The Adventure

As each observes the landscape from their specific vantage point, they describe it in slightly different ways. Nevertheless, it’s always the same landscape. All their perspectives are equally valid.

Almost all the time, we fail to appreciate the value of our health, the people we love, our peace, freedom, and prosperity, and life itself. We often become aware of the value of these things when they’re taken away — for example, when we become seriously ill, when our partner leaves us (perhaps because we were taking them for granted), or if we ex

The most important aspect of this exercise is to afford thinking the same status as other physiological processes. There is nothing special about our thoughts. There is no reason why we should attach more importance to them than we do to our breathing or digestion. There is no reason why we should allow our thoughts to immerse us and let them dicta

Looking forward to the future. Do you obsessively look forward to events weeks or even months in advance, thinking about them all the time, to the extent that it stops you from focusing on the present?

habits can quickly fade too, once we become conscious of them and override them with new patterns of behavior.

Do you ever stop and tell yourself how wonderful it is just to be able to see?

Attention is an alchemy that turns dullness to beauty and anxiety to ease.

Where is my story right now? Where are my achievements? Where is my success or status? Where are my failures and losses? Where are my painful memories? Where are my ambitions for the future? None are here. They are not part of the present, because they are unreal abstractions. All that exists right now is your experience of the present moment, inde

We are rarely present to our surroundings or our experience. Our bodies are always present, of course, occupying physical space and interacting with the environment. (This is why — as we will see later — bringing your attention into the body is such an effective way of cultivating presence.)