How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

by Cheri Huber

A Zen teacher presents a process for getting where you want to go in life. This step-by-step path based on Zen awareness training requires honesty from the reader, who will learn how to examine issues causing difficulty, discover the source of problems and become free from the suffering created.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology, Buddhism, Zen, Spirituality

248 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2000

About the author

Cheri Huber, author of 20 books, has been a student and teacher of Zen for over 35 years. In 1983, Cheri founded the Mountain View Zen Center, and in 1987 she founded the Zen Monastery Peace Center near Murphys, California. She and the monks at the Monastery conduct workshops and retreats at these centers, other places around the U.S., and internationally.

In 1997, Cheri founded Living Compassion, a nonprofit organization dedicated to peace and service. Living Compassion’s primary work is the Africa Vulnerable Children Project, based in Zambia, where for over a decade they have been working with the people of Kantolomba, beginning the process of turning a slum of 11,000 people into a self-sustaining community.

Cheri also has a weekly Internet based radio show.

Reviews

[Evelina | AvalinahsBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite the cheesy sounding self-help title, this is a wonderful resource - and it doesn't matter if you're into Zen Buddhism or not. The author makes this book an accessible resource to anyone who is willing to do some work on themselves to feel better about life or where they are, or more like steps to take in order to stop hating themselves, cause it's a problem it seems most adults struggle with to some extent. Everything is written very accessibly and in an easy to understand way, nothing is sugar coated and there are no New Agey truths or slogans, no woo-woo either, if you want to call it that. It's spirituality through psychology, so nobody will be selling you a new religion. Can definitely recommend.

Thanks to Jane for the loaned book and rec!

[Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really about accepting ourselves as we are and our lives as they are-- and actually appreciating it. It's about mindful meditation in that it reminds us to come back to just being who we are and where we are, instead of striving for something outside of our control. It also helped me realize that much of the self-talk in my head stems from conditioning that I've received from society/family, and how to question and quiet that judgmental voice.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth Cheri Huber book I've read and it's my favorite so far. All Cheri's books speak to me but this one seemed to be exactly what I wanted to hear. I will probably read this one again.

[Darklysewn · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a great read as well. now i want to read all of her books.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well written and straightforward book. I enjoyed it through the last page. It is engaging and is absent of the dogma of many well-meaning "spiritual" books out there.

[Verbena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meditation

[Paul Bard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slow going. Lots of needless testimony.

Mostly conversational. She writes like she speaks. But sometimes her more psychological sentences are muddled and need re-reading to clarify.

The frame is brilliant: Zen as “awareness practice”; change as letting go of desire for change and becoming curious about what stops the change. Brilliant insights.

Do they work? For people with low agency, which is most everyone, they seem perfect. As a pragmatic American interpretation of the more yin mindfulness path of Buddhism, they are perfect. For what they are. I imagine paired with a more active yang/Stoic approach they would be even more effective.

Most useful part of the book was the chapter on subpersonalities, for the insight that all automatic behavior is a subroutine for ego protection. Brilliant, as I said.

I’d be keen to read another of Huber’s books to see if it is as insightful as this one.

Highly recommended.

[Ümit Sevgi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aile, okul, arkadaşlar kısacası maruz kaldığımız toplumsal kültürel şartlanmalar ve yazara göre bunlardan oluşan ben merkezcilik, acı çekme ve başa çıkmadan nasıl merkezlenme ve bize ait olmayan kimliklerden sıyrılma gibi basamaklarla kurtulacağımızı anlatıyor. Ona göre 2 seçenek var: ya hayali bir geleceğin ve geçmişin içinde dolanıp durmak ya da şimdiki anın bütünlüğünün içinde olmak. Nasılı ise dikkat ve farkındalık, kısaca meditasyon.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read so many of this authors books and this is the one that always stands out, for me. It’s so personal and really moving. It helped me when I was going through a very difficult time and I continue to find it helpful now. As others said don’t be put off my the title it is a very well written book.

[Kara]

Skimmed and DNF - its just not my preferred style.