You can be present right now, wherever you are and whatever you are doing—while you are sitting before your laptop and reading these words, for example. Every moment offers the same new opportunity to be present, and you don’t have to change your life to do that.

If we try to make consistent efforts, though, for a week, a month, a year—we find that while it is simple to be present for a moment, it is not easy to keep doing it. We are quickly carried away by habitual thoughts and feelings. We may not have to change the external form of our lives, but we do have to change ourselves. If we truly want to engage in this master game, if we want more than occasional moments of presence, if we want the fundamental changes that come from learning to engage and prolong presence consistently, then books, lectures, and videos are not enough. This is why schools exist. They enable us to make a commitment to our own awakening, and they sustain that commitment with special methods, a supportive environment, and the help of a teacher.