Lyrics

I've traveled to the temples and the edges of the map
I've knelt in every chapel, left my forehead in the gap
I've searched the ancient languages for words to prove I'm real
But the holiest ground I've ever found was learning how to feel

I've read the philosophers who say this world's a veil
I've heard the scientists who say the atoms never fail
But neither made me weep the way this moment does right now
A woman, breathing, standing still, and finally knowing how

No pilgrimage, no doctrine, no ascent
Just the raw, complete amazement of the present

This is the altar of now
Right here, right here is the vow
Not tomorrow, not the summit, not the shore
Just the breath you're breathing, nothing more
This is the altar of now
No need to wonder why or how
The sacred isn't somewhere else to find
The sacred is this breath - and the one behind

To every woman in the kitchen with the radio on low
To every man who sits in traffic feeling time run slow
The dashboard and the dishcloth and the unremarkable sky
Are altars - if you let them be - and I am telling you why

Because the gods we were before we came
Did not build this world to watch it from the frame

This is the altar of now
Right here, right here is the vow
Not tomorrow, not the summit, not the shore
Just the breath you're breathing, nothing more
This is the altar of now
No need to wonder why or how
The sacred isn't somewhere else to find
The sacred is this breath - and the one behind

We crossed the universe to sit inside this skin
We encrypted our own knowing just to feel the world begin
And now the encryption's cracking and the light is pouring through
And it is not some far-off heaven -
It is here -
It is now -
It is you!

This is the altar of now!
Every heartbeat is the vow!
Every Tuesday, every traffic jam, every tear!
The entire universe is worshipping right here!
This is the altar of now!
And we are the prayer, and the mouth!
So be here, just be here, just be -
The altar was always you and me

Now...
Now...
Just now...