Following on the success of Quiet Mind, Awakened Mind is David Kundtz's newest book of meditations for living effectively and mindfully in a busy world. As the Navajo proverb says, "When we are pretending to be asleep, no one can awaken us." We must stop the pretending and "awaken" ourselves. The book contains more than a hundred reflections on life, gratitude, creativity, diversity, and spirituality, each with an inspiring quotation and an idea for putting that meditation to use in daily life.
From the essay on fun:
"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." --Katharine Hepburn
The trick, of course, is to know which rules to break and when to break them. But break them we must if we are to have any fun. There was a time in my life, quite a long period of time actually, when I was . . . how shall I say it . . . not much fun. Kept to all the rules -- and there were a lot of rules! Severe and serious were the virtues of the day, and I had very limited fun, so I was not much fun to be around. My loss, my regret.
But that was years ago and now I have a lot of fun, break a lot of rules. I count myself one of the fortunate ones.
This remarkable collection of insights shows us how living in a state of awareness about the reality that always exists in front of our faces, under our noses, or just below the surface of every moment, is one sure way to live life more fully and joyfully.
