Josh Baran is a former Zen priest, a contributor to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and currently a strategic communications consultant. For many years, he has managed media relations for the Dalai Lama's visits to the Eastern United States. In this stunning collection of quotations, he has gathered 365 ways to live in the present moment with peace and awareness. In the introduction, Baran reveals the stages of his spiritual journey and how he came to a fresh appreciation of nirvana here and now.

You will find many gems collected during the past ten years from Zen masters, Tibetan teachers, Christian mystics, Sufi poets, Jewish rabbis, Western sages, and Indian gurus. From all religious and spiritual perspectives, these mystics, meditators, and activists all proclaim the riches of living in the Eternal Now. Here are stories, poems, dialogues, and teachings that will touch your heart, mind, body, and soul. In the back section, Baran includes excerpts of conversations he has had with friends about this book. Best of all, he has done a smashingly good job in tracking down the source listing for each quotation and in some cases his bibliography also includes relevant websites. Here's a sampler of the kind of material in the book.

At this moment, is there anything lacking?
Nirvana is right here now before our eyes.
This place is the lotus land.
This body now is the Buddha.
— Hakuin

Hold up your hands before your eyes.
You are looking at the hands of God.
— Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

What would we have to
hold in compassion
to be at peace right now?

What would we have to
let go of
to be at peace right now?
— Jack Kornfield

Within my body are all the sacred places of the world, and the most profound pilgrimage I can ever make is within my own body.
— Saraha

Listen to your life.
All moments are key moments.
— Frederick Buechner

Don't move. Just die over and over. Don't anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment. Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully. Don't move.
— Shunryu Suzuki