The physical body is acknowledged as dust, the personal drama as delusion. It is as if the world we perceive through our senses, that whole gorgeous and terrible pageant, were the breath-thin surface of a bubble, and everything else, inside and outside, is pure radiance. Both suffering and joy come then like a brief reflection, and death like a pin.

Stephen Mitchell is a renowned American translator, anthologist, and poet. He has translated the go-to editions of religious and literary works such as the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, Gilgamesh, the Gospels, the selected works of Rainer Maria Rilke, and Beowulf. Mitchell coauthors works on mindfulness meditation for self-healing with his wife, Byron Katie.