Satori

And so the idea of enlightenment got mapped onto those kinds of things.

You know, in Japan, Satori and Kensho have whole cultural connotations that I don't even quite understand, but it's all filtered through their understandings.

My point is, Buddhism is new here.

What this means, that is a deep, necessary part of the tradition for here, is not yet written.

We are wearing crowns so heavy that they block that signal, but amazing things happen when we put those dunce caps down and listen.

so the buddhists speak of a state of consciousness known as satori although it is spoken of as a realm this place exists outside of our common sense and logical thinking and can only be accessed when one sheds their skin of unnecessary knowledge knowledge not to be confused with wisdom The thing is, we already live in Satori.

We just don't know it.

We have been strictly trained by survival mode of biological well-being to depend on physical senses.

And therefore, I want to try, if I can, to communicate to you, to give you some idea of what this experience is.

In Japanese, in Zen, it is called Satori.

I'll write that down.

It's an unfamiliar word.

which was like, whoa, wait a minute, what that does mean, you know? And as I said, life has been very generous with me.

So what happened is that right at that moment, I encountered, I had the possibility to be trained and then facilitate a retreat, which is called Satori.

And Satori is a retreat where people work for many hours every day with the basic questions.

Who am I? Who is in? What is love? What is freedom? What is truth? The fundamental existential questions.

So this has been my main work for the last 30 years.

I work with thousands of people all over the world with these retreats.

And Satori is a Japanese word which means sudden enlightenment.

So this is, in few words, the basic

And I guess he never stopped working.

He said this, after a Kensho experience, so a Kensho is another Japanese word for Satori, maybe means a smaller, a little awakening.

He says, after a Kensho experience, after a little opening, you have to deepen your resolve.

This happens even with those who come to Sashin only once or twice.