Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Hakuin on Kensho: The Four Ways of Knowing

4/5 ( ratings)

Kensho is the Zen experience of waking up to one’s own true nature—of understanding oneself to be not different from the Buddha-nature that pervades all existence. The Japanese Zen Master Hakuin considered the experience to be essential. In his autobiography he says: “Anyone who would call himself a member of the Zen family must first achieve kensho-realization of the Buddha’s way. If a person who has not achieved kensho says he is a follower of Zen, he is an outrageous fraud. A swindler pure and simple.”

Hakuin’s short text on kensho, “Four Ways of Knowing of an Awakened Person,” is a little-known Zen classic. The “four ways” he describes include the way of knowing of the Great Perfect Mirror, the way of knowing equality, the way of knowing by differentiation, and the way of the perfection of action. Rather than simply being methods for “checking” for enlightenment in oneself, these ways ultimately exemplify Zen practice. Albert Low has provided careful, line-by-line commentary for the text that illuminates its profound wisdom and makes it an inspiration for deeper spiritual practice.

Language: English

Pages: 144

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Shambhala

Release: September 12, 2006

ISBN: 1590303776

ISBN 13: 9781590303771

Hakuin on Kensho: The Four Ways of Knowing

4/5 ( ratings)

Kensho is the Zen experience of waking up to one’s own true nature—of understanding oneself to be not different from the Buddha-nature that pervades all existence. The Japanese Zen Master Hakuin considered the experience to be essential. In his autobiography he says: “Anyone who would call himself a member of the Zen family must first achieve kensho-realization of the Buddha’s way. If a person who has not achieved kensho says he is a follower of Zen, he is an outrageous fraud. A swindler pure and simple.”

Hakuin’s short text on kensho, “Four Ways of Knowing of an Awakened Person,” is a little-known Zen classic. The “four ways” he describes include the way of knowing of the Great Perfect Mirror, the way of knowing equality, the way of knowing by differentiation, and the way of the perfection of action. Rather than simply being methods for “checking” for enlightenment in oneself, these ways ultimately exemplify Zen practice. Albert Low has provided careful, line-by-line commentary for the text that illuminates its profound wisdom and makes it an inspiration for deeper spiritual practice.

Language: English

Pages: 144

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Shambhala

Release: September 12, 2006

ISBN: 1590303776

ISBN 13: 9781590303771

More books from Albert Low

An Invitation to Practice Zen

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Zen Masters Of China: The First Step East

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Zen Meditation Plain and Simple

3.2/5 ( ratings)

What More Do You Want?: Zen Questions, Zen Answers

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Iron Cow of Zen

Working with Koans in Zen Buddhism

3.3/5 ( ratings)

Zen Masters of China: The First Step East

4.4/5 ( ratings)

Butterfly's Dream

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Zen & Creative Management

3.1/5 ( ratings)

What am I? The Heart Sutra for Everyone

4.3/5 ( ratings)

What am I?

I Am, Therefore I Think: A Worldview for the Twenty-first Century

Creating Consciousness: A Study of Consciousness, Creativity, and Violence

to Know Yourself

Practical Feng Shui for the Home

Origin of Human Nature: A ZEN Buddhist Looks at Evolution

Feng Shui: The Way to Harmony

Zen and the Sutras

Zen and the Sutras

Transformative Leadership

Rate this book!

Write a review?