The Zen of Recovery Quotes

“The past is history, the future’s a mystery. If you’ve got a foot in each, you’re pissing on today.”
― Mel Ash, The Zen of Recovery

“Always living for a better tomorrow or running from a numbing past, we inhabit this present moment like a shabby motel on the way to somewhere else. In doing this, we cheapen and degrade our only possession, which is simply this moment and right here and now. If pressed, we really couldn't say where it is that we're in such a rush to get to.”
― Mel Ash, The Zen of Recovery

“We spend our lives hiding deep inside ourselves in paralyzing fear that someone might see us as we really are, or worse: We might see ourselves.”
― Mel Ash, The Zen of Recovery

“Our diseases merely act as amplifiers for our human nature, turning up the volume of our attachments and suffering. In that regard, we are fortunate. We have to recover our true selves or die. Others aren't so lucky and have to accept their anxiety and suffering as normal because they don't know what else to call it. Most don't even realize they're suffering, confusing their tortured fears with their true nature. They are candidates, as well, for the recovery of our original nature that Buddha taught and for the universal lessons that the Twelve Steps enunciate.”
― Mel Ash, The Zen of Recovery

“It is the calendar that says: “Right now is the time. Who could want another?”
― Mel Ash, The Zen of Recovery

“Master Shunryu Suzuki in his classic Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.”
― Mel Ash, The Zen of Recovery