Paradise Lost?

Daisetz T. Suzuki

"Paradise has never been lost and therefore is never regained...

We see it always ahead of us though we are in reality always in it. This is the delusion we are conditioned to have as beings in time or rather as "becomings" in time. The delusion ceases to be one the very moment we experience all this. It is the Great Mystery, intellectually speaking. In Christian terms, it is Divine Wisdom. The strange thing, however, is: when we experience it we cease to ask questions about it, we accept it, we just live it. Theologians, dialecticians and existentialists may go on discussing the matter, but the ordinary people inclusive of all of us who are outsiders live "the mystery."

A Zen Master was once asked:

Q. What is Tao (We may take Tao as meaning the ultimate truth or reality.)
A. It is one's everyday mind.
Q. What is one's everyday mind?
A. When tired, you sleep; when hungry, you eat."

From a dialogue with Daisetz T. Suzuki and Thomas Merton in the book - Zen and the Birds of Appetite -