Satori. I
Satori is the absolute Present?
Is the Satori-occurrence anything but the seizure of the present, which henceforth gives that vision at right-angles which hitherto has been subjacent? And that is the Satori-state.
Zen is nothing but the realisation of Satori, but the understanding of Zen is not an idea in the mind: it is the mind itself.
All things considered, we cannot understand the ideas of others. We can only understand our own ideas.
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The Zen masters did not seek to communicate knowledge. They consistently, and forcefully, refused to transfer concepts from their minds to those of their pupils. Their effort was confined to awakening direct cognition, and by means of action rather than by means of words.
Rejection of all that does not exist (in relative Reality), of all 'let's pretend', of all political, social, and moral ideas, in favour of the aspect of Reality perceptible in manifestation - is the Zen masters' method of instruction. Religious, philosophic, and metaphysical notions received no greater consideration.
Prajna is the act of Action - pure perception, dynamic and concrete; an experience, not a concept.
The act of seeing is Prajna; recognition of the object seen is Vijnana. Absolute seeing, as opposed to partial or relative seeing, is Prajna.
The Satori-occurance being the realisation that there is no I, there is no I to realise (to be self-conscious of) the Satori-occurance.
And since there never was an I there can never have been a Satori-occurance to abolish it, for neither ever existed in Reality. No wonder those who are assumed to have experienced it do not appear to be aware of the fact!
But the state of Satori, eternally existing, remains unaffected by this piece of illusionism.
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