The Sutra on Totality

I was just really awestruck, even flabbergasted by this very succinct expression of -- what I think is -- the core of Buddhism: focus on the here and the now! It just stopped me in my tracks!
Of course, it's been years now that I've been convinced that what Buddhist masters such as Thich Nhat Hanh have claimed is profoundly true: True happiness lies when you can really live to the full the present moment, the here and now!

"Monks, I will teach you the totality of life. Listen, attend carefully to it and I will speak.

What, monks, is totality? It is just the eye with the objects of sight, the ear with the objects of hearing, the nose with the objects of smell, the body with the objects of touch and the mind with the objects of cognition. This, monks, is called totality.

Now it anyone were to say, "Aside from this explanation of totality, I will preach another totality," that person would be speaking empty words, and being questioned would not be able to answer. Why is this? Because that person is talking about something outside of possible knowledge."

(From the Samyutta Nikaya, trans. by Gil Fronsdal)

Teachings of the Buddha (Pocket Classics), p. 57

/jkk