Words and Thoughts about experiencing: 

Miracles!

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
― Albert Einstein (attributed)


"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."
― William Blake

It is not necessary that you leave the house.
Remain at your table and listen.
Do not even listen, only wait.
Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone.
The world will present itself to you
     for its unmasking,
it can do no other,
in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.
― Franz Kafka


 candle light

The miracle of this image is that you experience a candle and  light where there are just colors.   This is what we do all day, every day:  create "real" where there are only colors and textures of thoughts, sensations, feelings that our minds put together in useful and often un-useful ways.
Other miracles text

While there are many more "ways to live your life"  than two,  the thought (even if Einstein didn't think it) highlights the choices we have.   We can choose how we experience our lives by choosing what we believe, our point of view, the story we use to organize out thoughts.   To be sure, it is tricky to become aware of what our "point of view", our story,  actually is, so that we can choose another.  Kirchegaard's "Either/Or" is helpful, though there are better stories than his hedonist/Christian two.  (Stoicism, Epecurian,  Buddhist,  Hindu, Christian Science .... many ... )   Though choosing one's "point of view" is essential, by itself, it lacks something.  It begs the question:

What is there really?

Blake, in my experience, has it right.  In my experience,  often during meditation, when I stop thinking (no story) and just  listen (not just with the ears),  I notice,  and everything is infinite.    I notice the details of sensations, thoughts, feelings ....  And the more I pay attention to what I'm noticing, the more details are revealed.  Anything:  a sight, a thought, a feeling, a smell, a taste, a sound, .... the longer I just let my attention focus on that experience, the more details enter awareness, conscious awareness.   I love to spend an hour looking at a tree I've seen a thousand times, and discover the myriad  details and nuances of that tree that I've never noticed.  I especially enjoy watching the mountains on the horizon rising up in front of the sun.  A much richer experience than watching the "sun set".  Not only does it take my breath away to see those massive mountains moving up, I feel myself falling backward. (That's using both the scientific story and the  background/foreground perceptual shift).  Both the earthrise and the experience are miraculous.  Of course,  sunsets, however one experiences them, are miraculous.  That's a pretty common experience.

Now, while Blake has it right,  Kafka has the method for "cleansing perception".   Be wholly still.  And notice.  Observe.  The trick is to "notice what you are noticing".  At the beginning it's very hard to do, but not as hard as the Buddhist monks  and Hindu yogis would lead you to believe.  Traditionally, you begin with observing the sensations of your breathing.  Then you notice that your thoughts wander.  You calmly (noticing your failure, with equanimity) refocus your attention on the sensations of your breathing.  After a few hours, or a few hundred hours or a few thousand hours of this practice,  (we are all  born with different aptitudes) you will find that there are moments when "the world presents itself for it's unmasking" ... and the "infinite" becomes apparent.  Then, obviously, every detail of every moment is miraculous.  Even "ordinary" experiences  ", such as boredom, frustration, worry, anxiety ... observed in detail are miraculous.  Not so easy to do, but worth learning.  Sitting wholly still and waiting,  one has many opportunities to observe the surprisingly interesting details of many different kinds of boredom. Like snowflakes, each moment of boredom is unique. Quite interesting and,  miraculous.

Being Revealed

And, then, there are the miracles we participate in, - that we do. 
   -  Like: waking up,  creating  illusions of candle light,  heart-lung machines, flying to the moon,  planting apple trees,  parenting children ............