All Our Waves Are Water: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment and the Perfect Wave

In this meditative memoir — a compelling fusion of Barbarian Days and the journals of Thomas Merton — the author of Saltwater Buddha reflects on his "failing toward enlightenment," his continued search to find meaning and a greater understanding of the Divine in the world’s oceans as well as everyday life.

For Jaimal Yogis, the path to enlightenment is surfing. Between water and air, between control and surrender, between the tangible and intangible realities of life, the spiritual can be found. Born to a family of seekers, he left home at sixteen to surf in Hawaii and join a monastery — an adventure he chronicled in Saltwater Buddha. Now, in his early twenties, his heart is broken and he’s lost his way. Hitting the road again, he lands in a monastery in Dharamsala, where he meets Sonam, a displaced Tibetan.

To help his friend, Jaimal makes a cockamamie attempt to reunite him with his family in Tibet by way of America. Though he does not succeed, witnessing Sonam’s indomitable spirit in the face of failure offers Jaimal a deeper understanding of faith. When the two friends part, he cannot fathom the unlikely circumstances that will reunite them.

All Our Waves Are Water follows Jaimal’s trek from the Himalayas to Indonesia; to a Franciscan Friary in New York City to the dusty streets of Jerusalem; and finally to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. Along his journey, Jaimal prays and surfs; mourning a lost love and seeking something that keeps eluding him, until he ultimately finds what he’s been looking for — that the perfect ride may well be the one we are on right now.

The poet Rumi wrote, "we are not a drop in the ocean. We are the ocean in a drop." All Our Waves Are Water is Jaimal’s "attempt to understand the ocean in a drop, to find that one moon shining in the water everywhere" — to find the Divine that unites us all.

"Yogis seems to have reached as close to enlightenment as anyone ever gets... He mixes science with faith and has a great sense of humor about everything along the way." Surfer Magazine

"Captivating.... Yogis finds wisdom everywhere [and] shows that the search for enlightenment, with its storms, lulls, and occasional thrills, is not much different from the search for the perfect wave." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Jaimal Yogis writes in a fun, engaging style, and the ideas he conveys are timeless, All Our Waves Are Water is a great pleasure." Sharon Salzberg, New York Times bestselling author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

"I’ll follow Jaimal Yogis into any ocean, walk whichever road with him, and read everything he writes. It always leads to growth." Wallace J. Nichols, New York Times bestselling author of Blue Mind

"Insightful, contemplative, and eloquently written, Yogis leaves us to realize that life isn’t about that elusive end goal of understanding humanity; it’s about the risks we’re willing to take in our journey to get there." Reza Aslan, author of No god but God and Zealot

Jaimal Yogis is an award-winning writer, outdoorsman, and frequent teacher. He is the author of the memoir Saltwater Buddha, which has been made into a feature documentary film, and The Fear Project: What Our Most Primal Emotion Taught Me About Survival, Success, Surfing, and Love. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, he has written for ESPN: The Magazine, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, San Francisco magazine, Surfer’s Journal, and many other publications. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Amy, and their three sons.