The following six points on Satori are from D.T. Suzuki's An Introduction to Zen Buddhism
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1. People often imagine that the discipline of Zen is to produce
a state of self-suggestion through meditation. This entirely
misses the mark, as can be seen from the various instances cites
above. Satori does not consist in producing a certain
premeditated condition by intensely thinking of it. It is
acquiring a new point of view for looking at things. Ever since
the unfoldment of consciousness we have been led to respond to
the inner and outer conditions in a certain conceptual and
analytical manner. The discipline of Zen consists in upsetting
this groundwork once for all and reconstructing the old frame on
an entirely new basis. It is evident, therefore, that meditating
on metaphysical and symbolic statements, which are products of the
relative consciousness, play no part in Zen.
2. Without the attainment of Satori no one can enter into the
truth of Zen. Satori is the sudden flashing into consciousness of
a new truth hitherto undreamed of. It is a sort of mental
catastrophe taking place all at once, after much piling up of
matters intellectual and demonstrative. The piling has reached a
limit of stability and the whole edifice has come tumbling to the
ground, when, behold, a new heaven is open to full survey. When
the freezing point is reached, water suddenly turns into ice;
the liquid has suddenly turned into a solid body and no
more flows freely. Satori comes upon a man unawares, when he
feels that he has exhausted his whole being. Religiously, it is a
new birth; intellectually, it is the acquiring of a new viewpoint.
The world now appears as if dressed in a new garment, which seems
to cover up all the unsightliness of dualism, which is called
delusion in Buddhist phraseology.
3. Satori is the raison d'etre of Zen without which Zen is no
Zen. Therefore every contrivance, disciplinary and doctrinal,
is directed towards Satori. Zen masters could not remain patient
for Satori to come by itself; that is, to come sporadically or at
its own pleasure. In their earnestness to aid their disciples in
the search after the truth of Zen their manifestly enigmatical
presentations were designed to create in their disciples a state
of mind which would more systematically open the way to
enlightenment. All the intellectual demonstrations and
exhortatory persuasions so far carried out by most religious and
philosophical leaders had failed to produce the desired effect,
and their disciples thereby had been father and father led
astray. Especially was this the case when Buddhism was first
introduced into China, with all its Indian heritage of highly
metaphysical abstractions and most complicated systems of Yoga
discipline, which left the more practical Chinese at the loss as
to how to grasp the central point of the doctrine of Sakyamuni.
Bodhidharma, the Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng, Baso, and other Chinese
masters noticed the fact, and the proclamation and development of
Zen was the natural outcome. By them Satori was placed above
sutra-learning and scholarly discussions of the shastras and was
identified with Zen itself. Zen, therefore, without Satori is
like pepper without its pungency. But there is also such a
thing as too much attachment to the experience of Satori, which
is to be detested.
4. This emphasizing of Satori in Zen makes the fact quite
significant that Zen in not a system of Dhyana as practiced in
India and by other Buddhist schools in China. By Dhyana is
generally understood a kind of meditation or contemplation
directed toward some fixed thought; in Hinayana Buddhism it was a
thought of transiency, while in the Mahayana it was more often
the doctrine of emptiness. When the mind has been so trained as
to be able to realize a state of perfect void in which there is
not a trace of consciousness left, even the sense of being
unconscious having departed; in other words, when all forms of
mental activity are swept away clean from the field of
consciousness, leaving the mind like the sky devoid of every
speck of cloud, a mere broad expense of blue, Dhyana is said to
have reached its perfection. This may be called ecstasy or
trance, or the First Jhana, but it is not Zen. In Zen there must be not just
Kensho, but Satori. There must be a general mental upheaval which destroys
the old accumulations of intellection and lays down the foundation for new
life; there must be the awakening of a new sense which will
review the old things from a hitherto undreamed-of angle of
observation. In Dhyana there are none of these things, for it is
merely a quieting exercise of mind. As such Dhyana doubtless has
its own merit, but Zen must be not identified with it.
5. Satori is not seeing God as he is, as might be contended by
some Christian mystics. Zen has from the beginning made clear and
insisted upon the main thesis, which is to see into the work of
creation; the creator may be found busy moulding his universe, or
he may be absent from his workshop, but Zen goes on with its own
work. It is not dependent upon the support of a creator; when it
grasps the reason for living a life, it is satisfied. Hoyen
(died 1104) of Go-so-san used to produce his own hand and ask his
disciples why it was called a hand. When we know the reason,
there is Satori and we have Zen. Whereas with the God of mysticism
there is the grasping of a definite object; when you have God,
what is no-God is excluded. This is self-limiting. Zen wants
absolute freedom, even from God. "No abiding place" means that
very thing; "Cleanse your mouth when you utter the word Buddha"
amounts to the same thing. It is not that Zen wants to be
morbidly unholy and godless, but that it recognizes the
incompleteness of mere name. Therefore, when Yakusan
(aka Yaoshan Weiyan, Yueh-shan Wei-jen, 751-834)
was asked to give a lecture, he did not say a word, but instead
come down from the pulpit and went off to his own room. Hyakujo
merely walked forward a few steps, stood still, and then opened
his arms, which was his exposition of the great principle.
See #5 below as well as Turiyatita.
6. Satori is not a morbid state of mind, a fit subject for the
study of abnormal psychology. If anything, it is a perfectly
normal state of mind. When I speak of mental upheaval, one may be
led to consider Zen as something to be shunned by ordinary
people. This is a most mistaken view of Zen, but one
unfortunately often held by prejudiced critics. As Joshu
declared, "Zen is your everyday thought"; it all depends on the
adjustment of the hinge whether the door opens in or opens out.
Even in the twinkling of an eye the whole affair is changed and
you have Zen, and you are as perfect and as normal as ever. More
than that, you have acquired in the meantime something altogether
new. All your mental activities will now be working to a
different key, which will be more satisfying, more peaceful, and
fuller of joy than anything you ever experienced before. The tone
of life will be altered. There is something rejuvenating in the
possession of Zen. The spring flowers look prettier, and the
mountain stream runs cooler and more transparent. The subjective
revolution that brings about this state of things cannot be
called abnormal. When life becomes more enjoyable and its expense
broadens to include the universe itself, there must be something
in Satori that is quite precious and well worth one's striving
after.
