Zen?

A friend asked me this...

...do you know anything about the concept of Satori?

It's a Zen Buddhist mode of awareness...

...a "flash" of awareness...sudden realization.

I responded...

It's a word I know... but I haven't thought of it or read of it for a while...  It is roughly translated as enlightenment.

I will speak only from my current understanding right now... it isn't probably going to be as Zen as it is going to be just me.

In A Course in Miracles the term miracle can mean simply to understand something in a new way.

From The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, I remember a bit about the importance of being able to change one's perspective about something long held as truth.

Related to healing, I will quote myself from about 10 years ago.

The true role of the healer is not to cure but to help a person redefine what it means to be healthy. The person must change what they understand about dis-ease and find a way to move forward in a paradigm of their own making.

So, to me, it's not only about bringing light to a situation but to bring it in a new way or from a new angle.

The light has been there all along. How am I able to redirect it so that the shadow concealing my wellness is removed?

Satori describes the moment that the shift happens. It is the state of directing the light always present to me and to others just right so that clarity is the result.

That is wellness.

Him...

Nice. I like how you put it.

Me...

Thank you for asking. It is good for me to think in this direction right now. :)

Him...

Any images come to mind when thinking about it...?

...the concept of it?

or colors?

Me...

There is this story that I heard a long time ago and so the details are lost to me but... as a boy, this man found part of a mirror and he polished the edges until it was a smooth, round mirror. For some reason...

he kept it into his adulthood in his wallet. He is someone famous, who I can't recall, and his work was that of a humanitarian... of one who brings aid.

At any rate, he was on a bus one day riding through some lands foreign to him to do his work and he was fidgeting with that mirror, reflecting sunlight streaming through the windows such that it shone under the seats.

Suddenly he realized that had been his life all along. He was simply there to shine that Light into the places it couldn't get on its own.

That is the image that comes to mind.

Him again...

beautiful.

that is very helpful

More from me...

Satori may happen spontaneously, however, it does not happen of its own accord.

My own Buddhist practice is dedicated to the benefit of all sentient beings. The entirety of Kabbalah is the desire to receive in order to share with others.

It takes desire AND it takes the work of many doing their part, conscious or not, reflecting the Light where it can not get on its own.

None of us reaches enlightenment without the other enlightened beings doing their work to support us. 

In my understanding, all beings are enlightened masters and it is my work to remove the obscurations I have within my own mind until I recognize that.

So, I keep an eye out for the Light being shone upon me.

He then asked...

You would catergorize Satori not as an individual act, perse, but as a collective reliant on each individual to do their part?

After a moment I responded...

I might actually say that Satori depends not only on us doing our part but recognizing and accepting that all those around us are doing their part and that our inability to see that is not their responsibility but our own.

We must accept that their every act is designed only to bring us to enlightenment for that is the only option whether it is in this lifetime or another.

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Thanks to friends who ask the questions that make us think. Thanks to facebook for the IM function. Thanks to Blogger for a place to put it. Thanks to Twitter for a way to tell people we did it. Thank you for reading.