Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness [Paperback]

Jon Kabat-Zinn (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, as well as Professor of Medicine emeritus. He leads workshops on stress reduction and mindfulness for doctors and other health professionals and for lay audiences worldwide. He is the bestselling author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and Full Catastrophe Living, and, with his wife Myla Kabat-Zinn, a book on mindful parenting, Everyday Blessings. He was featured in the PBS series Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers, as well as on Oprah. He lives in Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401303617
• ISBN-13: 978-1401303617
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, as well as professor of medicine emeritus. He lives in the Boston area. Hor Tuck Loon has been guiding meditation for the past twenty years, drawing parallels from many ancient wisdom teachings and also from his years of experience in the journey of mindfulness. He lives in Malaysia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

198 of 208 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely Gem of a Book, March 31, 2008

By 

O. Brown "Ms. O. Khannah-Brown" (Twopeas, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness (Paperback)

Length:: 1:59 Mins

*****
This little book is lovely as a gift for someone, especially yourself. It contains excerpts from Jon Kabat-Zinn's masterpiece "Coming to Our Senses", a tome about mindfulness and meditation. In this video I open the book, show you the layout and read two different quotes. I've kept the video to about two minutes in length. This is a book that anyone interested in living more serenely and more alive can enjoy, whether or not you've had the pleasure of reading the main book that it was excerpted from. Highly recommended!
*****

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short, subtle but powerful lessons, February 18, 2009

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John Chancellor "Mentor coach" (Spring Hill, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness (Paperback)

Arriving at Your Own Door is a collection of very short lessons in mindfulness. There are 108 lessons and it is easy to read the entire book in less than an hour. However that will be doing yourself and the book a disservice.

Mindfulness is not our normal way of thinking and acting. Therefore the lessons and their potential impact on our lives is not obvious in many of the lessons. You need to give the lessons some thought. I have read the book three times and each time I gain a little more insight into the value of the lessons.

Mindfulness is about becoming aware. The most common route to mindfulness is through meditation. However, you do not need to be involved in meditation to benefit from this book. You will need an open mind. You must be willing to look at things from a different perspective.

There is one quote in the book that goes to the heart of mindfulness. "We take care of the future best by taking care of the present now." As Jon Kabat-Zinn points out, we are often trying to live in the future. There is no future. There is only now and trying to live in the future robs us of the present. "Arriving someplace more desirable at some future time is an illusion. This is it."

Do not expect long explanations of the lessons. The lessons are extremely brief. If you have not read or studied mindfulness, this might not be a good start because the ideas or thoughts might need further explanation. However if you are a student of meditation, of how the mind works, of mindfulness, then this is a very handy little reminder that will give you guidance in right thinking with lots of ideas to contemplate.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Polished Gem, June 23, 2008

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Sonya Campbell "Seeker" (Quebec Canada) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness (Paperback)

A thought provoking, meaning filled book. The type of book you can carry with you and read a passage when you can or placed somewhere in your home so it reminds you to pick it up and read a passage every day. Makes a wonderful gift.