# Wherever You Go, There You Are (Readwise) ## Metadata - Author: [[Jon Kabat-Zinn]] - Full Title: Wherever You Go, There You Are - Category: #source/books ## Highlights ### Introduction - Guess what? When it comes right down to it, wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that’s what you’ve wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that’s what’s on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, how are you going to handle it? In other words, “Now what?” ([Location 74](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=74)) - In every moment, we find ourselves at the crossroad of here and now. ([Location 79](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=79)) - By lost, I mean that we momentarily lose touch with ourselves and with the full extent of our possibilities. ([Location 80](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=80)) - To allow ourselves to be truly in touch with where we already are, no matter where that is, we have got to pause in our experience long enough to let the present moment sink in; long enough to actually feel the present moment, to see it in its fullness, to hold it in awareness and thereby come to know and understand it better. ([Location 83](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=83)) - Instead, it often seems as if we are preoccupied with the past, with what has already happened, or with a future that hasn’t arrived yet. We look for someplace else to stand, where we hope things will be better, happier, more the way we want them to be, or the way they used to be. ([Location 86](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=86)) - We may never quite be where we actually are, never quite touch the fullness of our possibilities. Instead, we lock ourselves into a personal fiction that we already know who we are, that we know where we are and where we are going, that we know what is happening ([Location 94](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=94)) - Not knowing that you are even in such a dream is what the Buddhists call “ignorance,” or mindlessness. Being in touch with this not knowing is called “mindfulness.” The work of waking up from these dreams is the work of meditation, the systematic cultivation of wakefulness, of present-moment awareness. ([Location 99](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=99)) - “wisdom,” a seeing more deeply into cause and effect and the interconnectedness of things, so that we are no longer caught in a dream-dictated reality of our own creation. ([Location 102](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=102)) - Meditation is simply about being yourself and knowing something about who that is. It is about coming to realize that you are on a path whether you like it or not, namely, the path that is your life. Meditation may help us see that this path we call our life has direction; that it is always unfolding, moment by moment; and that what happens now, in this moment, influences what happens next. ([Location 108](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=108)) - your inner being—a soul path, a path with heart, your path with a capital P. ([Location 113](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=113)) - Note: Have always struggled to represent this philosophical idea here that he is touching on in a succinct and representative way... He may have done that! - It is all too easy to remain on something of a fog-enshrouded, slippery slope right into our graves; or, in the fog-dispelling clarity which on occasion precedes the moment of death, to wake up and realize that what we had thought all those years about how life was to be lived and what was important were at best unexamined half-truths based on fear or ignorance, only our own life-limiting ideas, and not the truth or the way our life had to be at all. ([Location 115](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=115)) - Note: A revelation of thought - waking up is ultimately something that each one of us can only do for ourselves. When it comes down to it, wherever you go, there you are. It’s your life that is unfolding. ([Location 120](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=120)) - “Be a light unto yourself.” ([Location 123](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=123)) - Note: Quoting Buddha - Full Catastrophe Living, ([Location 124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=124)) - Note: Book recommendation - Mindfulness has to do above all with attention and awareness, which are universal human qualities. ([Location 125](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=125)) - Note: I think his final qualification there is a call to accessibility: this isn't only attainable by those with glamerous lives and money - it is for you, it is for everyone! - Meditation is the process by which we go about deepening our attention and awareness, refining them, and putting them to greater practical use in our lives. ([Location 127](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=127)) - A full life is painted with broad brush strokes. Many paths can lead to understanding and wisdom. ([Location 132](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=132)) - Note: Ireally like that first sentance! 0_0 There are likrly numerous interpretations, but one that comes to my mind is the correlated difference between coaching and mentoring - one a broad stroke, the other the finest detail brush. - a life of greater awareness and insight. ([Location 149](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=149)) - Note: Is this internal and external? ### Part One The Bloom of the Present Moment #### What Is Mindfulness? - It has to do with examining who we are, with questioning our view of the world and our place in it, and with cultivating some appreciation for the fullness of each moment we are alive. Most of all, it has to do with being in touch. ([Location 176](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=176)) - Note: "It" being mindfulnesss - by investigating inwardly our own nature as beings and, particularly, the nature of our own minds through careful and systematic self-observation, we may be able to live lives of greater satisfaction, harmony, and wisdom. ([Location 183](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=183)) - Note: This pales in comparison to the alternative state of automacity and unconsciousnesss that otherwise plagues our normal daily