"It takes courage to look deeply into oneself," Cheri Huber writes in the Introduction to this book. She has been practicing Zen meditation for nearly thirty years. This book is the insightful culmination of both her own experience on the cushion, and the results of a 12-week course she taught on suffering. As children we experienced life by living in each moment. As adults we have been conditioned to suffer: "we want what we don't get, aren't satisfied with what we do get, are separated from those or that which we love, and are forced to endure those and that which we do not love," Huber writes. "We suffer when we resist life. We suffer when we believe life should be different. We suffer when we think there is something wrong with life that needs to be changed or fixed." The "clamor of modern life and the endless chatter in our heads" (p. 83) restrict our ability to see beyond our conditioned suffering and return to our childlike sense of wonder in everything we experience.

"It took us a while to get trained in these faulty belief systems," Huber writes, "and it will take us a while to unhook ourselves. We sit still, we see the conditioning and the sabotage for what it is, and we find the courage not to go back to old, familiar, hurtful ways" (p. 16). These "automatic, conditioned, karmic patterns" steal our time, our joy, our good feeling toward ourselves. They steal our life (p. 21). The "three keys" to ending our suffering involve paying attention to everything (pp. 3-54), believing nothing (pp. 57-92), and not taking anything personally (pp. 95-131).

For anyone interested in looking deeply into the nature of suffering and learning how to return to the present moment, Huber's recommended book offers "helpful awareness, helpful insight, helpful friend" (p. 101).

G. Merritt

Hi,

I love Cheri's books. I find them to be WONDERFULLY enlightening, interesting, deep and profound, yet fun and funny. A FANTASTIC way to understand deep Zen teachings and apply them to every day life. The books "There is Nothing Wrong With You" and "Suffering is Optional" especially spoke to me.

I REALLY like the handwritten look text. It is both easy to read, and seems more "fun" somehow than regular book type. Her approach is very conversational and fun, and at times, humorous. She draws me in, and I don't want to stop reading (except to do the exercises).

I previously tried to read some of the Zen classics, by both oriental and western writers, but their writings just seemed to philosophical, too dry, too hard to understand and apply, not to mention too small type to read comfortably. I just happened on Cheri's books at my local bookstore. Once I read one, I was hooked! I've read 5 and counting!

Thank you Cheri!

It is apparent reading Huber's books that she is has truly traveled the path. This particular book is particularly outstanding for two reasons. One, it clearly sets out three fundamental tenets through which the seeker may finally find her/himself. Two, the responses of many of her students are included. These are helpful because the issues they raise are often the same one that I experience. Huber shows us clearly how we produce our own suffering. It is a choice we make out of egocentricity - basically believing our own conditioned projections about the world and "our" individual experience. Believe Nothing seems to me to be the most powerful element of her teaching. I strong recommend this book.

Having previously read five of Cheri's books, I expected yet another paradigm shift. This one didn't quite rock my world in the same way. Unfortunately "How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be" reads more like a self-help book than any of the others. I much prefer the 'hand-written', easy style of her other books -- as she says, they are to be "read slowly with the heart instead of quickly with the head". This one tends to speak more to the head than the heart.

If you are wanting to get away from self-help and psycho-babble -- wanting to get past ego and personality -- and you are willing to try a more spiritual approach to understanding and accepting your Self (and by extension, others), I would recommend starting with 'There is Nothing Wrong With You' and 'Be The Person You Want to Find'. After reading those about five times each and devouring the concepts, I moved on to 'The Key and the Name of the Key is Willingness', 'That Which You Are Seeking is Causing You to Seek' and 'The Fear Book'. (During the same period I was also reading Marianne Williamson's "A Return to Love". Excellent!) Before I knew it, I was knee deep in Zen Buddhism and finding my way back to my Self. I wasn't aware of how far away from myself I had gone... Ever swim in the ocean and turn around to look back at the beach and think "Yikes! How did I get so far away?!" I think life without conscious awareness has an undercurrent of its own that tends to do that to us as well. It takes us away from our essence. As traditional self-help and personal growth books focus on ego and personality, they may hinder us in rediscovering our essence -- keeping us going in circles rather than hitting the target. Cheri Huber's books have reminded me that the target is "in here" rather than "out there".

