Zen Maybe?

In examining consciousness there are parallels concerning Eastern thought  such as Zen and modern philosophy of consciousness based on Western scientific discoveries.  I’ve been reading Daniel Dennett’s “From Bacteria to Bach and Back.”  There are passages in the book that seem to be from Zen teachings:

“If we, our selves, were all “just” part of each other’s user-illusions, wouldn’t that imply that, really, life has no meaning?  No.  The manifest image that has been cobbled together by genetic evolutionary processes over billions of years, and by cultural evolutionary processes over thousands of years, is an extremely sophisticated system of helpful metaphorical renderings of the underlying reality uncovered in the scientific image.  It is a user -illusion that we are so adept at using that we take it to be unvarnished reality, when in fact it has many intervening coats of interpretive varnish on it.” – Dennett

And Then

“What is more, if you are so foolhardy as to doubt the reality of this master, you bind yourself though you use no rope. However much you try to know it through logical reasoning or to name or call it, you are doomed to failure. And even though all of you becomes one mass of questioning as you turn inward and intently search the very core of your being, you will find nothing that can be termed Mind or Essence. Yet should someone call your name, something from within will hear and respond. Find out this instant who it is!” – Bassui Tokusho from The Daily Zen