even more quotations on the present moment

now - now 2

To a large degree, the measure of our peace of
mind is determined by how much we are able
to live in the present moment. Irrespective of
what happened yesterday or last year, and
what may or may not happen tomorrow, the
present moment is where you are--always!

Richard Carlson

There is only one time that is important--Now! It is the most important time because
it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary person is the one
with whom you are, for no person knows whether he or she will ever have dealings
with anyone else: and the most important affair is, to do the person good,
because for that purpose alone were human beings sent into this life!

Wayne Dyer

There is no better time than now. The time to live is now. The time to
dream is now. The time to imagine and forget the past is now. The time
to shine is now. The time to bleed, sweat, and determine yourself for
the things you want most is now.

unattributed

As long as we have some definite idea about or some hope in the future,
we cannot really be serious with the moment that exists right now.

Suzuki Roshi

God puts you where God needs you. You are where you are supposed
to be. The job you are doing may not be any easier on account of this,
indeed it may be harder, even more urgent, but now you are centered,
focused, clear. So this is where I am supposed to be. I always thought
I was supposed to be somewhere else, doing something else, being
someone else. But I realize now that I was mistaken. This does not
mean that I can't or will not be doing something else. Just right now,
I am where God wants me.

Lawrence Kushner

You may have heard about living today, tomorrow, or "tonow." Tonow, children
tell us, is a gift, which is why we call it "the present." Children understand
that tonow is the place to live. The present is really the only moment we have.
Sure, bad things can happen in the tonow. But when bad things happen to
children, they show us the way again, because they know how to be
in touch with their feelings and needs.

Bernie Siegel

We can go through our whole lives worrying about our future happiness,
and totally miss where true peace lives--right here, right now.

Peter Russell

Remember this: Now is the only time you have. When God
created the universe, it was now. You can't say to creation
and energy, "I'll do it later, not now." Later doesn't exist.
Creation doesn't know anything but now. Whenever you get
around to doing what you want to do, it will be now. The
things you need to do to live a happier, more fulfilling life--the
only time you can possible start doing them is now.

Bernie Siegel

My past and future enhance my experience of the world, but it is only in the present moment that I co-create my life. Behind me are "the things I cannot change," which a familiar prayer reminds me to accept. I accept them, and I learn from them. Ahead of me lie infinite possibilities and ideas waiting to be accessed through prayer, affirmation and action. And, in this present moment, I find God. I affirm only good, knowing that all good things are available to me.

unattributed (the Daily Word)

In the Now, there really is no destination. Each moment is lived for its own sake,
even as you move toward whatever you many choose to pursue. When you are
focused on some outcome or achievement--or are looking forward to the day
when you are able to live in conditions that you imagine will be superior to whatever
currently exists--your life right now becomes just an interval on the way to the next event.

Richard Moss

We are all dangling in mid-process between what already
happened (which is just a memory) and what might happen
(which is just an idea). Now is the only time anything
happens. When we are awake in our lives, we know what's
happening. When we're asleep, we don't see what's right in front of us.

Sylvia Boorstein

You spend very little time in the present moment.
Reality exists only in the present moment.
Therefore you spend very little time in reality.

Leonard Jacobson

As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are.
Otherwise you will miss most of your life.

the Buddha

We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be
in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good
at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years
for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car,
a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive
in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath
we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity.
We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Discard everything except these few truths: we can live
only in the present moment, in this brief now; all the rest
of our life is dead and buried or shrouded in uncertainty.
Short is the life we lead, and small our patch of earth.

Marcus Aurelius

When we yield to discouragement it is usually because
we give too much thought to the past and to the future.

St. Therese of Lisieux

When you live in the present moment, time stands still. Accept your circumstances
and live them. If there is an experience ahead of you, have it! But if
worries stand in your way, put them off until tomorrow. Give yourself
a day off from worry. You deserve it. Some people live with a low-grade
anxiety tugging at their spirit all day long. They go to sleep with it,
wake up with it, carry it around at home, in town, to church,
and with friends. Here’s a remedy: Take the present moment
and find something to laugh at. People who laugh, last.

Barbara Johnson

Each new moment presents an
opportunity for conscious choice.
We can choose to let go of the past.
We can choose to be here now.
We can choose to accept
responsibility for ourselves. . . .
We can choose to awaken.
Or we can choose to remain asleep
and unconscious.

