In this mindfulness guide for a new generation, the author of A Fool's Guide to Actual Happiness provides accessible mindfulness teachings that reveal how simple it really is to entirely transform your life.

This book's message is bold and clear: Your life is meditation--every moment and every circumstance can be a place of mindfulness practice and transformation. Your entire life is a path to awakening; nothing is too mundane, nothing is left out. Mark Van Buren excels at communicating in a simple and breezy fashion the nothing-special quality of spiritual practice and how mindfulness helps us make peace with life as it actually is. He leaves the reader feeling empowered, encouraged, and up for the task of living a life of at least just a little bit more freedom and peace.
Your Life Is Meditation, Mark Van Buren, Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 416 pages, $17.95

Mark Van Buren is a Mindful Living Trainer, yoga/meditation instructor, personal trainer, and musician, that has been promoting health and wellness for over a decade. He writes articles on meditation and yoga and runs workshops and retreats all over the tri-state area.

He has worked extensively with children and adults with autism and other special needs, and even released two solo albums, based on his inward journey through meditation, under the band name "Seeking the Seeker." Van Buren holds a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Montclair State University and two Associate Degrees from Bergen Community College in exercise science and music.

Preface	xiii
Meditation 101	1
Understanding the Path of Awakening	13
Zen and the Art of Potato Chip Delivery	17
Learning to Open	27
Raking the Leaves of Our Lives	31
Calming Muddy Water	35
How I Ended Up in the Back of Police Car on a Silent Retreat	39
Autism and Meditation	45
The Romantic Phase of Meditation	51
The Cleansing Phase of Meditation	55
Positive Affirmations	61
You're Always Free	65
Collecting Mustard Seeds	69
Bowing to Difficulties	73
Every Moment is a New Moment	77
Post-Retreat Reflection	81
The Present Moment	85
Goals and Meditation	89
Planting a Tree	93
Learning to Be	97
You're in the Jungle, Baby!	101
Becoming Hopeless	107
When You Wash the Dishes, Just Wash the Dishes	113
What Leg Pain?	117
The Cracked Buddha Statue	121
A Trip to Nicaragua	125
Breathing: The Anchor for Your Mind	129
Five-Day Western Zen Retreat	133
Don't Resist the Cold	139
Quieting the Mind	143
Don't Worry, It Cannot Last	147
The Bathroom Door of the Mind	151
Asking Life What It Cannot Give Us	155
Everything That Arises Passes Away	161
Understanding Buddhist Meditation	165
Why Me?	169
Fertilizer	173
Motivation from Difficulties	177
The Spider or the Fly	181
Internal Weather	185
Living Beyond Cultural Conditioning	189
Movies with Wisdom	195
Contradictions in Instruction	201
The Wisdom of Atlantic City	205
Turning Inward for True Happiness	209
The Wonderful Experience of a Kidney Stone	213
Health Insurance and Mindfulness	217
Putting Down the Boulder	221
Meditation and Steadiness	225
The Cave of Demons	229
The Disappointment of Expectations	233
The Passing Seasons	239
Visiting Lake Pocasset	243
We're Getting Closer to the End	249
Using Mindfulness to Lean into Discomfort	253
Moving from Subjective to Objective	259
The Viruses of the Mind	263
Beginner's Mind	267
Facing the Walls of Ignorance	273
Meditation Is NOT Selfish	277
Watch Out for the Tigers!	283
One Body	287
Simplify, Slow Down, and See Clearly	293
Profound Peace at the Grocery Store?	297
The Limitations of Personality	301
The Battle of the Two Wolves	307
Transforming Aversion	311
Coming Home to Yourself	315
The Broken Jukebox in Your Mind	317
The Pool of Freedom	321
The Waving Crossing Guard	323
If It Arises, It Belongs	327
A Singer's Last Gig	333
Two Metaphors	337
Birth Contractions	341
Mindfulness and Renunciation	345
Practice Being Kind	349
The Power of Labeling Thoughts	353
Things Are Seldom as They Seem	359
No Self, No Problem	363
The Control Center	369
Practicing with Addictions	373
There Is No Way to Peace	377
In Summary	381
Acknowledgments	389
About the Author	391