The purpose of meditation practice is not enlightenment; it is to pay attention even at extraordinary times, to be of the present, nothing-but-in-the-present, to bear this mindfulness of now into each event of ordinary life.
Peter MatthiessenThe concept of conservation is a far truer sign of civilization than that spoilation of a continent which we once confused with progress.
Peter MatthiessenWhen 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 MatthiessenFigures dark beneath their loads pass down the far bank of the river, rendered immortal by the streak of sunset upon their shoulders
Peter MatthiessenIn zazen, one is one's present self, what one was, and what one will be, all at once.
Peter MatthiessenThe sun is roaring, it fills to bursting each crystal of snow. I flush with feeling, moved beyond my comprehension, and once again, the warm tears freeze upon my face. These rocks and mountains, all this matter, the snow itself, the air- the earth is ringing. All is moving, full of power, full of light.
Peter Matthiessen