Yes you can, yes you can perceive reality as it really is. When we slow down our minds either through meditation or through the study of koans we start to see how reality really is, we also begin to recognize just how much our old way of thinking colored our view of the here and now. Zen lays out an easily recognizable path to help us clear us out confusion and the book The Iron Flute is a good place to start familiarizing yourself with what a Zen koan is. The Iron Flute is a collection of Zen koans with each koans having a couple of insightful commentaries attached. Koans are not like crossword puzzles, something to be solved, rather koans are something to know in all of you and when you know it the world will change just a bit.
