> explore
Find wisdom by theme or search for a word or phrase.
> browse by theme
abundance
acceptance
accountability
achievement
action
adaptability
adaptation
adversity
alan-watts
all-beings
ambition
anarchy
ancient-masters
anger
anxiety
appearances
application
appreciation
art
aspiration
authenticity
awakening
awareness
balance
beauty
before-heaven-and-earth
beginner
beginnings
being
beyond-thought
beyond-words
blessing
blue-cliff-record
boasting
body
book-of-serenity
bravery
breakthrough
breath
brevity
buddha-nature
care
cause-effect
caution
centeredness
centre
change
character
child-like
childlike
choice
chuang-tzu
circumstance
clarity
communication
community
compassion
complementarity
completeness
completion
complexity
concepts
conduct
conflict
connection
consciousness
consequence
consequences
conserving-energy
consistency
constancy
contemplation
contentment
continuity
control
cooperation
corruption
cosmology
cosmos
courage
creation
creativity
cultivation
cycles
death
decisiveness
decline
delicacy
delusion
depth
desire
desires
destiny
detachment
determination
development
direct-experience
direction
discernment
discipline
discretion
discrimination
disgrace
divine
duality
duty
early-action
ease
effectiveness
effort
effortless
effortlessness
ego
embodiment
emotions
empathy
emptiness
endurance
energy
enlightenment
enthusiasm
environment
equality
equanimity
essence
eternal
ethics
everyday-life
everywhere
excess
expression
fairness
faith
faithfulness
fame
family
fasting
fate
fear
fearlessness
feminine
flexibility
flow
following
foresight
formless
formlessness
foundation
freedom
frugality
fulfillment
function
fundamentals
futility
generations
generosity
gentleness
giving
good-and-bad
goodness
governance
governing
grace
gradual
gratitude
greatness
greed
grief
groundedness
growth
guidance
haiku
han-shan
happiness
harmony
heart
heaven
heaven-earth
heaven-way
heavens-way
help
helping
hidden
hierarchy
highway
holy-vessel
honesty
hua-hu-jing
huang-po
human-condition
human-nature
humanity
humility
humor
i-ching
identity
illumination
illusion
immortality
impartiality
impermanence
inactivity
ineffable
inequality
inevitability
inexhaustible
infinity
influence
initiative
inner-knowing
inner-knowledge
inner-life
inner-light
innocence
inquiry
insight
integrity
intelligence
intention
interconnection
interdependence
intuition
invisible
invulnerability
japanese
joy
judgment
justice
karma
kindness
knowing
knowledge
language
lasting
leadership
learning
legacy
less-is-more
letting-be
letting-go
life
life-death
light
limits
loss
love
lowness
loyalty
ma
mastery
materialism
meditation
mind
mind-body
mindfulness
minimalism
mirror
mirror-mind
moderation
modesty
morality
mortality
mother
mysterious-female
mysterious-power
mystery
nameless
naming
natural-law
natural-order
naturalness
nature
new-beginnings
no-self
nobility
non-action
non-attachment
non-being
non-claiming
non-competition
non-contention
non-duality
non-harm
non-hoarding
non-interference
non-knowing
non-ownership
non-possession
non-possessiveness
non-resistance
non-self
non-striving
non-violence
not-contending
nothingness
nourishment
nurturing
oneness
openness
opposites
oppression
order
origin
overstimulation
paradox
path
patience
peace
perception
perfection
permanence
perseverance
persistence
perspective
philosophy
position
possessions
potential
power
practical
practice
pragmatism
presence
present-moment
preservation
prevention
primal-virtue
principles
priorities
progress
protection
purity
quality
quiet
quietness
radiance
reality
receptivity
reciprocity
recognition
recursion
redistribution
reduction
reflection
reform
refuge
relationships
relativity
renewal
repetition
reputation
resilience
resolution
respect
responding-to-injury
responsibility
rest
restlessness
restoration
restraint
results
retreat
return
returning
reverence
reversal
reward
rewards
right-path
ripple-effect
ritual
root
rootedness
sacred
sacrifice
safety
sage
satisfaction
seasons
seeing
seeking
self
self-awareness
self-cultivation
self-improvement
self-knowledge
self-righteousness
selflessness
senses
service
shapes
shunryu-suzuki
silence
simplicity
simplification
sincerity
skill
skillfulness
small-steps
social-justice
society
soft-overcomes-hard
softness
solitude
source
space
speech
spirit
spiritual
spontaneity
stability
statecraft
steadiness
stillness
strategy
strength
strength-in-weakness
substance
subtlety
subtraction
success
sudden-insight
suffering
sufficiency
support
surprise
surrender
sustainability
tao
tao-power
tao-te-ching
tao-treasure
tao-virtue
taxation
tea
teaching
the-way
thich-nhat-hanh
