Meditations for Mortals
Rating – 4 – Type: Self Improvement
Author – Oliver Burkeman
Summary: Life is messy. You will always have too much to do. You will always have problems. That’s just the way it is. Accept it and enjoy your life in all its messiness.
Despite the title, this is not a ‘how-to’ book on meditation; rather, it provides thought-provoking concepts for the reader to contemplate..
The past is gone and the future hasn’t occurred yet, so right now is the only time that really exists.
TL;DR
The book’s structure is read one chapter a day for four weeks. All the chapters are short taking no more than 15 minutes to read. Each week stresses a different concept:
- Week one – Being Finite
- Week two – Taking Action
- Week three – Letting Go
- Week four – Showing Up
Week one day one begins with this ominous quote preparing the reader for what’s to come:
The most liberating and empowering and productive step you can take if you want to spend more time on the planet doing what matters to you, is to grasp the sense in which life as a finite human being – with limited time, and limited control over that time – is really worse than you think.
Week One lesson is we are all going to die, we can’t possibly do everything on our todo list. Come to terms with reality and enjoy the present.
Week two can be summarized with a slight twist on the Nike ad campaign – Just Do It. That is, quit worrying about the endless lists of things that need to be done. Pick one thing every morning and work on it forgetting about the list. “Just Do It” includes finishing; there is something magical about completing a task or project and marking it complete.
Week three recommends giving up on the struggle to maintain control every outcome, event, or person. Realize life’s journey is unpredictable beset by problems and interruptions. Those problems and interruptions are your life.
Week Four reinforces the previous three weeks wit the idea that life is not a problem to be solved but an experience to be inhabited. You will never reach a trouble-free phase therefore just start “doing” instead of waiting for the perfect time and place. Accept the mess and treat problems and interruptions as just part of life. Be in the present
You might easily never been born, but fate granted you the opportunity to get stuck in the mess you see around you, whatever it is. You are here. This is it.You don’t much matter – yet you matter as much as anyone else ever did. The rive of time flows inexorably on; amazingly, confoundingly, marvelously, we get the chance to go kayaking in it.
What we do here and now matters not in the Grand Scheme of the COSMOS
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