Your Daily Random Zen Quote

Where I'm at in my Buddhist training now is examining reality and the nature of delusion (or possibly delusion and the nature of reality - I'm not sure yet).  To this end, Reverend Daishin Morgan's Buddha Recognizes Buddha (Throssel Hole Press, 2010) is one of my favorite books for dipping into. I've never formally studied psychology, but much of Zen practice involves the observation of shifting states of mind.  Having experienced the devastating effects of serious depression, learning how to do this was a matter of survival for me.  Anyway, here's a thought to chew on from pp 75-76 in this diminutive book:

When we perceive, our perception involves all of our experience and a great deal of the culture and history within which we live.  We can only recognize something, even when we do so without words, because of a complex interaction between our senses, the object and our mind.  Our mind is shaped by our experience and, indirectly, by the experience of our culture and of humanity as a whole.  We see with our memories as much as we see with our eyes.  It is a fiction to believe that we can simply ‘see’ with no projections from the past.  Enlightenment does not consist in some idea of pure perception devoid of these influences.  We should not see our perceptions as tainted, even though they are not pure in this idealized way.

There is no reality, in the sense that at a moment in time there is the truth, existing purely without containing all of the past and the potentials of the future.  It is enough to sit still, meaning to sit with the mind of zazen that is aware when it engages in fantasy, memory and projection.   The enlightened person is capable of these things, he or she is free to utilize them as needed and to know that is what he or she is doing.  The enlightened person is not looking outside for some thing that he or she is lacking.  By sitting still, we can see what is required.  Even this is not absolute; we will never have perfect perception – that really is a fantasy.  Yet we may have a deep connection with what is through having the faith to dwell within it without reliance upon fantasies.

There ya go!