three-treasures
time
timing
tranquility
transcendence
transformation
transience
transition
treasure
true-life
true-nature
trust
truth
uncarved-block
uncertainty
unchanging
understanding
unity
universality
unknowable
unlearning
usefulness
valley
valley-spirit
values
victory
virtue
vitality
void
wabi
war
warning
water
weakness
wealth
wholeness
wisdom
withdrawal
wonder
wu-wei
yielding
yin-yang
yunmen
zen
zen-koan
ziran
> 54 quotes tagged "present-moment"
-
The master of Kennin temple was Mokurai, Silent Thunder. He had a little protege named Toyo who was only twelve years old. Mokurai said, 'You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together. Now show me the sound of one hand.'Traditional Zen
-
Hakuin would say to his students, 'In clapping both hands a sound is heard. What is the sound of one hand?'Traditional Zen
-
Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past.Shobogenzo
-
A monk asked, 'The stone bridge of Zhaozhou is widely renowned, but I find only a shabby log bridge.' Zhaozhou said, 'You see only the shabby log bridge and don't see the stone bridge.' The monk asked, 'What is the stone bridge?' Zhaozhou said, 'It lets donkeys cross, it lets horses cross.'Blue Cliff Record, Case 52
-
A monk asked, 'Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?' Zhaozhou said, 'The cypress tree in the courtyard.'Blue Cliff Record
-
Huangbo said, 'You are all gobblers of dregs! Traveling around this way, where do you have today?'Traditional Zen
-
Linji said, 'There is a true person of no rank constantly going in and out through the gates of your face. Those who have not yet proved it, look! Look!'Linji Yulu
-
Yunmen said, 'Everyone has their own light. When you try to see it, everything is darkness. What is your light?'Traditional Zen
-
Deshan carried his bowls to the dining room. Xuefeng said, 'The bell hasn't rung and the drum hasn't sounded. Where are you going with your bowls?' Deshan returned to his room.Blue Cliff Record, Case 4
-
It's like a person hanging in a tree by his teeth over a precipice. His hands grasp no branch, his feet rest on no limb. Someone under the tree asks him, 'Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?' If he doesn't answer, he fails. If he does answer, he falls to his death. What should he do?Blue Cliff Record, Case 5
-
Yunmen said, 'I don't ask you about fifteen days ago. But what about fifteen days hence? Come, say a word about this!' Since none of the monks answered, he said, 'Every day is a good day.'Blue Cliff Record, Case 6
-
A monk asked Baling, 'What is the Blown Hair Sword?' Baling said, 'Each branch of coral holds up the moon.'Blue Cliff Record, Case 13
-
A monk asked, 'What is the meaning of meditation and study?' Zhaozhou said, 'In the morning we eat rice gruel, at midday we eat rice.'Traditional Zen
-
A monk asked, 'What is Buddha?' Dongshan said, 'Three pounds of hemp.'Book of Serenity, Case 18
-
A monk asked Dizang, 'Where can I find the place to enter?' Dizang said, 'Can you hear the sound of the valley stream?' The monk said, 'Yes, I can hear it.' Dizang said, 'Enter there.'Traditional Zen
-
Xuedou said, 'If you want to attain intimate understanding, just don't develop any concepts. The past is already past. The future has not yet arrived. Here and now—speak!'Traditional Zen
-
Master Rujing said, 'Zazen is the Dharma gate of great ease and joy. It is the practice-realization of dropping off body and mind.'Traditional Soto Zen
-
For fame's sake they endure all kinds of bodily hardship and mental pain. Those seeking lasting recognition sacrifice their present well-being for benefits that may only reach future generations.Yang Chu's Garden of Pleasure, Ch. 1
-
Striving for one vain hour of glory and providing for the splendour which is to survive their death, men constantly render themselves anxious. The pursuit of legacy and status steals present contentment.Yang Chu's Garden of Pleasure, Ch. 3
-
The past is already past. Don't try to regain it. The present does not stay. Don't try to touch it. The future has not come; don't think about it beforehand.Zen Poem – P'ang Yün (740-808 CE)
-
Don't make a distinction between work and play. Regard everything that you're doing as play, and don't regard for one minute that you have to be serious about it.Alan Watts
-
We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is.Alan Watts
-
The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.Alan Watts
-
Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live. There is no other reality than present reality, so that, even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly.Alan Watts
