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How accepting impermanence can end the struggle to “fix” your life | Robert Waldinger
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October 30, 2025
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21:27Now PlayingBecome a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more“The idea is that we move from a place of wanting the world to conform to what we like [towards] not needing other people to be different from who they are.”
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Most of us feel we have miles to go with self improvement. That we want to become calmer, wiser, more finished. What if this pursuit actually keeps us trapped from that becoming? Zen teacher and psychiatrist Robert Waldinger argues that enlightenment isn’t a destination or a rare mystical state. Rather, it's the ever-shifting recognition of the present moment.
This quiet state of noticing, Waldinger says, can be extremely liberating, freeing us from the pressure of becoming.
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About Robert Waldinger:
Robert Waldinger, MD is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a practicing psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and a Zen teacher and practitioner.
For the last two decades, Waldinger has been the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. This study, conducted over more than 85 years, has analyzed the entire lives of 724 families to determine the activities, behaviors, and dynamics that enhance a person’s life-long well-being. Waldinger has dedicated his career to examining these elements and discovering what brings true fulfillment to human existence.
He is the author of several books, including his most recent, The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.
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