This article by Cynthia Thatcher is probably my favorite of all time:
tricycle.com
A few quotes:
"The more mindfulness we have, the less compelling sense-objects seem, until at last we lose all desire for them."
"Our entire lives are nothing but a chain of moments in which we perceive one sight, taste, smell, touch, sound, feeling, or thought after another. Outside of this process, nothing else happens."
"We think sense-impressions desirable only because we can't see beyond the conventions to their real characteristics."
"Note the difference between saying 'The present moment is wonderful' and 'It's wonderful to stay in the present.' This is more than a semantic quibble. The first statement implies that the bare sensory data occurring in the present are themselves little bits of divinity. The second allows that, by staying in the now, one can be free from the distress that comes from clinging to those sensations."