mind. - It also offers a view of the world which is complementary to the predominantly reductionist and materialistic one currently dominating Western thought and institutions. ([Location 184](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=184)) - Note: Context: "it" refers to a state of mindfulness - Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. ([Location 188](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=188)) - Note: I think this is so true. It really anything more than being MORE present than you normally find yourself... Close your eyes... Smell cool and damp air from the rain that is pattering on your window and allow it to take you somewhere. - When we commit ourselves to paying attention in an open way, without falling prey to our own likes and dislikes, opinions and prejudices, projections and expectations, new possibilities open up and we have a chance to free ourselves from the straitjacket of unconsciousness. ([Location 206](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=206)) - Note: Ugh, to most, this characterization feels extremely intangible... But it is not... It is such a beautiful and accessible thing. It makes you feel truly alive - like we're supposed to. Not overburdened by societal influences, culture, other's opinions, "what they they say is good for you". If you're reading this and you've not experienced this... As Marcus Aurelius says, "go within" and you'll find it. - mindfulness will not conflict with any beliefs or traditions—religious or for that matter scientific—nor is it trying to sell you anything, especially not a new belief system or ideology. It is simply a practical way to be more in touch with the fullness of your being through a systematic process of self-observation, self-inquiry, and mindful action. ([Location 212](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=212)) - Simple but Not Easy ([Location 219](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=219)) - Meditation means learning how to get out of this current, sit by its bank and listen to it, learn from it, and then use its energies to guide us rather than to tyrannize us. ([Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=235)) #### Stopping - By taking a few moments to “die on purpose” to the rush of time while you are still living, you free yourself to have time for the present. By “dying” now in this way, you actually become more alive now. This is what stopping can do. There is nothing passive about it. And when you decide to go, it’s a different kind of going because you stopped. The stopping actually makes the going more vivid, richer, more textured. It helps keep all the things we worry about and feel inadequate about in perspective. It gives us guidance. ([Location 258](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=258)) - TRY: Stopping, sitting down, and becoming aware of your breathing once in a while throughout the day. It can be for five minutes, or even five seconds. Let go into full acceptance of the present moment, including how you are feeling and what you perceive to be happening. For these moments, don’t try to change anything at all, just breathe and let go. Breathe and let be. Die to having to have anything be different in this moment; in your mind and in your heart, give yourself permission to allow this moment to be exactly as it is, and allow yourself to be exactly as you are. Then, when you’re ready, move in the direction your heart tells you to go, mindfully and with resolution. ([Location 262](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=262)) - Note: Try #### This Is It - Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are. ([Location 273](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=273)) - Note: Context: the counter point he's addressing is that we're often so "busy minded" and improvement-oriented. Mindfulness is the exception in this case. - When we let go of wanting something else to happen in this moment, we are taking a profound step toward being able to encounter what is here now. If we hope to go anywhere or develop ourselves in any way, we can only step from where we are standing. If we don’t really know where we are standing—a knowing that comes directly from the cultivation of mindfulness—we may only go in circles, for all our efforts and expectations. So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all. ([Location 285](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=285)) - Note: Ugh... This hits so hard... This whole sentiment of, "telling ourselves that we know where the goal line is, yet, we're too disconnected from ourselves to truly see our current starting place" really resonates. We ways talked about goals, but before stumbling onto the GROW model, ive hardly ever seen people truly and objectively anlyze their "current reality" in that process. It is also one of those difficult "experiences" to explain to people... Like, they'll only truly understand it when they experience It themselves - I can't give that to them. - TRY: Reminding yourself from time to time: “This is it.” See if there is anything at all that it cannot be applied to. Remind yourself that acceptance of the present moment has nothing to do with resignation in the face of what is happening. It simply means a clear acknowledgment that what is happening is happening. Acceptance doesn’t tell you what to do. What happens next, what you choose to do, that has to come out of your understanding of this moment. You might try acting out of a deep knowing of “This is it.” Does it influence how you choose to proceed or respond? Is it possible for you to contemplate that in a very real way, this may actually be the best season, the best moment of your life? If that was so, what would it mean for you? ([Location 292](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=292)) - Note: Try The way he puts this deeply poetic as well: "imagine if you could truly capture that you're in 'the good ole days'" - you can, just pause and see it for what it truly is; be fully aware and present. #### Capturing Your Moments - Mindfulness means being awake. ([Location 300](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=300)) - Note: I love the simplicity of this - referential of "the enlightenment" - TRY: Asking yourself in this moment, “Am I awake?,” “Where is my mind right now?” ([Location 307](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=307)) - Note: Try #### Keeping the Breath in