Quotes About Present

Life would be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.

don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man.

The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better..

You're not here anymore. You've got to leave in order to return to the present.

Every second since then has been a struggle against my vices and against self-pity. I need to remain focused and calm, to do the work I chose to do with love, and never to cling to the present moment, because death is still very close, the abyss is there beside me, and I am walking along the edge.

To understand what happens now one must find the cause, which may be very long ago in its beginning, but is surely there, and therefore a knowledge of history as detailed as possible is essential if we are to comprehend the present and be prepared for the future.

Je suis comme un pont fragile, reliant à travers l'infini le passé et le présent. Je serre la main maternelle. Je ne peux pas la laisser échapper, car sans moi ma mère serait seule.

Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can't simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment. We feel that someone else knows what's going on, but that there's something missing in us, and therefore something is lacking in our world.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

One can appreciate & celebrate each moment — there's nothing more sacred. There's nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there's nothing more!

Everything is fresh, the essence of realization.

Each moment is an opportunity to make a fresh start.

IN practicing meditation, we're not trying to live up to some kind of ideal—quite the opposite.

The path is uncharted. It comes into existence moment by moment and at the same time drops away behind us. It's like riding on a train sitting backwards. We can't see where we're headed, only where we've been. This is a very encouraging teaching, because it says that the source of wisdom is whatever is going to happen to us today. The source of wisdom is whatever is happening to us right at this very instant.

Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In other words, if we're going to be more cheerful in the future, it's because of our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.

If we want to learn about our future, we should look at what we're doing now.

The point is that our true nature is not some ideal that we have to live up to. It's who we are right now, and that's what we can make friends with and celebrate.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better.

Chaos is part of our home ground. Instead of looking for something higher or purer, work with it just as it is.

What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.

Without the words, without the repetitive thoughts, the emotions don't last longer than one and a half minutes.

The rain in the morning isn't good or bad, comforting or threatening. It's not even "rain." It's just what it is.

The principle of nowness is very important to any effort to establish an enlightened society.

Hour after hour we sit here and just come back to the present moment as much as we can, acknowledge what's going on in our minds, come back to the present moment as much as we can, acknowledge what's going on in our minds, follow the out-breath, label our thoughts "thinking," come back to the present moment, acknowledge what's going on in our minds.