Kensho [enlightenment] is no... haphazard phenomenon. Like a sprout which emerges from a soil which has been seeded, fertilized, and thoroughly weeded, satori comes to a mind that has heard and believed the Buddha-truth and then uprooted within itself the throttling notion of self-and-other. And just as one must nurture a newly emerged seedling until maturity, so Zen training stresses the need to ripen an initial awakening through subsequent koan practice and/or shikan-taza until it thoroughly animates one's life. In other words, to function on the higher level of consciousness brought about by kensho, one must further train oneself to act in accordance with this perception of truth.
This special relationship between awakening an post-awakening zazen is brought out in a parable in one of the sutras. In this story enlightenment is compared to a youth who, after years of destitute wandering in a distant land, one day discovers that his wealthy father had many years earlier bequeathed him his fortune. To actually take possession of this treasure, which is rightly his, and become capable of handling it wisely is equated with post-kensho zazen, that is, with broadening and deepening the initial awakening.
An excerpt from The Three Pillars of Zen, 1965, by Roshi Philip Kapleau [1912-2004]
Submitted February 13, 2018 at 08:06PM by WanderingRonin77 http://ift.tt/2CiZ0OB
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