36 Quotes About Mindfulness & Presence
The whole of your life happens in a series of present moments, and almost all of them are missed. These quotes are an invitation back into the one that is happening now.
“No one can remain even for a moment without performing action. Everyone is helplessly driven to act by the qualities born of nature.”
“The to-do list is a productivity disaster. It scales to infinity; your attention does not. Move to a "pull system" — what do I actually have capacity for today?”
“Burnout was added to the WHO's International Classification of Diseases in 2019. It is now formally a syndrome — three specific symptoms — not just a feeling.”
“A friend asked me what I do for fun. I could not answer. I had not done anything for fun in years. That moment was the diagnosis I had been refusing.”
“You can keep going for years on willpower and caffeine. The body keeps the score, and one day it sends the bill. Pay the smaller bill now.”
“You are not the body. You are the awareness in which the body appears.”
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didnt do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.”
“Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.”
“Aloha is the breath of life. Alo, presence. Ha, breath. To greet someone with aloha is to share your breath with theirs.”
“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”
“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”
“We did not evolve to exercise. We evolved to move when survival required it. We must now require it of ourselves.”
“When you have authority, be aware: Maat does not look down on the small ones. The widow and the orphan have an equal claim on you.”
“Do not let your tongue run ahead of your heart. Maat is in the small moment of waiting.”
“Keep a cookie jar. Every time you do something hard you did not think you could do, put it in the jar. On the days the new thing seems impossible, reach into the jar. The hand that wrote the cookies is the same hand reaching now.”
“Good. Whatever happens — your plan failed, your team is short — say good. Now I know. Now I can adjust. The word is a tool.”
“The brain learns to associate effort with reward only when you stay present in the effort. Distraction is the thief of the dopamine signal. Stay with the burn.”
“Connection is why we are here. We are hard-wired to connect with others, it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives.”
“Loneliness is now associated with a greater risk of premature death than obesity, and is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.”
“Sisu is the moment when, having done all you could, you continue.”
“Pay no attention to what the critics say. No statue has ever been put up to a critic.”
“Confine yourself to the present.”
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
“You become what you give your attention to.”
“Who can wait quietly while the mud settles? Who can remain still until the moment of action?”
“Once upon a time, Chuang Tzu dreamt he was a butterfly. He did not know he was Chuang Tzu. Suddenly he awoke. Now he does not know whether he was Chuang Tzu dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he is Chuang Tzu.”
“Death is not an end but a moment of arising into another bardo. The way we have lived is the way we will die. The way we die is the way the next state begins.”
“When you are sad and depressed, when life seems to have lost its meaning, that is the moment when bodhicitta is most needed.”
“Whenever we follow our wandering, scattered minds, we are creating the conditions for suffering. Whenever we are present, here, now — even for a moment — we are creating the conditions for liberation.”
“In meditation, do not look for a particular kind of experience. The point of the practice is to be present to whatever arises.”
“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is the only moment.”
“The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment.”
“There is a Tibetan word, shenpa. It means hooked. The moment you notice the hook — that noticing is freedom.”
“Rikyu's son swept the garden until it was spotless. Rikyu shook a maple, and three leaves fell. "Now," he said, "it is clean."”
“My hut burned down — now I can see the moon more clearly.”