Green Oasis

I’ve been reading and thinking about Zen and the awakening it promises. Yesterday, I read an article—which I have misplaced—that argued our consciousness is not simply a product of our brain. The gray flesh inside our skulls is only part of the equation, it said. The body and its environment all contribute their part.

As I was driving toward work this morning, my perspective changed. For a moment, I experienced my mind and the world as one thing. I lack the words to describe the experience accurately, of course, but I can say what it wasn’t: it wasn’t transcendent love or something mushy like that. I just seemed to realize that I’ve been walking around, seeing the world through a small hole, bounded above by a dark strip and below by a silly, pointy pink smudge which I have assumed corresponds to the thing people call my nose. This experience had a direct, unmediated quality to it, and I realized that this silly way to experience the world is me.

I wonder if that was a small taste of satori. Anyone who has experienced the real deal care to offer an opinion?

I’m leaning toward the conclusion that Zen is bullshit.