Mind - To use your breathing to nurture mindfulness, just tune in to the feeling of it…the feeling of the breath coming into your body and the feeling of the breath leaving your body. That’s all. Just feeling the breath. Breathing and knowing that you’re breathing. ([Location 317](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=317)) - Note: I often get this validating yet concrete realization of, "I am alive... This is what it feels like to be alive... So live it." - Using the breath to bring us back to the present moment takes no time at all, only a shift in attention. ([Location 322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=322)) - TRY: Staying with one full inbreath as it comes in, one full outbreath as it goes out, keeping your mind open and free for just this moment, just this breath. Abandon all ideas of getting somewhere or having anything happen. Just keep returning to the breath when the mind wanders, stringing moments of mindfulness together, breath by breath. ([Location 324](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=324)) #### Practice, Practice, Practice #### Practice Does Not Mean Rehearsal - Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to being present. ([Location 339](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=339)) #### You Don’t Have to Go Out of Your Way to Practice - All of Walden Pond is within your breath. The miracle of the changing seasons is within the breath; your parents and your children are within the breath; your body and your mind are within the breath. ([Location 357](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=357)) - Note: I love how poetic this is. Walden Pond is a reference to Thoreau. #### Waking Up - One practical way to do this is to look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them or just your thoughts about them. ([Location 373](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=373)) - We can live in a dream present for a dream future. ([Location 375](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=375)) - TRY: Asking yourself from time to time, “Am I awake now?” ([Location 383](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=383)) - Note: Try #### Keeping It Simple - If you do decide to start meditating, there’s no need to tell other people about it, or talk about why you are doing it or what it’s doing for you. ([Location 391](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=391)) #### You Can’t Stop the Waves but You Can Learn to Surf - Meditation is neither shutting things out nor off. It is seeing things clearly, and deliberately positioning yourself differently in relationship to them. ([Location 400](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=400)) - Can Anybody Meditate? ([Location 422](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=422)) - meditation is not about feeling a certain way. It’s about feeling the way you feel. ([Location 429](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=429)) - It’s not about getting somewhere else, but about allowing yourself to be where you already are. ([Location 431](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=431)) - Note: It = meditation #### In Praise of Non-Doing - I love a broad margin to my life. ([Location 450](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=450)) - Note: Qtd in Walden, Thoreau - TRY: Recognizing the bloom of the present moment in your daily meditation practice ([Location 459](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=459)) - Note: Try #### The Non-Doing Paradox - The joy of non-doing is that nothing else needs to happen for this moment to be complete. ([Location 469](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=469)) - When Thoreau says, “it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished,” this is waving a red flag in front of a bull for go-getting, progress-oriented people. But who is to say that his realizations of one morning spent in his doorway are less memorable or have less merit than a lifetime of busyness, lived with scant appreciation for stillness and the bloom of the present moment? ([Location 470](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=470)) - Note: Such a good transcendental inerpretation. #### Doing Non-Doing - Non-doing simply means letting things be and allowing them to unfold in their own way. ([Location 527](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=527)) - TRY: During the day, see if you can detect the bloom of the present moment in every moment, the ordinary ones, the “in-between” ones, even the hard ones. Work at allowing more things to unfold in your life without forcing them to happen and without rejecting the ones that don’t fit your idea of what “should” be happening. See if you can sense the “spaces” through which you might move with no effort in the spirit of Chuang Tzu’s cook. Notice how if you can make some time early in the day for being, with no agenda, it can change the quality of the rest of your day. By affirming first what is primary in your own being, see if you don’t get a mindful jump on the whole day and wind up more capable of sensing, appreciating, and responding to the bloom of each moment. ([Location 545](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=545)) - Note: Try #### Patience - These inner qualities which support meditation practice cannot be imposed, legislated, or decreed. They can only be cultivated, and this only when you have reached the point where your inner motivation is strong enough to want to cease contributing to your own suffering and confusion and perhaps to that of others. It amounts to behaving ethically—a sorely maligned concept in many circles. ([Location 555](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=555)) - Note: On the latter "ethical" topic, via my empirical interpretation, this is true - otherwise people are more individually varied in their moral convictions in way that tends to manifest oppressively. Not a shock which ballpark I fall into. - you cannot have harmony without a commitment to ethical behavior. It’s the fence that keeps out the goats that will eat all the young shoots in your garden. ([Location 561](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=561)) - Note: True, at least true inner harmony - Scratch the surface of impatience and what you will find lying beneath it, subtly or not so subtly, is anger. It’s the strong energy of not wanting things to be the way they