It follows in Buddhism that a significant mystical transformation or radical shift occurs when one goes from normal perception to direct intuition of ultimate reality.
Normal perception, which is seeing the world through the senses and the mind (manas) acts, you could say, like a filter of delusion. In other words, in our human biological form we only look at the world through deluded, limiting filters, the goal of which is Darwinian fitness. But Buddhism calls upon us to see, so to speak, reality without filters, i.e., ultimate reality uncovered.
The aforementioned is certainly very profound stuff. Still, I have reason to believe that in the non-academic and non-monastic world of those who dabble in Buddhism and Zen, the aforementioned doesn’t mean much in light of their daily practice (e.g., zazen). Nevertheless, it is something profound. It points to the absolute which our human imagination cannot imagine but still tries!
This leads me to say that there is a difference between Buddhism used as a self-help tool and Buddhism, including Zen, as a way of life but not in the ordinary, mundane sense. In the latter, according to the Buddha, it is the way which goes against the stream. Here is the passage in full:
“The way which goes against the stream is a profound one, very difficult to see. Those who are afflicted with passion will not see it; they are enveloped by a heavy darkness” (Catuṣpariṣatsūtra).
Our one-sided passion for the external world, a kind of hedonistic narcissism, which is perceived through the senses and the mind (manas), has to be understood as the condition of being enthralled with what is external or foreign to one's true nature. Such people certainly are enveloped by a heavy darkness who because of this darkness lead unstructured and meaningless lives as in a trance.
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