Satori

Satori (Japanese: 悟り) is a Japanese Buddhist term for "awakening", "comprehension; understanding". The word derives from the Japanese verb satoru.

In the Zen Buddhist tradition, satori refers to a deep experience of kenshō, "seeing into one's true nature". Ken means "seeing," shō means "nature" or "essence".

Satori and kenshō are commonly translated as "enlightenment", a word that is also used to translate bodhi, prajñā and Buddhahood.

Satori means the experience of awakening ("enlightenment") or apprehension of the true nature of reality. It is often considered an experience which cannot be expressed in words. While the term satori is derived from the Japanese verb "to know" (satoru), it is distinct from the philosophical concept of knowledge as it represents a transcendence of the distinction between one that knows and knowledge.

D. T. Suzuki, a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were influential in the West, described "... looking into one's nature or the opening of satori"; and said "This acquiring of a new point of view in our dealings with life and the world is popularly called by Japanese Zen students 'satori' (wu in Chinese). It is really another name for Enlightenment (anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi)".

Satori is often used interchangeably with kenshō. Kenshō refers to the perception of the Buddha-nature or emptiness. While the terms have the same meaning, customarily satori is used to refer to full, deep experience of enlightenment (such as of the Buddha), while kenshō is used to refer to a first experience of enlightenment that can still be expanded.

Distinct from this first insight, daigo-tettei is used to refer to a "deep" or lasting realization of the nature of existence.

According to D. T. Suzuki,