"We cannot remain forever in a state of undifferentiation; we are so mad as to give expression to every experience we go through, and by thus expressing ourselves we realize that the experience grows deeper and clearer. A dumb experience is no experience at al; it is human to express, that is to appeal to differentiation and analysis; and so, we can say that animals have no experience whatever. Tathata cannot remain expressionless and undifferentiated; it has to that extent to be conceptualized. While to utter, "Oh the Morning Glory!" is to come out of the identification, and hence to be no more of tathata, this coming out of itself, this negating itself in order to be itself, is the way in which we are all constituted. And this conceptualization inevitably leads to contradictions which can only be dissolved in the synthesis of prajna-intuition."
D. T. Suzuki
Zen Buddhism
Tathata "is variously translated as "thusness" or "suchness"." (Wikipedia)
"the ultimate inexpressible nature of all things." (Google)
Prajna according to Wikipeidia is "often translated as "wisdom", but is closer in meaning to "insight", "discriminating knowledge", or "intuitive apprehension".
Located near the end of the book (after endless Zen stories emphasizing the ineffable nature of all Zen insights), this is the first paragraph where I can begin catch a glimpse of what life might be like for a practitioner of Zen - what it might be like to BE a Zen Buddhist.
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