Question
How can we distinguish a satori experience from illusions of the mind? I often feel as though I am experiencing intergalactic unity in a land of a million Buddhas. Unfortunately, while studying psychology at university, I learned that such states of mind are synonymous with schizophrenia, hallucinations, and the use of hallucinogenic drugs. How do we distinguish reality from illusion?
Anonymous
Answer from Master Kosen
It is difficult to accept, and even more difficult to understand, that the real and the illusory are not different in nature. A sage is a schizophrenic who has managed to harmonize his madness with socially accepted madness and thus avoid being locked up. Knowing how to control your madness and take other people’s madness into account is what we rightly call wisdom.
Let us take two musicians as a metaphor. The first plays his part, but he is unable to listen to the orchestra or harmonize with the overall rhythm. He will very quickly lose his job as a musician and, with a little luck, might at most become a cop at an intersection, playing his whistle and baton. Perhaps then, with the prestige and authority conferred by his uniform, he will succeed in making people listen to him. The second is a genius. His name is Yehudi or Chet or Louis. The orchestra begins and takes up the rhythm indicated in the score. Fine. The audience, patiently waiting for the star, starts to get bored out of its mind. But suddenly he arrives, and his inimitable sound rings out. He overturns the rhythm and seems to play with complete freedom, without paying any attention to the rules. The orchestra seems energized and harmonizes with the artist as one. Like the madman, the genius does not listen to others, but he has a secret that sets him apart: he hears.
So why doesn’t the genius like cops? That is a question that would take more time to answer.
Kosen