Ram Dass Quotes

If we are in silence - in absolute silence with no thoughts - for 10 minutes, it's only a thought that tells us we were silent for 10 minutes. Our only proof is a thought.

Listen to the silence. Listen to your life. Be present, not just think about what's going on next week, next month.

I am only at home in the present.

I've known for years that you're supposed to be present. I know that thinking about what's happened or thinking about what I want is not going to get me anywhere, but until I quit doing it I'm not present.

Mindfulness is a quality that's always there. It's an illusion that there's a meditation and post-meditation period, which I always find amusing, because you're either mindful or you're not.

I try to just stay in the present moment as much as possible.

Let your ears hear without trying to hear. Let the mind think without trying to think and without trying to stop it. That is practice.

Meditation allows us to directly participate in our lives instead of living life as an afterthought.

Practice moment to moment non-judgemental awareness.

For most people on the planet, consciousness can be equated with thought. They haven't experienced what it means to be conscious without thought, or they have only for very brief instants.

Being aware in the moment of right now is just the most important thing. All of our issues come from us not being aware enough or not seeing through our problems to the depths of the issues.

In any given moment we are either practicing mindfulness, or defacto, we are practicing mindlessness.

In awareness there is no becoming, there is no end to be gained. There is silent observation without choice and condemnation, from which there comes understanding.

You can't think about presence, and the mind can't understand it. Understanding presence is being present.

I think it's so important to have a practice, because the consciousness isn't perfection or enlightenment or any of that bullshit. The consciousness is, "Oh, I'm walking down the street and I'm doing nothing."

I'm pretty much done with mindfulness. I'm just going to start paying attention.

We live in this thought web; we identify things and put them away and distance ourselves from them. But to be completely present? That is source, that is art, that is spirituality. And meditation is a way to defy fear and experience that source.

We always project into the future or reflect in the past, but we are so little in the present.

Many people in this world are still so identified with every thought that arises in their head. There is not the slightest space of awareness there.

How do you know, right now, that you are aware of being aware, or conscious?

We tend to think of meditation in only one way. But life itself is a meditation.

The real meditation practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment to moment.

There are certain ways in which I cultivate awareness, both through mindful yoga and taking care of my body and taking time to actually drop as deeply as possible into stillness, into whatever is unfolding in the present moment.

Only when your consciousness is totally focused on the moment you are in can you receive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to offer.

When you are present, the world is truly alive.