How to Use This Book

This book contains 365 contemplations for meditation. While not necessarily koans, they are similar in that they are not to be ‘solved’ like a riddle or a problem. It is not a matter of your understanding of the words, or how much experience you might have had in spiritual matters. Those things will only get in your way.

It is probably best to approach these contemplations in a calm, un-agitated state, and certainly not on a full stomach. It is not necessary to be in a fasted state, but gut-busting fullness will only slow you down. Always travel lightly.

The book starts on January 1st, and ends on December 31st, but don’t feel that you have to wait to begin. Just pick the appropriate date, and get started.

Many different topics are covered in this book, such as consciousness, violence, love, thought, liberation, and peace. There is no pattern to how the subjects are spread out. In most cases, each day in the book leads into something completely different from the day before, much like our daily lives.

Throughout the book you will see words like it, that, and this, with no reference to a subject. In nearly all of these cases, these words refer to liberation or enlightenment.

Just take one contemplation per day. Sit with it. See where it takes you. You may find that you go nowhere, or you think you know what the words mean, or you cannot understand, or it just seems to be pointless nonsense.

All of that is fine. But at least take it seriously long enough to suspend your belief about the words. In the end, you may leap over the words themselves, falling into something beautiful.

It is something beyond your wildest dreams and expectations.

Good luck.