Concept
Kenshō
Overview
Kenshō (Rōmaji; Japanese and classical Chinese: 見性, Pinyin: jianxing, Sanskrit: dṛṣṭi-svabhāva) is an East Asian Buddhist term from the Chan / Zen tradition which means "seeing" or "perceiving" (見) "nature" or "essence" (性), or 'true face'. It is usually translated as "seeing one's [true] nature," with "nature" referring to buddha-nature, ultimate reality, the Dharmadhatu. The term appears in one of the classic slogans which define Chan Buddhism: to see oneʼs own nature and accomplish Buddhahood (見性成佛).
Kenshō is an initial insight or sudden awakening, not full Buddhahood. It is to be followed by further training which deepens this insight, allows one to learn to express it in daily life and gradually removes the remaining defilements.
The Japanese term kenshō is often used interchangeably with satori, which is derived from the verb satoru, and means "comprehension; understanding".
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
There is, thus, no breach in humanistic epistemology. Whether knowledge be taken as ideally perfected, or only as true enough to pass muster for practice, it is hung on one continuous scheme. Reality, howsoever remote, is always defined as a terminus within the general possibilities of experience; and what knows it is defined as an experience _that 'represents' it, in the sense of being substitutable for it in our…
William James, Essays in Radical Empiricism
States what Kenshō is; the author is tied to Kenshō in the knowledge graph.
But if we had to communicate to the observer, for reflection, and in a word, the explanation of their inner nature, it would be best to make use of that Sanscrit formula which occurs so often in the sacred books of the Hindoos, and is called Mahavakya, i.e., the great word: “_Tat twam asi_,” which means, “this living thing art thou.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
States what Kenshō is.
It is true indeed that the religious life is progressive; but understood in the light of the foregoing idea, religious progress is not progress _towards_, but _within_ the sphere of the Infinite. It is not the vain attempt by endless finite additions or increments to become possessed of infinite wealth, but it is the endeavor, by the constant exercise of spiritual activity, to appropriate that infinite inheritance…
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience
The author is tied to Kenshō in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Kenshō
Related ideas
- Kitarō Nishida
- Rinzai school
- Sudden awakening
- The Varieties of Religious Experience
- Two truths doctrine
- Samadhi
- Japanese language
- Linji Yixuan
- Zazen
- Koan
- Buddhahood
- Moksha
- Kleshas (Buddhism)
- Friedrich Schleiermacher
- Five Ranks
- Sōtō
- Śūnyatā
- Nirvana
- View (Buddhism)
- Buddhist modernism
- Chinese Buddhism
- Shikantaza
- Blue Cliff Record
- Sanskrit
Place in the tradition
Part of Monism.