Satori in Zen Buddhhism

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Satori in Zen Buddhhism

Satori is the spiritual goal of Zen Buddhism (in Chinese: wu). It is a key concept in Zen. Whether it

comes to you suddenly seemingly out of nowhere as found in the Enlightenment process called

Aparka Marg, or after an undetermined passage of time centered around years of intense study and

meditation as with the female Zen adept Chiyono, or after forty unrelenting years as with the Buddha's

brother Ananda, there can be no Zen without that which has come to be called Satori. As long as there

is Satori, then Zen will continue to exist in the world.

Satori roughly translates into individual Enlightenment, or a flash of sudden awareness. Satori is as

well an intuitive experience. The feeling of Satori is that of infinite space. A brief experience of

Enlightenment is sometimes called Kensho. Semantically, Kenshoand Satori have virtually the same

meaning and are often used interchangeably. In describing the Enlightenment of the Patriarchs,

however, it is customary to use the word Satori rather than Kensho, the term Satori implying a deeper

experience. The levelof Enlightenment reached by the Buddha and others of similar ilk is refered to as

Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.

There are, as seen in the above, more than one "level" of Self-realization. Most levels, except perhaps

Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi, have been blanketed with what has become now a more general term,

"Satori," Satori having fallen into the day-to-day lexicon exemplified in a variety of sources from the

Eight Jhana States, to the Five Degrees of Tozan, to the Five Varieties of Zen. There are also,

as claimed by some, three kinds, levels or varieties of Satori --- typically listed as being 1) emotion-

based or Mystical Satori, 2) mind-based or Intellectual Satori, and 3) desire-based or Cosmic Satori.

(see)

It was not always that way. If you scroll down to the Satori discription by D.T. Suzuki, below, you will

gain a much greater insight into the original meaning of Satori. There is an enormous difference

between say something like a rather uncomplicated early stage such as as Layato the somewhat

deeper initial step of Inka Shomeiand the state of Enlightenment at the level of the Buddha.

The only way that one can "attain" Satori is through personal experience. The traditional way of

achieving Satori, and the most typical way taught to Zen students in the west --- but NOTthe only way

--- is through the use of Koanssuch as those found in the Gateless Gate, the Mumonkan. Koans are

"riddles" students use to assist in the realization of Satori; these words and phrases were also used by

the early Zen masters. See Regarding Mu.

Another method is meditation. Satori can be brought about through Zazenmeditation. This

meditation would create an objective self associated awareness with a feeling of joy that overrides any
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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 disciples in

the search after the truth of Zen their manifestly enigmatical

presentations were designed to create in their disciples a state

of mind which would more systematically open the way to

enlightenment. All the intellectual demonstrations and

exhortatory persuasions so far carried out by most religious and

philosophical leaders had failed to produce the desired effect,

and their disciples thereby had been father and father led

astray. Especially was this the case when Buddhism was firstintroduced into China, with all its Indian heritage of highly

metaphysical abstractions and most complicated systems of Yoga

discipline, which left the more practical Chinese at the loss as

to how to grasp the central point of the doctrine of Sakyamuni.

Bodhidharma Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng

4. This emphasizing of Satori in Zen makes the fact quite

significant that Zen in not a system of Dhyana as practiced in

India and by other Buddhist schools in China. By Dhyana is

generally understood a kind of meditation or contemplation

directed toward some fixed thought; in Hinayana Buddhism it was a

thought of transiency, while in the Mahayana it was more often

the doctrine of emptiness. When the mind has been so trained as
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to be able to realize a state of perfect void in which there is

not a trace of consciousness left, even the sense of being

unconscious having departed; in other words, when all forms of

mental activity are swept away clean from the field of

consciousness, leaving the mind like the sky devoid of every

speck of cloud, a mere broad expense of blue, Dhyana is said to

have reached its perfection. This may be called ecstasy or

trance, or the First Jhana

5. Satori is not seeing God as he is, as might be contended by

some Christian mystics. Zen has from the beginning made clear and

insisted upon the main thesis, which is to see into the work of

creation; the creator may be found busy moulding his universe, or

he may be absent from his workshop, but Zen goes on with its own

work. It is not dependent upon the support of a creator; when it

grasps the reason for living a life, it is satisfied. Hoyen

(died 1104) of Go-so-san used to produce his own hand and ask his

disciples why it was called a hand. When we know the reason,

there is Satori and we have Zen. Whereas with the God of mysticism

there is the grasping of a definite object; when you have God,

what is no-God is excluded. This is self-limiting. Zen wants

absolute freedom, even from God. "No abiding place" means that

very thing; "Cleanse your mouth when you utter the word Buddha"

amounts to the same thing. It is not that Zen wants to be

morbidly unholy and godless, but that it recognizes the

incompleteness of mere name. Therefore, whenYakusan
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below Turiyatita

