Terence McKenna Quotes

I always live in the present. I don’t know the future and no longer have the past. The former oppresses me as the possibility of everything, the latter as the reality of nothing.

It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

I live in the present; there is nothing more important than that.

What we lack is not so much leisure to do as time to reflect and time to feel. What we seldom "take" is time to experience the things that have happened, the things that are happening, the things that are still ahead of us.

Suppose you are drinking a cup of tea. When you hold your cup, you may like to breathe in, to bring your mind back to your body, and you become fully present. And when you are truly there, something else is also there - life, represented by the cup of tea. In that moment you are real, and the cup of tea is real. You are not lost in the past, in the future, in your projects, in your worries. You are free from all of these afflictions. And in that state of being free, you enjoy your tea. That is the moment of happiness, and of peace.

The miracle of love comes to you in the presence of the uninterpreted moment. If you are mentally somewhere else, you miss real life.

Don't worry about something going away; enjoy it while it's happening. And don't worry about something that's not even real.

I teach you that there is no other aim than to live with such totality that each moment becomes a celebration. The very idea of "aim" brings future into the mind, because any aim, any end, any goal, needs future. All your goals deprive you of your present, which is the only reality you have. The future is only your imagination, and the past is just footprints left in the sands of your memory. Neither is the past real anymore, nor is the future real yet. This moment is the only reality.

To be "here and now," in principle, is just for once. And then you have to repeat that.

There is only the moment. The now. Only what you are experiencing at this second is real.

The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That's all there ever is.

I can disappear into things very easily. But with acting, you have to be in the moment, and it gives me this incredibly fulfilling emotion: being really present.

The best gift we can have is living in the present moment and really enjoying it for what it is; and, not being in our heads and getting sidetracked.

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

I travel so much and am always living out of a suitcase, so my favorite saying is 'Wherever you go, there you are'. I love it because it's reassuring to me that you have to live in the moment wherever you happen to be.

People don't realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind.

I am only at home in the present.

If you are not living this moment, you are not really living.

I'm about the present.

We must exist right here, right now!

As long as you're fully present in what you're doing at the moment, you're doing it.

The position that I take partly as a result of living in Asia is where you stop living according to your expectations and you become available to experience things as they are.

I don't think about time. You're here when you're here. I think about today, staying in tune.