Every speck of dust has a marvellous soul, but to understand it, one must recover one’s religious and magical sense of things.
Joan Miró, Catalan painter
We usually do not look into what is really there in front of us. We see life through a screen of thoughts and concepts, and we mistake those mental objects for reality. We get so caught up in this endless thought-stream that reality flows by unnoticed. We spend our time engrossed in activity, caught up in an eternal flight from pain and unpleasantness. We spend our energies trying to make ourselves feel better, trying to bury our fears. We are endlessly seeking security. Meanwhile, the world of real experience flows by untouched and untasted.
Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness In Plain English
The biggest error we make in our life … is to think that … our life just as it is, with all of its problems, … has something wrong with it. And because we think that, we get busy... Our life is always all right. … But since we refuse to accept life as it is, because of our preference for things that are pleasurable, we pick and choose from life.
Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen