Almost all civilized peoples have been brought up to think of themselves as ghosts in machines, - Alan Watts

Zen emphasizes immediate action. When anything is to be done, it should be done immediately without thinking it over in advance.

The truth is revealed by removing things that stand in its light, an art not unlike sculpture, in which the artist creates, not by building, but by hacking away.

Now let us suppose that we are going to try to do the impossible and become, as it were, completely transparent to ourselves. What happens when we entirely understand the organization or the mechanics of our own brains? Well, you are again back in the situation of God, and when you are God what are you going to do? If you are God you know what you are going to do: you are going to say to yourself, “Get lost.” What you want is a surprise, and when you have figured everything out there will be no more surprises, and then you will be completely bored. But on the other hand, a person