It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.

Teaching a practice can also be a hindrance if it becomes one's identity. To be a spiritual teacher is a temporary function. I'm a spiritual teacher when somebody comes to me and some teaching happens, but the moment they leave I'm no longer a spiritual teacher. If I carry the identity of spiritual teacher, it will cause suffering.

Presence is a state of inner spaciousness

Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind. Of course, you cannot feel someone else's Being except through your own. This is the beginning of the realization of oneness, which is love. At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is.

The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness.

"Getting away from it all," many people want that, and of course ultimately the only way to get away from it all is to go within, now.

Practice presence -- embrace the place where life happens.