The journey of this raft is to the far shore, an ancient metaphor for a consciousness that can see our realities calmly, clearly, and with great compassion, free of the distortions and reactivity that are our more usual human lot. With this compassionate insight, this wisdom, we see other sentient beings and ourselves with understanding, appreciation, and caring good will. Here, with calm and well being, the awakened mind operates effectively, skillfully. Mindful Raft over Troubled Waters describes and illustrates the practicing and developing of this transformed consciousness, as found in the teachings on insight (vipassanā) meditation or mindfulness practice, common to the world's Buddhist traditions. This book portrays this fresh consciousness in a wide range of experiences; it presents our thinking and feeling processes afresh, offering us self-understanding and a deep appreciation of our experiencing mind in all of its workings. Beyond boredom, confusion, and judgment, we clearly see here our various states of mind, trains of thought, preferences, the creation of intentions, and, ultimately, the carrying out of actions that lead us in one direction or another in our lives.