Present Moment

'Touching deeply is an important practice.  We touch with our hands, our eyes, our ears, and also with our mindfulness.  The first practice I learned as a novice monk was to breathe in and out consciously, to touch each breath with my mindfulness, identifying the in-breath as in-breath and the out-breath as out-breath.  When you practice this way, your mind and body come into alignment, your wandering thoughts come to a stop, and you are at your best.  Mindfulness is the substance of a Buddha.  When you enter deeply into this moment, you see that nature of reality, and this insight liberates you from suffering and confusion.  Peace is already there to some extent: the problem is whether we know how to touch it.  Conscious breathing is the most basic Buddhist practice for touching peace.'

​- Thich Nhat Hanh, 'Living Buddha, Living Christ.'

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