Presence Quotes

“breakthroughs come when people learn how to take the time to stop and examine their assumptions.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“But how do you develop your intent? “You become extremely clear about what it is you want to do. Why is it you want to do what you do? How is it a reflection of your values? How does it relate to your unique purpose in life? What is it that you want to accomplish in society? Think about all of the inherent contradictions that are there, and then, if possible, reconcile them. This could take anywhere from a week to decades. This process of refinement—thinking about your intention many, many times—is, in a sense, a broadcast of intention. When you broadcast such an intention, there’s very little else you have to do. The broadcast of intention goes out and makes it happen. Your role is to remain keenly aware, patiently expectant, and open to all possibilities.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“When people who are actually creating a system start to see themselves as the source of their problems, they invariably discover a new capacity to create results they truly desire.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come,” said Victor Hugo”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“In Buddhist theory, two Sanskrit terms, vitarka and vicara, are used to describe the subtle attachments of mind. Vitarka characterizes the state of “seeking,” when our attention is attached to what we’re trying to make happen. Vicara characterizes the state of “watching,” when, even though we’re not trying to force something to happen, we’re still attached to an outcome we are waiting for. With either, our mental attachment makes us blind or resistant to other aspects of what is happening right now.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“This “desire for efficacy” might be the desire to help a sick child, to solve a pressing problem, or to feel secure. One basic way to expand our efficacy is through modern science and technology. But another is through integrated (emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual) growth and enhanced wisdom. This means growing in our sense of connection with nature and with one another and learning to live in ways that naturally cultivate our capacity to be human.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“Until you do the inner work of learning how to see with “your eyes and your heart open,” as Kabat-Zinn puts it, deep problems will persist.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“When our patients practice just dwelling in their pain, their relationship to that pain can change dramatically because they are embracing it for a change—not as ‘pain’ but as bare sensation, allowing it to be met exactly as it is, in awareness, even if it has a strong element of unpleasantness . . . rather than getting caught up in thinking about it and trying to make it go away. Often, without trying to fix anything, over time, the pain can diminish, sometimes quite dramatically.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“Then, if you bring a certain kind of open, moment-to-moment, nonjudgmental awareness to what you’re attending to, you’ll begin to develop a more penetrative awareness that sees beyond the surface of what’s going on in your field of awareness. This is mindfulness. Mindfulness makes it possible to see connections that may not have been visible before. But seeing these connections doesn’t happen as a result of trying—it simply comes out of the stillness.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“Several years ago, Debashish Chatterjee, a good friend and well-known author on leadership1 opened a seminar on leadership at MIT by saying, ‘I’ve been guided in my work by the notion that older is often better. If an idea has been around for a few thousand years, it’s been submitted to many tests—which is a good indicator that it might have some real merit. We’re fixated on newness, which often misleads us into elevating novelty over substance.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“the future lay in cultivating the scientist in all of us. If science is an unfinished project, the next stage will be about reconnecting and integrating the rigor of scientific method with the richness of direct experience to produce a science that will serve to connect us to one another, ourselves, and the world.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“love is the only emotion that expands intelligence,”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“That’s why I think that cultivation, ‘becoming a real human being,’ really is the primary leadership issue of our time, but on a scale never required before. It’s a very old idea that may actually hold the key to a new age of ‘global democracy.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“We need to learn the disciplines that will help cultivate the wisdom of the group and larger social systems.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“Why are you so unhappy? Because ninety-nine percent of what you think, And everything you do, Is for your self, And there isn’t one.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“It took a scenario that he was going to die for Fred to wake up. It took that kind of shock for his life to be transformed. Maybe that’s what needs to happen for all of us, for everyone who lives on Earth. That could be what a requiem scenario offers us.”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence

“How can we stop going faster while our ability to see further ahead is decreasing?”
― Peter M. Senge, Presence