are and blaming someone (often yourself) or something for it. ([Location 567](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=567)) - Note: Truth - The Dalai Lama shows no anger toward the Chinese, even though the policy of the Chinese government for years has been to practice genocide toward Tibetans, culturicide toward their institutions, beliefs, and everything they hold dear, and geocide toward the very land they live on. When asked about his apparent lack of anger toward the Chinese by an incredulous reporter at the time he won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Dalai Lama replied something to the effect that: “They have taken everything from us; should I let them take my mind as well?” ([Location 576](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=576)) - Note: Neat anecdotal story. I like the mindful idea of, "eh, there's aways something more to go against me". That leads me to a similar thought from Epictetus: "If anyone speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said to you, but answer, 'he was ignorant to my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.'" - TRY: Looking into impatience and anger when they arise. See if you can adopt a different perspective, one which sees things as unfolding in their own time. This is especially useful when you are feeling under pressure and blocked or stymied in something you want or need to do. Hard as it may seem, try not to push the river in that moment but listen carefully to it instead. What does it tell you? What is it telling you to do? If nothing, then just breathe, let things be as they are, let go into patience, continue listening. If the river tells you something, then do it, but do it mindfully. Then pause, wait patiently, listen again. ([Location 604](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=604)) - Note: Try - Letting Go ([Location 614](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=614)) - Note: .h2 #### Non-Judging - While our thinking colors all our experience, more often than not our thoughts tend to be less than completely accurate. Usually they are merely uninformed private opinions, reactions and prejudices based on limited knowledge and influenced primarily by our past conditioning. ([Location 654](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=654)) - Note: Feels mindful to even recognize this - it precursors any kind of genuine curiosity that does lead to the expansion of one's worldview. #### Trust - If we are unaware of what we are doing a good deal of the time, and we don’t particularly like the way things turn out in our lives, perhaps it’s time to pay closer attention, to be more in touch, to observe the choices we make and their consequences down the road. ([Location 678](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=678)) - Note: Obvious to recognize, but inordinately difficult to master. #### Generosity - Give more than you think you can, trusting that you are richer than you think. Celebrate this richness. Give as if you had inexhaustible wealth. This is called “kingly giving.” ([Location 699](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=699)) - Note: I love this. It goes back to thw locality of generosity: abundance doesnt mame genrosity moee meaningful, intentionality am sacrifice does. Also, if you're unwilling to be generous now (in the present), don't expect you'll be generous later (in the future) - the opportunity for generosity lives in every moment. Don't defer it. - practice sharing the fullness of your being, your best self, your enthusiasm, your vitality, your spirit, your trust, your openness, above all, your presence. Share it with yourself, with your family, with the world. ([Location 702](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=702)) - Note: Love this! This has a "morning message" feel to it! - Mindless giving is never healthy or generous. It is important to understand your motives for giving, and to know when some kinds of giving are not a display of generosity but rather of fear and lack of confidence. ([Location 714](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=714)) #### You Have to Be Strong Enough to Be Weak - What looks like weakness is actually where your strength lies. And what looks like strength is often weakness, an attempt to cover up fear; this is an act or a facade, however convincing it might appear to others or even to yourself. ([Location 742](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=742)) - Note: Damn... That resonates... #### Voluntary Simplicity - Voluntary simplicity means going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing less so I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more. ([Location 762](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=762)) - Note: In an effort/goal of truly being present in each moment. Otherwise, we multi-task or try and squeeze the mot out of each moment. Yet, we fail to realize... By squeezing... We squeeze the opportunity to be truly present out of those moments... Those moments that we'll ignorantly kiss goodbye... Never to see again... - I practice saying no to keep my life simple, and I find I never do it enough. ([Location 773](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=773)) #### Concentration #### Vision - If you hope to bring meditation into your life in any kind of long-term, committed way, you will need a vision that is truly your own—one that is deep and tenacious and that lies close to the core of who you believe yourself to be, what you value in your life, and where you see yourself going. ([Location 826](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=826)) - TRY: Asking yourself why you meditate or why you want to meditate. Don’t believe your first answers. Just write down a list of whatever comes to mind. Continue asking yourself. Also, inquire about your values, about what you honor most in life. Make a list of what is really important to you. Ask yourself: What is my vision, my map for where I am and where I am going? Does this vision reflect my true values and intentions? Am I remembering to embody those values? Do I practice my intentions? How am I now in my job, in my family, in my relationships, with myself? How do I want to be? How might I live my vision, my values? How do I relate to suffering, both my own and others’? ([Location 865](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=865)) - Note: Try #### Meditation Develops Full