the beauty and precision of this

When we are mired in the relative world, never lifting our gaze to the mystery, our life is stunted, incomplete; we are filled with yearning for that paradise that is lost when, as young children, we replace it with words and ideas and abstractions- such as merit, such as past, present, and future- our direct, spontaneous experience of the thing itself, in the beauty and precision of this present moment. 

~  Peter Matthiessen
from The Snow Leopard

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a state of magical simplicity

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To practice Zen means to realize one's existence 

moment after moment,

 rather than letting life unravel in regret of the past 

and daydreaming of the future.

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To "rest in the present"

 is a state of magical simplicity, 

although attainment of this state is not as simple as it sounds.

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~  Peter Matthiessen, from 'Nine-Headed Dragon River'

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