Due to distraction, stress, or simple forgetting, we are often not really here now. These stories reveal how the authors were reminded to be present.

  • In Still Here, Ram Dass shares how he learned to be present during a slow train ride in India.
  • Robert A. Johnson and Jerry M. Ruhl in Contentment provide an illustration about being present at the traffic light.
  • Sandy Boucher in Opening the Lotus presents an explanation about how a parent's 24-hours-a-day of caring is a practice of presence.
  • In The Zen Commandments, Dean Sluyter and a story about the author being stopped in his tracks in a train station so he could savor the present moment.

More Teaching Stories/Scenes about Being Present