I was recently teaching at New York Insight, a lovely room on the 10th floor of a building in Manhattan. A friend sat close to the windows on one side, which faced another building across a courtyard. She told me she was sitting there, feeling great contentment and ease of heart, thinking, “There is nowhere else in the world I’d rather be, nothing else I’d rather be doing,” when she glanced across the courtyard and noticed a ballroom dancing class in one of the rooms in the nearby building. She immediately started thinking, “I should be doing ballroom dancing instead of meditating. That would make me happier.”

When she told me the story I just laughed and laughed—it sounded so typical of our habitual seeking and restlessness, our easy dissatisfaction with where we are if we are not mindful.

It reminded me of my quest for the perfect cherry blossom viewing experience in Washington DC. The f