Quotes About Presence

When you do zazen, you're not trying to achieve a totally empty mind. That would be impossible. But you are trying to avoid the deliberate habitual manipulation of thoughts and images we usually engage in.

The truth is everywhere all around us, but if we don't practice, it doesn't show itself and we can't experience it.

In zazen we practice the oneness of reality.

A quiet room is best for zazen. We shouldn't eat or drink too much, or too little. Put aside everything else. Don't think of good or bad. Don't judge your practice. Stop ruminating and deliberating about stuff. Don't try to become a Buddha.

Each time I get caught up in thought, I adjust my posture. I have never once found myself caught up in thought and not had my posture go subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) wrong. The body follows the mind.

People always get worried about whether they're doing zazen right. But basically if you're doing it at all, you're probably doing it right — even if your thoughts won't stop, even if you're sleepy or irritable, even if it just feels boring.

You would not think someone so afflicted would or could be cheerful, not prone to melancholy or the miseries. Early on she acquired ways of dealing with her life, with life in general. And as she grew older it became evident that she feared almost nothing — perhaps only horses and something she couldn't quite name, a strange presence of danger not quite or not really a part of the world.

You could look ahead to the future or back at the past, but the present moved too quickly to absorb. Maybe sometimes. Not today.

Was life like that? You could look ahead to the future or back at the past, but the present moved too quickly to absorb. Maybe sometimes. Not today. Today they were driving along an endless two-lane highway through the forested hills of Connecticut. "Why

I'm not strong enough," Kaladin whispered. "You're strong enough for me." "I'm not good enough." "You're good enough for me." "I wasn't there." Tien smiled. "You are here for me, Kal. You're here for all of us.

Act like you were important, act like you were angry, and people just wanted to get out of your way.

Enjoy the moment," Evi told him. "Close your eyes and contemplate what the One has given you. Seek the peace of oblivion, and bask in the joy of your own sensation.

The whole world could be going wrong, but seeing her made him forget.

At least sit and listen. And stop looming like a mountain.

Just as a beautiful woman demanded attention by virtue of her face and figure, Breeze drew it by near unconscious use of his powers.

Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.

We risk missing out on joy when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.

Show up for people in pain and don't look away.

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.

Empathy is a strange and powerful thing. There is no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It's simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of "You're not alone.

You are responsible for the energy you bring into this room.

Each person's grief is as unique as their fingerprint. But what everyone has in common is that no matter how they grieve, they share a need for their grief to be witnessed. That doesn't mean needing someone to try to lessen it or reframe it for them. The need is for someone to be fully present to the magnitude of their loss without trying to point out the silver lining." Professor Neimeyer's

An experience of collective pain does not deliver us from grief or sadness; it is a ministry of presence. These moments remind us that we are not alone in our darkness and that our broken heart is connected to every heart that has known pain since the beginning of time.

I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness - it's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude.