Essays in Zen Buddhism : $b First seriesSuzuki, Daisetz Teitaro
Religion
Essays in Zen Buddhism : $b First series
Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro
Zen Buddhism
This acquiring of a new point of view in our dealings with life and
the world is popularly called by Japanese Zen students “satori”[5.1]
(_wu_ in Chinese). It is really another name for Enlightenment
(_anuttara-samyak-saṁbodhi_), which is the word used by the Buddha and
his Indian followers ever since his realisation under the Bodhi-tree
by the River Nairañjanā. There are several other phrases in Chinese
designating this spiritual experience, each of which has a special
connotation, showing tentatively how this phenomenon is interpreted. At
all events, there is no Zen without satori, which is indeed the Alpha
and Omega of Zen Buddhism. Zen devoid of satori is like a sun
without its light and heat. Zen may lose all its literature, all its
monasteries, and all its paraphernalia; but as long as there is satori
in it, it will survive to eternity. I want to emphasise this most
fundamental fact concerning the very life of Zen; for there are some
even among the students of Zen themselves who are blind to this central
fact and are apt to think when Zen has been explained away logically
or psychologically or as one of the Buddhist philosophies which can be
summed up by using highly technical and conceptual Buddhist phrases,
Zen is exhausted and there remains nothing in it that makes it what it
is. But my contention is, the life of Zen begins with the opening of
satori (_kai wu_ in Chinese).[5.2]
Satori may be defined as an intuitive looking into the nature of
things in contradistinction to the analytical or logical understanding
of it. Practically, it means the unfolding of a new world hitherto
unperceived in the confusion of a dualistically-trained mind. Or we may
say that with satori our entire surroundings are viewed from quite an
unexpected angle of perception. Whatever this is, the world for those
who have gained a satori is no more the old world as it used to be;
even with all its flowing streams and burning fires, it is never the
same one again. Logically stated, all its opposites and contradictions
are united and harmonised into a consistent organic whole. This is a
mystery and a miracle, but according to the Zen masters such is being
performed every day. Satori can thus be had only through our once
personally experiencing it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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