Satori
Satori: a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment. The word literally means “understanding”. It is sometimes loosely used interchangeably with Kensho, but Kensho refers to the first perception of the Buddha-Nature or True-Nature, sometimes referred to as “awakening“. Kensho is not a permanent state of enlightenment, but rather a clear glimpse of the true nature of existence. Satori on the other hand is used to refer to “deep” or lasting enlightenment. It is therefore customary to use the word satori, rather than kensho, when referring to the enlightened states of the Buddha and the Patriarchs. -Wikipedia
It is an individual lash of enlightenment coming from alert stillness. Eckhart’s writing about the Zen Master. (p237 - 238) helped me understand that it is not the stream…or hearing the stream that brings Satori. It is the listening, the alertness. There are those moments when something seeps into awareness that simply IS and it is necessary to name it, label it or even know it. It is that significant sudden happening when the senses are alert enough to know without knowing why or what. Once we feel it, if we acknowledge it, we can learn to allow it to sustain. The Zennist, Georgia, says, ” ” If your satori is anything perceptible, it is not genuine satori.”
Our problem is that we think too much. We worry about fixing things, we worry overly about other’s needs and forget destiny, we want more and more and yet more, we find comfort in regrets, we want to understand everything including the impossible, we are overly concerned about things to worry about, we try to be too positive or too negative, we want to be in control, and we want everyone to approve or like us or hate us so we have reason to hate them back. It’s a mess and such easy chaos to get into. We tread water in mighty muddy waters.
Letting go, surrender, acceptance is frightening to the Ego. But, if we do not learn it, we will always feel like we are in a type of hell and miss the wonder of earth-living as spiritual beings. We find problems with being open-minded, with intuitive search for new ideas and understandings. It only takes a short time in nature to understand that the world is not as we know it because we are living it through other’s understandings, leaning on others because we do not trust our own faith and mini-miracles of insight. We are so conditioned that we forget everything is relative, conditioned and impermanent in form.
As for me and my house, we are finding ways to feel satori, to invite it, to allow it. I have started my Medicine Wheel outside and working on making the backyard a peaceful place to meditate, for visitations of nature and spirit, and simply wait for it to all wash over me. I find it easiest to be Present outside when I am surrounded by cultural things that I create to express and invite spirituality. That is sacred space to me. I invite satori as I work on the singing hoops, the gardens, the sweat area. I take no credit in anything other than trying to create spaciousness of peace and calm and invitation.
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