Leonard Jacobson

"This very instant" is all we have. We make plans for the future, we
invoke memories of the past, but really, all we have to deal with
and to act in is the moment at hand. We cannot stop its going; we
cannot hurry the next moment on its way. Like everyone else in the
world, we're partners in the dull, humdrum, dazzling, fabulous,
totally unpredictable moment.
And if we have a time that is "our time," it's right now. It has to be,
because there isn't any other. Maybe we've had times in the past that
were special for us; maybe the future will hold precious moments.
But the only time that is truly "our time" is this time, where we
are, right now. And what we do with this time is ours to decide.

unattributed

You don't get to choose how you're
going to die. Or when. You can only
decide how you're going to live. Now.

Joan Baez

Life can take place only in the
present moment. If we lose
the present moment, we lose life.

Buddha

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The present moment is never intolerable. It is always what is coming in five minutes
or five days that makes people despair. The Law of Life is to live in the present,
and this applies to both time and place. Keep your attention to the present moment,
and in the place where your body is now. Do a fair day's work, and then stop.
Overwork is not productive in the long run.

Emmet Fox

Are you present in this moment, right here, right now?
Or are you remembering what you didn't do yesterday,
thinking about what you have to do tomorrow,
regretting what you did last week. If you are in any of these places,
you are not here, right now in the fullness of this moment.
The richness of the present is here. The fullness of now is present.
If you are not here now, it means you could be missing the love,
joy, peace and brand-new ideas that are here right now.
Why not take a moment to gather yourself, to pull yourself together,
to collect all of your thoughts and feelings in this time and place?

Iyanla Vanzant

Only one person in a thousand knows the trick
of really living in the present. Most of us spend
fifty-nine minutes an hour living in the past,
with regret for lost joys or shame for things badly
done (both utterly useless and weakening) or in
a future which we either long for or dread. . . .
There is only one minute in which you are
alive, this minute, here and now. The only way
to live is by accepting each minute as an
unrepeatable miracle. Which is exactly what
it is—a miracle and unrepeatable.

Storm Jameson

Too many people not only try to hold on to happiness, but they
try to recapture happiness from times before. "You can't
go home again" is a very true saying, for truly going home would
be an attempt to recapture the past. The past is gone, and
today is here. We're older and wiser and more capable of taking
all we can from the present moment, so here the
present moment is--what are you waiting for?

tom walsh

What are you going to do?
Are you going to keep looking
backwards, full of anger,
resentment and unfulfilled desire.
Or are you going to be here now.
Because everything is available
for you in the here and now.
Love, compassion, silence, bliss
and Oneness.

Leonard Jacobson

The moment is what you are in.
Like a sword the moment cuts away
everything around itself so that it can
be free. The sword is gentle to
the touch and its edge is sharp.
Those who handle it gently
are unharmed. But those who
treat it roughly are injured.

Qushayri

Our suffering stems from ignorance. We react because we do not know what
we are doing, because we do not know the reality of ourselves. The mind spends
most of the time lost in fantasies and illusions, reliving pleasant or unpleasant
experiences and anticipating the future with eagerness or fear. While lost in such
cravings or aversions, we are unaware of what is happening now, what we are
doing now. Yet surely this moment, now, is the most important for us. We cannot
live in the past; it is gone. Nor can we live in the future; it is forever beyond our
grasp. We can live only in the present. If we are unaware of our present actions,
we are condemned to repeating the mistakes of the past and can never succeed
in attaining our dreams for the future. But if we can develop the ability to be
aware of the present moment, we can use the past as a guide for ordering our
actions in the future, so that we may attain our goal.

S.N. Goenka

Now

I leave with God to-morrow’s where and how,
And do concern myself but with the Now,
That little word, though half the future’s length,
Well used, holds twice its meaning and its strength.

Like one blindfolded groping out his way,
I will not try to touch beyond to-day.
Since all the future is concealed from sight
I need but strive to make the next step right.

That done, the next, and so on, till I find
Perchance some day I am no longer blind,
And looking up, behold a radiant Friend
Who says, “Rest, now, for you have reached the end.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date.
It isn't. In fact, no one has a guarantee that he or she will be here
tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we
have any control over. When our attention is in the present moment,
we push fear from our minds. . . . Practice keeping your attention
on the here and now. Your efforts will pay great dividends.

Richard Carlson

The power of memories and expectations is such that for most human beings
the past and the future are not as real, but more real than the present.

Alan Watts

The spiritual is not to be separated from the material, nor the wonderful
from the ordinary. We need, above all, to disentangle ourselves from
habits of speech and thought which set the two apart, making it impossible
for us to see that this--the immediate, everyday, and present experience--
is IT, the entire and ultimate point of the existence of the universe.

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