Original enlightenment or innate awakening (Chinese: 本覺; pinyin: běnjué; Japanese pronunciation: hongaku; Korean pronunciation: bongak; Vietnamese: bản giác) is an East Asian Buddhist doctrine often translated as "inherent", "innate", "intrinsic" or "original" awakeness.

This doctrine holds all sentient beings are already enlightened or awakened in some way. In this view, since all beings have some kind of awakeness as their true nature, the attainment of insight is a process of discovering and recognizing what is already present, not of attaining some goal or developing a potential. As such, people do not have to become Buddhas through religious cultivation, they just have to recognize that they already are awake, just like Buddhas. Original enlightenment thought is related to Indian Buddhist concepts like Buddha-nature and the luminous mind. The doctrine is articulated in influential East Asian works like the Awakening of Faith and the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, and was also influenced by the teachings of the Huayan school on the interpenetration of all phenomena.

Original enlightenment is often contrasted with "acquired", "initial", "actualized" or "the inception of enlightenment" (Chinese: 始覺; pinyin: shijué; Japanese pronunciation: shikaku), which is a relative experience that is attained through Buddhist practices and teachings by an individual in this life.

Original enlightenment is an influential doctrine of various schools of East Asian Buddhism, including Chan / Zen, Tiantai and Huayan. Inherent enlightenment was also often associated with the teachings of sudden enlightenment which was influential for Japanese Zen. The original enlightenment idea was also important for Korean Buddhism, especially Korean Seon. It was a central teaching in medieval Japanese Buddhist traditions like Shingon, Tendai, and also for some of the new Kamakura schools like Japanese Zen.

The doctrine of innate enlightenment developed in Chinese Buddhism out of various Indian Mahayana ideas, such as the Buddha-nature (tathagatagarbha) doctrine, the luminous mind and the teachings found in various Mahayana sources, including the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Ghanavyuha, Śrīmālādevī, Tathagatagarbha sutra, Nirvana sutra, and the Ratnagotravibhāga.

The influential Huayan-Chan scholar, Guifeng Zongmi, cites various Indian Mahayana sources for this idea. He cites a passage from the Avatamsaka Sutra which states, "When one first raises the thought [of awakening], one attains unexcelled, perfect awakening." He also cites the Nirvana Sutra, which states: "The two, raising the thought [of awakening] and the ultimate, are not separate."

The Prajña translation of the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra (translated c. 798 by the Indian monk Prajña) also mentions the term, stating: "When the buddhas and bodhisattvas realize enlightenment, they convert the ālaya and attain the wisdom of original enlightenment" (Taisho no. 10 n0293 p0688a08).

The Chinese term itself is first mentioned in the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (c. 6th century). According to this treatise: