11th January

The aim of Zen is to focus the attention on reality itself,
instead of on our intellectual and emotional reactions to reality -
reality being the ever-changing, ever-growing,
indefinable something known as "life," which will never stop
for a moment for us to fit it satisfactorily into any rigid system of
pigeon holes and ideas.
Alan Watts.

This text perfectly describes the aim of Zen, which is to contemplate reality itself. Although we believe we do this every day in actual fact this is erroneous. What we focus on is our actions and re-actions of how we perceive this reality. Reality exists as it is. It is not changed by our thoughts concerning it yet we believe those very thoughts are its definition. No matter how hard we try to fit reality into a system of beliefs or ideas we will always fail. This is because reality is unquantifiable, unpredictable, and unknowable by our conscious mind.