Human Beings - Many Tibetan statues and paintings are of grotesque demonic beings, all respected members of the pantheon of honored deities. Keep in mind that these deities are not gods in the usual sense. Rather, they represent different mind states, each with its own kind of divine energy which has to be faced, honored, and worked with if we are to grow and develop our true potential as full human beings, whether men or women. These wrathful creatures are not seen as bad, even though their appearance is frightening and repulsive, with their necklaces of skulls and grotesque grimaces. Their terrible outward appearance is actually a disguise adopted by deities embodying wisdom and compassion to help us attain greater understanding and kindness toward ourselves and toward others, who, it is understood, are not fundamentally different from ourselves. ([Location 902](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=902)) - Note: Wow... That is super interesting... This idea that they are simply reflecting our inward being, at least the potential for or inward being.... That's really interesting. - TRY: Being open to the prince and the princess, the king and the queen, the giant and the witch, the wild man and the wild woman, the dwarf and the crone, and the warrior, the healer, and the trickster within yourself. When you meditate, put the welcome mat out to all of them. Try sitting like a king or queen, or a warrior, or a sage. In times of great turmoil or darkness, use your breath as the string which will guide you through the labyrinth. Keep mindfulness alive even in the darkest moments, reminding yourself that the awareness is not part of the darkness or the pain; it holds the pain, and knows it, so it has to be more fundamental, and closer to what is healthy and strong and golden within you. ([Location 921](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=921)) - Note: Try #### Practice as a Path - When we practice meditation, we are really acknowledging that in this moment, we are on the road of life. The path unfolds in this moment and in every moment while we are alive. Meditation is more rightly thought of as a “Way” than as a technique. It is a Way of being, a Way of living, a Way of listening, a Way of walking along the path of life and being in harmony with things as they are. ([Location 937](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=937)) - we can become trapped into believing too strongly that we do know where we are going, especially if we are driven by self-serving ambition and we want certain things very badly. There is a blindness that comes from self-furthering agendas that leaves us thinking we know when actually we don’t know as much as we think. ([Location 942](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=942)) - Note: Humph... Well, why don't you describe me any more accurately. - “The Water of Life,” a fairy tale in the Grimm Brothers’ collection, tells of the customary trio of brothers, princes all. The two oldest brothers are greedy and selfish. The youngest is kind and caring. Their father, the King, is dying. An old man who mysteriously appears in the palace garden inquires after their grief, and when he hears the problem, suggests that a cure might be had in the water of life. “If the King drinks of it, he will become well again; but it is hard to find.” First, the oldest brother obtains permission to go forth to seek the water of life for his father, harboring the secret hope of currying his favor and becoming King himself. Almost as soon as he sets out on his horse, he encounters a dwarf beside the road who stops him and asks where he is going so fast. In his hurry, the brother treats the dwarf with scorn and condescension, ordering him out of his way. The presumption here is that the prince knows the way just because he knows what he is looking for. Not so. But this brother is unable to rein in his arrogance, and his ignorance of the many ways things might unfold or open up in life. Of course, the dwarf in fairy tales is no outer person either, but symbolic of the higher powers of the soul. In this case, the selfish brother is unable to approach his own inner power and feeling self with kindness and wisdom. Because of his arrogance, the dwarf arranges for his path to enter an ever-narrowing ravine, in which he eventually finds himself unable to go forward, unable to go back, and unable to turn around; in a word, stuck. And there he stays while the story continues. When the first brother does not return, the second brother goes forth to try his luck, meets the dwarf, treats him in the same fashion, and winds up stuck just like the first brother. Since they are different parts of the same person, you might say some people never learn. After some time, the third brother eventually sets off to bring back the water of life. He too encounters… ([Location 945](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=945)) - Note: I need to save this - I love this so much. - The message is that getting caught up in the normal human tendencies of self-cherishing and arrogance, and ignoring the larger order of things, will ultimately lead to an impasse in your life in which you are unable to go forward, unable to go back, and unable to turn around. The story says you will never find the water… ([Location 966](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=966)) - Note: Analysis summary for "Water of Life" tale. - TRY: Seeing your own life this very day as a journey and as an adventure. Where are you going? What are you seeking? Where are you now? What stage of the journey have you come to? If your life were a book, what would you call it today? What would you entitle the chapter you are in right now? Are you stuck here in certain ways? Can you be fully open to all of the energies at your disposal at this point? Note that this journey is uniquely yours, no one else’s. So the path has to be your own. You cannot imitate somebody else’s journey and still be true to yourself. Are you prepared to honor your uniqueness in this way? Can you see a commitment to the meditation practice as an intimate part of this way of being? Can you commit to lighting your path with mindfulness and awareness? Can you see ways in which you could easily get stuck, or have in the past? ([Location 976](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0037B6QSY&location=976)) - Note: Try #### Meditation: Not to Be Confused with Positive Thinking