Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘I am looking out of my window in an anxious and resentful state of mind, oblivious of my surroundings, brooding perhaps on some damage done to my prestige. Then suddenly I observe a hovering kestrel. In a moment everything is altered. The brooding self with its hurt vanity has disappeared. There is nothing now but kestrel.’

This echoes another quote I have had in my notes for a long time, from James Joyce (I appreciate the sentiment more than the wording):

‘Any object, intensely regarded, may be a gate of access to the incorruptible eon of the gods.’