-
The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.Alan Watts
-
If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you'll spend your life completely wasting your time. You'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don't like doing, which is stupid.Alan Watts
-
Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal, for the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it exists forever….Alan Watts
-
Only those who have cultivated the art of living completely in the present have any use for making plans for the future, for when the plans mature they will be able to enjoy the results.Alan Watts
-
The future is a concept, it doesn't exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be because time is always now. That's one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.Alan Watts
-
Memory creates the future as well as the past, you wouldn't know that you were going to have anything happen tomorrow if you didn't have something yesterday.Alan Watts
-
Education, in the real sense, is not preparation for life, it is actually living. It is the child participating in adult concerns. And doing it now and realizing that the point of the process in which the child is engaged, is not to prepare the child for the future, but to enjoy doing the thing today.Alan Watts
-
Paradoxical as it may seem, the purposeful life has no content, no point. It hurries on and on, and misses everything. Not hurrying, the purposeless life misses nothing, for it is only when there is no goal and no rush that the human senses are fully open to receive the world.Alan Watts
-
Peace can be made only by those who are peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love. No work of love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.Alan Watts
-
Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.Zen proverb
-
The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments.Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step
-
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step
-
People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness
-
Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world revolves — slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.Thich Nhat Hanh
-
Because you are alive, everything is possible.Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
-
Life is available only in the present moment.Thich Nhat Hanh
-
Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.Thich Nhat Hanh, Present Moment Wonderful Moment
-
The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step
-
Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity.Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step
-
Each moment is absolute, alive, and significant.Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
-
Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea.Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
-
Sitting alone beside a cliff, The full moon a lantern before me. Not a thought about the universe: This quiet illuminates everything.Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems
-
Every day is a good day.Blue Cliff Record, Case 6 — Yunmen's Every Day Is a Good Day
-
Before the donkey has left, the horse has already arrived.Blue Cliff Record, Case 97
-
When you are hungry, eat. When you are tired, sleep.Book of Serenity — Baizhang
-
Stone steps leading upward, no end in sight. I climb, and the mist closes behind me. Below, the village sounds fade. Above, only wind and the smell of pine. I am not going anywhere. I am going.Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems
-
Rising before dawn, I carry water from the lower spring. The mountain does not know my name. The spring does not know my name. The bucket does not know my name. Only my feet know the path — and they have forgotten the rest.Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems
-
The cold spring water tastes of high rock, of pine root, of a thousand years of silence. Drinking it, I forget what city I came from. Drinking it again, I forget I ever forgot.Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems
-
A thousand years of moss on these rocks. I have been here thirty years and feel I arrived this morning. The moss has no such illusions.Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems
-
The world's clever people find Cold Mountain foolish. The world's foolish people find Cold Mountain unreachable. I find it right here under my feet.Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems