If we could even for a moment throw away our concepts and see with the inner eye through all the veils of conditioning, we would know there is only one world, one indissoluble whole. We would see that all creatures on earth are part of a sinle system. There is no preferred species; there is no preferred race. In the Eye of Wisdom ... What we do, we must do in this very moment. There is no other preferred moment. When we can accept what is before our eyes, accept it with whole heart, we no longer have anything to fear, anything to long for. All we need to set the world aright is here. We have only to see it.
In THE SNOW LEOPARD, Peter Matthiesen describes his son, Alex:
In his first summers, forsaking all his toys, my son would stand rapt for near an hour in his sandbox in the orchard, as doves and redwings came and went on the warm wind, the leaves dancing, the clouds flying, birdsong and sweet smell of privet and rose. The child was not observing; he was at rest in the very center of the universe, a part of things, unaware of endings and beginnings, still in unison with the primordial nature of creation, letting all light and phenomena pour through.