Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional. Loss is unavoidable; grief isn’t. Death is certain. And life? Well, life isn’t certain. Its uncertainty, unpredictability, even its irrationality, make it what it is. Often, we run blindly into fire, we step on snakes, we get entangled in snares – these are the fires of desire, the snakes of attachment, and the snares of jealousy and covetousness. If we are bitten, burnt and hurt, we call it suffering, and believe it to be the way of life, when, in fact, we are mistaking our pain for our suffering. We have little control over the former but the latter is almost entirely in our hands. We can take things in our stride or be tossed on the tide. All it takes is to be able to open our eyes. This choice, we must remember, is ours; always. Om Swami’s new book marks the way to enlightenment through mindful
About the Author
Om Swami is a mystic who lives in the Himalayan foothills. Prior to renunciation, he founded and ran a multimillion-dollar software company with offices across the world. He is also the author of the bestselling books If Truth be Told: A Monk’s Memoir (HarperCollins, 2014), The Wellness Sense: A Practical Guide to Your Physical and Emotional Health Based on Ayurvedic and Yogic Wisdom (HarperCollins, 2015), When All Is Not Well: Depression, Sadness and Healing – A Yogic Perspective (HarperCollins, 2016), The Last Gambit (HarperCollins, 2017), Mind Full to Mindful: Zen Wisdom from a Monk’s Bowl (HarperCollins, 2018), The Children of Tomorrow: A Monk’s Guide to Mindful Parenting (HarperCollins, 2019), and The Book of Kindness: How to Make Others Happy and Be Happy Yourself (HarperCollins, 2019).