Mondo: 17 October 2021
Question: “What is the difference between delusion and illusion?’
Question: “What is the difference between kensho and satori?”
We have to remember, first of all, that these distinctions and definitions are just words, arbitrary names that can only approximate our experience. They are useful signposts, but not accurate descriptions of reality.
That said, for me, delusion is located in or originates from our minds, while illusion is located outside in the world or is perpetrated there. A delusion is an inaccurate representation of reality in our mind, one that we create, while illusion is something that is out there, often created for us, like a trompe l’oeil effect, a mirage, a trick of perception or a social construction, the values and prejudices that are foisted upon us, or fake news. Our dangerous delusions can often be spurred by the context of illusions provided for us. We could also say that delusions are the psychosis of illusion.
It is important that in Zen we drop both delusion and illusion. We must deconstruct or dissolve them, both rationally through reason and evidence (shiki), but also through the insights of zazen that transcend science (ku). As we discover the illusions we have been fed, we must deconstruct them scientifically, but also dissolve the delusions we feed ourselves, spiritually. My delusions of grandeur or inferiority have to be corrected so that I see myself for who I really am, neither so grand nor so inferior as I might think (or fear, or hope). We crack the illusions of the world around us so that we might shatter the delusions that obstruct our potential.
The illusions, for example, of advertising, the algorithms of Amazon, the ethics of religion, the propaganda of politics, the curricula of education, the expectations of parents, and so on. These are the ideological bars of our delusional prisonhouse, the matrix of illusion that we know is there but that can be difficult for us to escape. This is our job, though, in Zen practice: to break through these ideological cages, making an effort to drop our delusions, to penetrate the truth behind the illusions, to unveil the wizard behind the curtain, even when the wizard is ourselves.
Kensho and satori are related to this effort, in that they are words to describe the experience of penetrating the dharma gates that disguise reality.
Kensho is a glimpse through the gateless gate, that transparent barrier that is also opaque; it is a crack in the glass. Satori, on the other hand, shatters it, to open a sudden panoramic vista. Illusion and delusion drop off.
These epiphanies, or realizations, are, however, only the aura of enlightenment. They are the residue, the trace of what leaves no residue, no trace. Kensho and satori are measurements of what can’t be measured, descriptions of what can’t be described, words for what cannot be spoken.
This is why Kodo Sawaki is so right when he speaks of satori, sometimes as a form of delusion, sometimes as a form of illusion. “Delusion itself is satori.” Or, “No illusion is as hard to cure as satori.” And “Satori doesn’t mean the end of illusion.” And his most profound statement on satori: “Satori is like a thief breaking into an empty house.”
Do you see how when we speak of illusion and delusion, of kensho and satori, we are splitting hairs with hairs?
— Richard Collins
