60 pages • 2 hours read
Jon Kabat-ZinnWherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Jon Kabat-Zinn (The Author)
Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn is a professor emeritus of medicine and the founder of the now renowned Stress Reduction Clinic, which functions out of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kabat-Zinn completed a doctorate in molecular biology but moved into mindfulness work after attending a presentation on mindfulness and meditation as a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kabat-Zinn went on to study meditation under a number of Buddhist teachers.
At the Stress Reduction Clinic, Kabat-Zinn created the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program, an eight-week program that draws on mindful meditation, yoga, body awareness, and non-judgmental reflection on thoughts, emotions, bodily feelings, and situations. The program’s teachings have their roots in Buddhist spirituality, but Kabat-Zinn’s application of the practices operate in a secular framework. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programs now are present in hospitals internationally.
Wherever You Go, There You Are is Kabat-Zinn’s second work of nonfiction and received national and international acclaim. Kabat-Zinn continues to write and speak about mindfulness, which he believes can help people find peace and contentment and manage stress, anxiety, and depression.
The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet
The Dalai Lama is the title given to the leader of the Tibetan Buddhist movement. Tenzin Gyatso is, at the time of writing (June 2023), the current and 14th Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is believed to be a reincarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokitasvara, who achieved enlightenment but continues to reincarnate to lead others toward enlightenment.
The Dalai Lama is quoted by Kabat-Zinn throughout his work; the Dalai Lama embodies the principles of ahimsa (non-harming) and mindful, meditative living.
Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller, an American theorist, philosopher, and architect, claims to have found unexpected peace and simplicity through dedicating his life to bringing good to the universe. After considering suicide at the age of 32 in 1927, Fuller asserts that a voice visited him, explaining that he had no right to eliminate himself and that he should instead find his purpose to mankind and the universe. Fuller dedicated himself to his fields of study from that point and is responsible for a number of breakthroughs, including the invention of the geodesic dome.
Kabat-Zinn draws on Fuller’s life to convey the importance of working toward discovering one’s true purpose in life. He poses Fuller’s question to readers: “What is my job on the planet with a capital J?” (135).
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), an American naturalist, author, and philosopher, spent two years and two months living in a simple cabin surrounded by woodland at Walden Pond, in Massachusetts. During this time, he wrote extensively on the benefits of living simply and making daily time for meditative reflection. Kabat-Zinn draws on Thoreau’s work in conveying his ideas about mindfulness and meditation.
Thoreau felt that he had “never yet met a man who was quite awake,” as people are distracted from the purity and simplicity of life by the demands of life and of their thoughts (30). Thoreau “went to the woods because [he] wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if [he] could not learn what it had to teach” (30). Thoreau concluded that contentment, peace, and simplicity can be discovered through the act of becoming intentionally present.
