Quotes about Presence

There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand.

What does happen as we intentionally pay attention to our breathing is that we realize pretty quickly that we are

Even the tiniest manifestation of mindfulness in any moment might give rise to an intuition or insight that could be hugely transforming.

It's not a matter of letting go—you would if you could. Instead of Let it go, we should probably say Let it be.

Our lives unfold only in moments. If we are not fully present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives but also fail to realize the richness and the depth of our possibilities for growth and transformation.

The challenge of mindfulness is to be present for your experience as it is rather than immediately jumping in to change it or try to force it to be different.

This is the case because, as we noted earlier, it is not the breath that is most important here, but the awareness itself. And the awareness can be of any aspect of your experience, not just your breathing—because it is always the same awareness, whatever the chosen object or objects of attention.

L]ive life as if each moment was important, as if each moment counted and could be worked with, even if it was a moment of pain, sadness, despair, or fear. This work involves above all the regular, disciplined practice of moment-to-moment awareness or mindfulness, the complete owning of each moment of your experience, good, bad, or ugly. This is the essence of full catastrophe living.

Le miracle de la succession des saisons est dans notre souffle; nos parents et nos enfants sont contenus dans notre souffle; notre esprit et notre corps sont notre souffle.

ultimately, mindfulness is intimacy—with ourselves and the world—underneath any apparent separation between the two. The

We live immersed in a world of constant doing. Rarely are we in touch with who is doing the doing, or, put otherwise, with the world of being.

New Yorker cartoon: Two Zen monks in robes and shaved heads, one young, one old, sitting side by side cross-legged on the floor. The younger one is looking somewhat quizzically at the older one, who is turned toward him and saying: "Nothing happens next. This is it.