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

a state of magical simplicity

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.

To "rest in the present"

 is a state of magical simplicity, 

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

~  Peter Matthiessen
 from 'Nine-Headed Dragon River'