Quotes about Being Present

“Mind invented contradictions, invented names; it called some things beautiful, some ugly, some good, some bad. One part of life was love, another murder. How young, foolish, comical this mind was. One of its inventions was time. A subtle invention, a refined instrument for torturing the self even more keenly and making the world multiplex and difficult. For then man was separated from all he craved only by time, by time alone, this crazy invention! It was one of the props, one of the crutches that you had to let go, that one above all, if you wanted to be free.”
Hermann Hesse, Klein And Wagner, via Sunbeams (Page 48)

“Beyond today your projections of life are conceptual. You don’t have to not drink for twenty years today. You don’t have to give up white bread for all eternity, right now. And if you do make it through today, and wake up tomorrow, what does it really matter that you didn’t act out yesterday? I mean, you’re not accumulating tokens for punitive pleasure. This ‘one day at a time’ cliché when taken plainly is no less profound than any ‘be in the moment’ Eastern wisdom I’ve since encountered. Today is all I have.”
Russell Brand, Recovery (Page 25)

“No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing it is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.”
Alan Watts, Sunbeams (Page 23)

Alan Watts Quote on The Present and How It’s Not A Result Of The Past

“Everyone automatically assumes that the present is the result of the past. Turn it around, and consider whether the past may not be a result of the present. The past may be streaming back from the now, like the country as seen from an airplane.”
Alan Watts, Sunbeams (Page 14)

Beyond the Quote (Day 388)

Seeing the past as being the cause of your present steals from you the accountability that’s needed to take ownership of your future. For, you can’t change the outcome of your future if you’re busy blaming what happened in the past. You have to realize, as Watts outlines above, that it’s the present that caused the past, not the past that caused the present.

“I now live in woke mode. For me, every moment is a reawakening, a chance to meet myself exactly as I am. I’m finally allowing myself to just be. Be giddy. Be irritable. Be vulnerable. Be silly. Be exhilarated. Be whomever and however I am. That is my practice, my daily meditation. It’s also my daily prayer for all of us—that we allow others the same freedom of expression that we are learning to grant to ourselves.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 216)

The gift of clarity will come.

“For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality. Until this has become clear, it seems that our life is all past and future, and that the present is nothing more than the infinitesimal hairline which divides them. From this comes the sensation of ‘having no time,’ of a world which hurries by so rapidly that it is gone before we can enjoy it. But through ‘awakening to the instant’ one sees that this is the reverse of the truth: it is rather the past and future which are the fleeting illusions, and the present which is eternally real.”
Alan Watts, The Way of Zen, via Sunbeams (Page 12)

It’s never not now.

“The more fearless a person is, the less mind he uses. The more fearful a person, the more he uses the mind.”
Osho, Courage (Page 86)

“There are two types of living: one fear-oriented, one love-oriented. Fear-oriented living can never lead you into deep relationship. You remain afraid, and the other cannot be allowed, cannot be allowed to penetrate you to your very core. To an extent you allow the other, but then the wall comes up and everything stops. The love-oriented person is one who is not afraid of the future, one who is not afraid of the result and the consequence, who lives here and now. Don’t be bothered about the result; that is the fear-oriented mind. Don’t think about what will happen out of it. Just be here and act totally. Don’t calculate. A fear-oriented man is always calculating, planning, safeguarding. His whole life is lost in this way.”
Osho, Courage (Page 79)

“Looking at a flower, become the flower; dance around the flower, sing a song. the wind is cool and crisp, the sun is warm, and the flower is in its prime. The flower is dancing in the wind, rejoicing, singing a song, singing alleluia. Participate with it! Drop indifference, objectivity, detachment. Drop all your scientific attitudes. Become a little more fluid, more melting, more merging. Let the flower speak to your heart, let the flower enter your being. Invite him—he is a guest! And then you will have some taste of mystery.”
Osho, Courage (Page 21)

30 Sadhguru Quotes from Inner Engineering on Spirituality, Love, and Understanding Life

Excerpt: Learn how to better engineer the inner workings of your life by reading this powerful collection of Sadhguru quotes from Inner Engineering…

“Do you want to be a living being or a thinking being? Right now, ninety percent of the time, you are only thinking about life, not living it. Have you come into this world to experience life or to think about it? Your mental process is a very small happening compared to the life process, but right now it has become far more important. It is time for humanity to shift the significance to the life process once again. The need is an urgent one. Our lives depend on it.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 162)

“The most beautiful moments in your life—what you might consider moments of bliss, joy, ecstasy, or utter peace—were moments when you were not thinking about anything at all. You were just being. Even without your thoughts, existence is.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 150)

Quote on Making Your Wants Want You and How Relaxing Helps Make That Happen

“Don’t chase, don’t beg, don’t stress, don’t be desperate, just relax. When you relax it will come to you. Make your wants, want you.”
Unknown

Beyond the Quote (291/365)

What happens when you relax? You release. You let go of held tension both in the body and the mind. Or, maybe better said, in the mind and then in the body. For, the body is but a puppet of the mind. And in order for the mind to relax what needs to happen? Well, you have to ease your mind away from the regrets of the past and the anxieties of the future and connect to the now. How else can you be truly relaxed if you’re preoccupied thinking and worrying about the past and future? It is only when you are utterly present that you can be truly relaxed. Isn’t it so?

“Contentment had been there for the grasping, if only I had recognized it. Probably it’s there for you. The elders would tell you to grab it while you can, not agitate for something better. They don’t have time for delusions, including the delusion that you have time. They’re too busy loving like there’s no tomorrow, because for any of us, there might not be.”
John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 85)

Beyond the Quote (278/365)

Contentment is here. It’s right here for you and I to grasp. Of this I am sure. It is not a matter of whether it’s there or not for you, but a matter of whether or not you can see it. Whether or not you can recognize it. Whether or not you even know what you’re looking for or how to grasp it.

“You could be good today. But instead, you choose tomorrow.”
Marcus Aurelius, Medium

“Enlightenment is the space between your thoughts.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium

Thich Nhat Hanh Quote on the Present Moment and Appreciating the Flower When It’s Shown To You

“We can realize peace right in the present moment with our look, our smile, our words, and our actions. Peace work is not a means. Each step we make should be peace. Each step we make should be joy. Each step we make should be happiness. If we are determined, we can do it. We don’t need the future. We can smile and relax. Everything we want is right here in the present moment.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

Beyond the Quote (238/365)

One day the Buddha held up a flower in front of an audience of 1,250 monks and nuns. He did not say anything for quite a long time. The audience was perfectly silent. Everyone seemed to be thinking hard, trying to see the meaning behind the Buddha’s gesture. Then, suddenly, the Buddha smiled.

“The only way I was able to pick up details on the court, to be aware of the minutiae on the hardwood, was by training my mind to do that off the court and focusing on every detail in my daily life. By reading, by paying attention in class and in practice, by working, I strengthened my focus. By doing all of that, I strengthened my ability to be present and not have a wandering mind.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 29)