I went through a very difficult time a couple of years ago and stumbled across this book. It was nothing short of life changing for me. It taught me to really listen to myself, to better trust my intuition, to accept what *IS* and shed so many of the "how life *should* be" attitudes.

For example: "Gee, I'm a horrible parent because I want to work outside the home." Well, no, I'm not a horrible parent because I want to work outside the home. I'm simply a parent who wants to work outside the home. Some people in society have labeled it "horrible", but do *I* deem it "horrible"? No, I don't. So I don't let it bother me any more.

Use your own standards to judge yourself, not "society's", because different societies have different standards. The Zen approach in the book is interesting, but fundamentally for me, the book is about how to love and accept yourself as you are and to stop putting societial labels on every thing you do.

I have spent the last 6 months reading books about Zen, Insight Meditation, Loving Kindness and other Buddhist concepts. I found the ideas to be powerful, but difficult to integrate into my life. Cheri Huber does not expect you to give up your life and enter a monastery. She does not tell you about Insight meditation or Buddhism, then warn you about the possible traps along the way to enlightenment.
Cheri gives you ideas and tools to improve your life now, while still opening you up to the power of Insight meditation and helping you to step outside of your conditioning.
I have recommended this book to many of my friends, and have found it to be one of the most life changing/enhancing ones I have read.

I found this book insulting to people experiencing deep depression. The book's advice of embracing the depression by renting a movie or baking a black cake and throwing yourself a pity party is trivializing of a very devasting experience. I would be truly shocked if the writers of this book have experienced the overwhelming pain of depression.

If you are looking for an interesting approach for combatting feeling down after a bad day, this is your book. It is cute if you are not searching for a solution to the crippling affects of clinical depression.

Depression is emptiness, exhaustion, and meaninglessness (p. 129). Zen teacher, Cheri Huber's 150-page book is not "an explanation of nor a cure for depression;" it is about facing depression with compassion. "The perspective of this book is that there is nothing more important than compassion," Huber writes, "everything else springs from that" (p. 143).

Depression offers us an opportunity for spiritual growth. "Like everything else in life," Huber writes, "depression is an ally, a gift. It has something to teach us" (p. 98). "Depression brings me back to myself in a way much of life does not," she writes. "It gets my attention. It says, 'Stop! Pay attention!'"(p. 69). Depression allows us to see the cause of our suffering, to see who we are, to embrace ourself in compassion, and to let go and end the suffering (p. 1). Instead of "numbing ourselves to depression with food, drugs, alcohol, sex, talking" (p. 63), Huber recommends that we get to know our emotions; rest, eat well, and exercise regularly; and take up an awareness practice that enables us to let go of false beliefs and assumptions about how we and the world should be (p. 146).

I arrived at this book through a friend who encouraged me to read Cheri Huber. Since this is the second Huber book I've read this week, I guess I'm hooked on Huber. Her book is equal parts Zen, inspiration, and self-help, and printed in a handwritten format, "to slow the reader down so that awareness can touch the heart as well as the head." It is engaging and insightful. Huber teaches us that, depressed or not, "your life reflects your attitude of mind; your attitude of mind does not reflect your life" (p. 96). I recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing themself better, or following their heart. I also recommend Pema Chodron's book, WHEN THINGS FALL APART (1997) for those readers interested in this genre.

G. Merritt

I was very frustrated by my depression. Hated that I went through it and could not find any helpful sources to manage it when it struck. This book gave me an arsenal of very practical things I could do and helped me to see that fighting against it was the least helpful. That was hard to get my mind around at first but once I grasped it - incredible!

No Time Out From Grief is an exceptional book and valuable contribution to grief literature. I highly recommend it for the newly bereaved, and especially for newly bereaved parents. Terri and John Huber offer testimony to the healing power of love and hope.One minute at a time, one foot in front of the other, this family learned to survive the tragic death of their son, and readers will gather strength from their story.

I found the book very compeling and my heart went out to the author and her family. The main point I received from the journels were don't forget our family and don't forget my son. I see how very important it is for the families to discuss their loss and remember to them their loved one. Don't be afraid to talk about someones life, they love knowing that you remember.

The book was very emotional but every bit worth reading. It helped me better understand the griefing process and the overwheming pain of loosing a child.

