Satori

From The SpiritWiki

Satori is Zen Buddhism term for a, usually brief, Connection Experience that leads to awakening/understanding/realization. When we achieve satori we realize the true nature and essence of Self, as well as related truths about the nature of Consciousness and our relation to it.[1] Satori is an example of the Enhanced Intellectual Function that arises as a consequence of Connection.

List of Buddhist Terms

Bodhicitta, Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva Vow, Bodhisuta, Buddha Mind, Gifts of the Spirit, Kalki, Kalpa, La, Mantra, Moksha, Nam Shé, Nirvana, Nu Shug, Pure Land, Sangha, Satori, Shambhala, Sutta, Tathagata

List of Connection Outcomes

Connection Outcome > Connection Pathology, Déjà vu, Emotional Cleansing, Emotional Satisfaction, Enlightenment, Existential Terrors, Healing, Liberation, Perfect Connection, Perfected Connection, Perfection, Permanent Connection, Physical Sensations, Psychotic Mysticism, Realization of Self, Ritambharapragya, Spontaneous Alignment, The Unity, Transformation, Union

Notes

"The ultimate destination of satori is towards the Self; it has no other end but to be back within oneself."[2]

Satori is "acquiring a new point of view for looking at things....the sudden flashing into consciousness of a new truth hitherto undreamed of....Religiously, it is a new birth; intellectually, it is the acquiring of a new viewpoint. The world now appears as if dressed in a new garment, which seems to cover up all the unsightliness of dualism, which is called delusion in Buddhist phraseology."[3]

"Satori is the raison d'etre of Zen without which Zen is no Zen. Therefore every contrivance, disciplinary and doctrinal, is directed towards satori. Zen masters could not remain patient for satori to come by itself; that is, to come sporadically or at its own pleasure. IN their earnestness to aid their disciplines in the search of the truth of Zen their manifestly enigmatic presentations were designed to create in their disciplines a state of mind which would more systematically open the way to enlightenment. [4]

Huston Smith

On the ongoing and process nature of awakening/satori.

Ch'an expressions refer to enlightenment as "seeing your self-nature". But even this is not enough. After seeing your self-nature, you need to deepen your experience even further and bring it into maturation. You should have enlightenment experience again and again and support them with continuous practice. Even though Ch'an says that at the time of enlightenment, your outlook is the same as of the Buddha, you are not yet a full Buddha. [5]

There is a recognition in the literature that satori is a process. "When satori first arrives, its momentousness is likely to make it seem ultimate, the be-all and end-all of existence. As life goes on, however, one recognizes that this is not the case. Routine reasserts itself, and one discovers that even those who have had powerful satoris sometimes misbehave. At this point there enters the realization that comes to be stressed increasingly in later texts. In those texts satori is not the goal; it is the first major hurdle in the unending endeavour to work the satori experience into the fabric of one's daily life until one's entire life takes on a satoric quality.[6]

Footnotes

  1. https://terebess.hu/zen/szoto/szotar/szotar.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_Buddhi
  2. Suzuki, D.T. An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. Grove Press, 1994. p. 47. https://amzn.to/2Tp6gWG
  3. Suzuki, D.T. An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. Grove Press, 1994. p. 49-50. https://amzn.to/2Tp6gWG
  4. Suzuki, D.T. An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. Grove Press, 1994. p. 50. https://amzn.to/2Tp6gWG
  5. Yen, Found in Wikipedia entry for Satori, but an incomplete reference. Chan Master Sheng (2006), Boston & London: Shambhala
  6. Huston, Smith. Cleansing the Doors of Perception. Boulder, CO: Sentient Publications, 2000.p. 43


Enhanced Intellectual Function