About SATORI, in a similar, yet somehow somewhat different approach, Suzuki goes on to write in

ZEN BUDDHISM: Selected Writings of D.T, Suzuki, (New York: Anchor Books, 1956), pp. 103-

108
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5. Sense of the Beyond. "...in Satori there is always what we may call a sense of the

Beyond; the experience indeed is my own but I feel it to be rooted elsewhere. The

individual shell in which my personality is so solidly encased explodes at the

moment of Satori. Not, necessarily, that I get unified with a being greater than

myself or absorbed in it, but that my individuality, which I found rigidly held

together and definitely kept separate from other individual existences, becomes

lossened somehow from its tightening grip and melts away into something

indescribable, something which is of quite a different order from what I am

accustomed to. The feeling that follows is that of complete release or a complete rest-

--the feeling that one has arrived finally at the destination...As far as the psychology

of Satori is considered, a sense of the Beyond is all we can say about it; to call this theBeyond, the Absolute, or God, or a Person is to go further than the experience itself

and to plunge into a theology or metaphysics." See #5 above Turiyatita
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As an interesting sidelight, in his paper on Zen master Te Shan(known throughout Zen lore for

burning all his commentaries and books on Zen immediately following his Awakening), refering to the

above book by D.T. Suzuki, theWanderlingwaxes semi-nostalgic about the importance of his early

association with the meaning and context of the same book:

(source)

Although the above may not seem Satori related specifically, in actuality it is. In clarification, the

following by the Enlightened sage Shri Ranjit Maharaj, is offered:

All Is Illusion

THE AWAKENING EXPERIENCE IN THE MODERN ERA
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SEE ALSO:

THE SAMADHI TRILOGY

Fundamentally, our experience as experienced is not different from the Zen master's. Where

we differ is that we place a fog, a particular kind of conceptual overlay onto that experience

and then make an emotional investment in that overlay, taking it to be "real" in and of itself.

(PLEASE CLICK)

GASSHO

(PLEASE CLICK)

CLICK

HERE FOR
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ENLIGHTENMENT

ON THE RAZOR'S

EDGE

THE BUDDHA AND THE QUALITIES OF A DHARMA TEACHER

SPIRITUAL GUIDES: PASS OR FAIL

THE FALSE GURU TEST

AN INTRODUCTION TO MAJOR TRADITIONS OF

BUDDHISM
http://the-wanderling.com/group.htmlhttp://the-wanderling.com/group.htmlhttp://the-wanderling.com/false_guru.htmlhttp://the-wanderling.com/guides.htmlhttp://the-wanderling.com/wise.htmlhttp://the-wanderling.com/razors_edge_ring.html


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APARKA MARGE:

Aparka Marge is one of two forms of Sannyasa:

sannyasa-vidvat

vividisii-sannyasa

The first, sannyasa-vidvat, is the one known as Aparka Marge.

Aparka Marg comes upon a person by and of itself. Whether they like it or not they are seized

by an inner compulsion. The light explodes and shines so brightly within that they become

blind to all 10,000 things of the world. Probably two the best known cases is that of the Sixth

Patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Hui Neng, and the venerated Indian holy man the Bhagavan Sri

Ramana Maharshi --- although in either case, by no means is their experience totally unique.

See:As The Day Broke In Its Splendor

hsing chiao

Third Stage

jhana
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(source)

TRANSMISSION OF SPIRITUAL POWER

BRIHADARANYAKAOPANISHAD:

Brihadaranyakopanishad is the largest Upanishad of all. That is why it is called Brihad. It

forms the final portion of the Satapatha Brahmana. There are six chapters in it on various

subjects/persons such as Sandhya, Ushus, Karma, Vichara, Brahma, Saguna, Nirguna,

Prajapathi, Devas, Asuras, Jiva, Jnana (Gyana), etc. Though Sankara fully developed Advaita

only in the 8th century AD, the doctrine which teaches that there is only one reality (Para

Brahma) and that all else is unreal is seen clearly in this Upanishad.
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Although it has since been made no longer accessible on the net, awhile back a web-based

spiritual organization that leans heavily toward the works of Richard Rose --- and of whom I

write, within reason, quite favorably on my page aboutAlfred Pulyan

A Child of

the Cyber-Sangha

SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: The Last American Darshan

MySpace

Dark Luminosity Inka Shomei
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Intellectual Satori
http://www.dawndreamer.modern-thinker.co.uk/6%20-%20Three%20satories.htm

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Satori in Zen Buddhhism