On Eagle's Wings, 1977, p. 159
As of a Trumpet, On Eagle's Wings
“The present moment
contains past and future.
The secret of transformation,
is in the way we handle this very moment.”
Understanding Our Mind (2006) Parallax Press ISBN 978-81-7223-796-7
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Thich Nhat Hanh 169
Religious leader and peace activist 1926Related quotes


“The past has ended its time, the present is the moment, the future the becoming.”
Original: (it) Il passato ha concluso il suo tempo, il presente è l'attimo, il futuro il divenire.
Source: prevale.net

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

Billy writing a letter to a newspaper describing the Tralfamadorians
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
Context: The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.
When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "So it goes."

Variant: Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.