I view Zen masters as predecessors to scientists. It's astonishing that some folks millennia ago, simply by observing themselves and the apparent world could come to the conclusions they came to (and that are in line with modern science that has nowadays a pretty sophisticated arsenal of tools). Thus, a true scientist should be a Zen master in the sense that he should be concerned only with observation and explanation and not extrapolation of meaning (because there is none, after all -- another commonality between Zen masters and science).

All mystical traditions that talk about illusion, which is what I referenced, define that illusion as mistaking something for something else. In particular mistaking the perception ("emergent construct") for true nature of reality ("quantum soup" for now). Yet, all of them also add that the illusion is (of) the world. As I said previously, illusion is real, it can even have a practical purpose, it just isn't how things that cause it really are. How is that a sleight of hand? It's pretty accurate observation. The only difference between past and today is that today we also know why is that and how it is possible. And of course, let's not forget that science still didn't crack what is actually the absolutely fundamental nature of matter or objective world.