(mis)perception

a thought-provoking excerpt from eckhart tolle's a new earth:

The ego cannot distinguish between a situation and its interpretation of and reaction to that situation. You might say, "What a dreadful day," without realizing that the cold, the wind, and the rain or whatever condition you react to are not dreadful. They are as they are. What is dreadful is your reaction, your inner resistance to it, and the emotion that is created by that resistance. In Shakespeare's words, "There is nothing either good of bad, but thinking makes it so." What is more, suffering or negativity is often misperceived by the ego as pleasure because up to a point the ego strengthens itself through it.

i am also reminded of a poem i had once attempted to write: "all in the mind". did i really write it though, is the question, or was it an inner consciousness that found its way out for a brief moment? here it is anyway:

Sooner or later, the bubble does burst
And sooner or later, we find
That the highs and the lows
That we often traverse
Are all just a maze of the mind.

Is there really a truth that is really a truth?
Or only a ploy, truth be told?
For I can hear waves
If I try hard enough,
If you try, you can take rock for gold.

For we are dreamers, we are,
In this cold and dark world,
Sooner or later we learn -
'tis the man who believes in the power of thought,
'tis for him that the candle does burn.