Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

The concepts developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in Wherever You Go, There You Are have their origins in Buddhism, a major world religion that emerged in India 2,500 years ago. Buddhists believe that suffering is an inevitable part of the human experience. To free oneself from the cycle of birth and rebirth (reincarnation), one should aim to achieve enlightenment through meditation, spiritual and physical labor, and morally good behavior (“Buddhism.” National Geographic, 7 Feb. 2023).

The Buddhist tradition points to Siddhartha Gautama as its founder, a Hindu prince who lived in India in the fifth century BCE. Gautama was raised in luxury, but it occurred to Gautama that he was still not exempt from suffering and eventual death. He decided to leave his life of luxury in search of the meaning of suffering. After an encounter with a lute player who described that the strings of the instrument cannot be too tight or too loose, but rather must be moderately tightened to achieve the perfect sound, Gautama understood living by the “middle road,” where one seeks neither excessive luxury nor excessive degradation.

Mindfulness and meditation are central practices in Buddhism. To be mindful is to become completely present in the moment-to-moment sensory, emotional, and physical occurrences of life. Buddhism points to Gautama’s sustained focus under a Bodhi Tree as an early example of meditation. According to Buddhists, it was during this meditation that ignorance was banished and true knowledge and understanding arose in Gautama and he achieved universal enlightenment, becoming known as a “Buddha.” Buddhists further believe that Gautama stopped reincarnating after his death, meaning he achieved the divine state of Nirvana: His suffering had ceased (“The Life of the Buddha.” Buddho). Meditation, a practice of silence, stillness, and self-awareness, is an important tool of mindfulness; it involves reconnecting with one’s breath and becoming a nonjudgmental observer of one’s inner and outer self; in this way, Wherever You Go, There You Are incorporates a great deal of Buddhist philosophy.

Kabat-Zinn, after studying under various Buddhist teachers, has modified these practices for secular use, separating them from Buddhism, and specifically “bending over backward” to keep the practice from being seen as “Eastern mysticism.” While the book is connected to Buddhist principals, the goal of the work is to provide a universal framework for handling difficult emotions and everyday stressors (Booth, Robert. “Master of Mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn.” The Guardian, 22 Oct. 2017).