Repository | Book | Chapter

Through enlightenment, the sentient being reaches a state of freedom of the mind; this state, however, is in itself still an individual one. As a cognitive, psychic event taking place within the confined limits of the individual mind, "enlightenment" is still rooted in and conditioned by relative factors. Although the "content" of such an event transcends the limits of sheer relativity, in the "form" it is still just that: an event. Thus the duality between "content" and "form" is still inherent to it. Through enlightenment, the 'sentient being" has a glimpse into "totality" from the narrow window of the individual mind. It is not surprising that most of the Ch"an masters talked about enlightenment as an act of the mind which can be more or less intense. Although characterized by the temporal feature of 'suddenness," the noetic quality of the consciousness thus realized can be more or less intense; hence there are weak and strong cases of satori. Most of the Ch"an masters do not share the view of Tao'sheng (a fifth-century Buddhist monk of the early Sanlun school or Chinese Mādhyamika, also influenced by neo-Taoism) who maintains that enlightenment is an absolute act which has to take place in indivisibili, either all of it at once or not at all.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-8186-7_11

Full citation: