The pathetic fallacy
[W]hen the mind is sicklied over with concepts of the wind as a howling human voice, then also clouds are faces, "oak leaves are hands," and the self perversely advances and confirms the ten thousand things. This is projection, the opposite of true perception, and is, as Dogen says, delusion - the fantasy of Lady Lowzen "for whom what is was other things." As Ching Ch'ing says, "Ordinary people are upside down, falling into delusion about themselves, and pursuing outside objects." Presuming that our emotional concerns are the center, we project ourselves onto the wind and the leaves, smearing them with our feelings. We have not yet reached the place where there is neither cold nor heat. We fall into delusion about ourselves and seek to enlarge that delusion by the pathetic fallacy.
- Robert Aitken Roshi, Original Dwelling Place.
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