In his follow-up to Full Catastrophe Living--a book in which he presented basic meditation techniques as a way of reducing stress and healing from illness--here Jon Kabat-Zinn goes much more deeply into the practice of meditation for its own sake. To Kabat-Zinn, meditation is important because it brings about a state of "mindfulness," a condition of "being" rather than "doing" during which you pay attention to the moment rather than the past, the future, or the multitudinous distractions of modern life. In brief, rather poetic chapters, he describes different meditative practices and what they can do for the practitioner. The idea that meditation is "spiritual" is often confusing to people, Kabat-Zinn writes; he prefers to think of it as what you might call a workout for your consciousness. This book makes learning meditation remarkably easy (although practicing it is not). But it also makes it seem infinitely appealing. --Ben Kallen

So you're a human... You want to learn to be more at peace, have less stress in your life, be more alive, enjoy life more, be more loving to the wife or kids... etc....

This is the book to read.

Even if you don't want to sit and meditate every day or every other day you should read this book. It shows how you can "meditate" while doing every day tasks like washing dishes or cleaning the house or just walking to the bathroom, etc...

And why is this important? Because it helps you get in touch with the Now moment, to live fully in the Present. And that is what this book is about, and what will make your life better.

This book is great! I don't know what happened between this and his book "Coming To Our Senses", but the other book is very wordy, very incohesive, and generally not that good. THIS book, however, is a gem, and I truly wish I could get all my friends and family members to at least read it.

But they will not, and I suppose that is only fitting, as one has to come to something like this on one's own. You are reading this review. That means you are ready. You won't find a better book on the hows and whys of meditation and mindfulness. And you won't find a better way to reduce stress and come alive and be more at peace within yourself and in the world.

I am enjoying this book very much. It was recomended to me by a friend. She has been reading it for several years. It is a great book to refer back to when your mind becomes muddled with the everyday stress of living>

I brought this book after hear Jon on an Australian radio program and really liked hearing him speak. I've been meditating for about 20 years and usually practice most morning. I've read a lot of books on the subject and have visited Ashrams and studied Yoga in India on my travels. If you are new to the subject them I would recommend this book as Jon has a lot of useful and interesting things to say. If you have been doing meditation for a number of years then you will not really learn anything new. I don't want to sound arrogant but I've read most of what he has to say in other books. Meditation is basically just being in the moment. Just focusing on one thing, either an object, breath or mantra. If you are new to meditation it may be worth trying a few different styles of meditation to see what is best suited to you as we are all unique. What maybe good for one person will not necessary be good for someone else. I would also recommend reading other books on the topic. After you have read a few books they all basically say the same thing, "Just focus on the moment"