purpose and hope to the world.

If not for Jon’s editorial oversight and discipline, this little book would have ended up with 300 longer quotes, which I religiously culled while reading
Coming to Our Senses
. I would have maintained them as they were because I felt them to be of great benefit to many. However, I am certain that when this strong distillation of the entire book arrives in your hands, your legs and your heart will invariably and uncannily, yet mindfully and eagerly, lead you to explore in depth the complete version of
Coming to Our Senses
. My utmost respect and gratitude to Jon and also Zareen Jaffery of Hyperion for their passionate work.


Hor Tuck Loon

 

The time will come

when, with elation
,

BOOK: Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness
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