Customer Reviews

Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!
*****

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.

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.

really didn't expect this type of book, very expensive for a "saying" on each page just a sentence per page (lame) oh well, I should have researched better before purchasing

I had great respect for this writer based on other books. But this does not give you 108 lessons, but 108 one liners and a lot of white space.

I was a little disappointed when I received the book. I was expecting something bigger. This one is small with 108 "mini" lessons. I use it was the end to my exercise and yoga routine each morning, reading one lesson per day. It's a nice way to start the day and keep me grounded. I always find insight in Jon Kabat-Zinn's writings.

Most of this is in his other books and this slim tome is not quite worth even the very small price. Remember, though, I really think he does good stuff.

Reading this book is like pleasantly waking up from a deep sleep. It had short lessons that made me realize the importance of being present in my own life. Many times you go through life sort of like in autopilot because your so busy and you have all these things you have to do in this amount of time. This book slows everything down and helps you be confortable with silence and being in your own presence. The author's voice is soothing and calming and everytime I read it I think about it in a deeper way. It's short and pleasant and I absolutely would recommend it. It's a good read!

This is a small book filled with great wisdom though there are just a few sentences in each lesson. You learn about mindfulness easily.
I have been reading this book loud to my husband this summer and it has created a mindfulness bond between us.
I do recommened this little book.

Found this small book helpful and relaxing. I had expected the lessons to have a little more detail and specificity for me to work with. But when I chose to ponder each lesson, I found that there was more than enough for reflection and growth.