After basic meditation instruction - which is easy enough, since there is so little to know or remember - and maybe even the purchase of a fancy meditation cushion or a snazzy bench, something keeps us from doing it. Even for ten minutes a day. Suddenly that ten minutes seems utterly precious and needed for some other activity. The resistance can manifest itself in numberless doubts and questions, which we invest in and thus feed our belief in our own inadequacy.

Cheri Huber won't let us get out of it that easily. Here she is in her conversational, humorous style, answering some of the most frequently-asked questions about starting and maintaining a regular practice of sitting meditation. Her answers are direct, to the point, and unsparing. She addresses each question generously and practically, while also calling attention to the potential resistance underlying each of them.

The main message of this book is that we should examine the process by which fear works within us. Unfortunately, we are not told how to do this. The author believes it is different for everyone. I might have been able to overlook this, but this was the _only_ practical advice given in the book.

I thought the handwritten format of the book was nice to look at, but it is actually rather deceptive because it camouflages the fact that the book is very short - both in words and advice. It takes about 30 minutes to read the whole thing, and you may well end up feeling like you didn't get anything out of it.

Save your money and check this one out at the library. The brevity and lack of insight don't make it a wise purchase.

This book is great. I got it in a difficult time when I was having problems, which I didn't relate to fear. With the help of this book I managed to realy solve things beautifuly. The books is very inspiring and also very practical. I also realy enjoyed the style in which it is writen.

My meditation practice was showing me a lot of fear, both in common thoughts and in dreams. I read this book carefully. Then I got some good advice from a friend that pointed out to me my bias toward seeing "bad" outcomes, to the exclusion of "good" or "usual" outcomes.

I started seeing what I was afraid of, which took me into other issues, and later I found that my fears were gone. Indeed, the bad things that have happened to me have been blessings, because I had gained strength from them.

I still have fears, but these do not trouble me any more.

At the heart of this book is the search for a meaningful life, a search that prompted the Buddha to leave his wife, son, wealth and privilege, "because intuitively he knew that there must be something that would make sense out of what appears to be the senseless, useless suffering that life brings." Like a traveller describing a worthwhile journey, a friend recently encouraged me to read Cheri Huber's books. Simple in format, but deep with insights, this 130-page book consists of equal parts zen, inspiration, and spirituality. It would appeal to any reader interested in those subjects. In it, Huber tells us that "when we're present we're equal to life" (p. 35); "when we pay attention, everything enlightens us" (p. 44). "We need only stop, sit down, be still, and pay attention."

Also included in this book is a 14-page essay, "One Less Act of Violence," which raises the question, when we are present with our eyes and hearts open, engaged in a spiritual practice to end suffering, do we really want to eat the flesh of another creature (p. 5)? We have been conditioned, Huber writes, "not to think about what it was, who it was, that it lived, breathed, slept, ate, had babies, was afraid, sought to live . . . I can't think about that, it's dinner" (p. 5). She encourages us to avoid practicing violence on any level, and to take care of one another . . . "All us living creatures" (p. 14).

I liked this book so much I read it twice in a single day, and I'm eager now to read other Cheri Huber books.

G. Merritt

Huber admits that her book "isn't organized in any particular order, but then life isn't organized in any particular order." This is so on both counts. Yet, her book flows as it should, Zen-like, in the present, and it is not at all disconcerting this way...it just is. For a beginning reader of Zen thoughts and processes, I found Huber's book thoughtful "letting go is opening the hand," humorous (re: meditation practice.."One begins to sit. In the beginning One enjoys sitting. 'This is great. This is interesting.This feels right.' However before long, ego...says, 'This is too much! I hate this! I is not having a good. I doesn't want to sit still.'" And I found the depth of most of anything she said, each worthy of a night's discussion over a good merlot: "What if you could be as happy as you can be and not be getting what you want?" "How is letting go different than giving up?' The book is fairly therapuetic for those with anger issues, those invested in materialism, those seeking other than what they are in the midst of and sinking. The book is an easy read written in a format I am comfortable with: a font that mimics casual printing by hand, lots of space between paragraphs, simple drawings for illustration of deeper thoughts. Don't be fooled by the easy-read format, for the wisdom and depth therein will give one pause to consider...be still....and pay attention

This is a great book to just pick up and flip to any page and read. Everything written in this book is useful. Example: "How do we get so far from our true nature? How 'true' can it be if it's so easy to lose sight of?" Teaches us to be mindful of the present moment and to ourseleves; to "pay attention."