Enlightenment in Buddhism - Terms

Terms

Kensho and Satori are Japanese terms used in Zen traditions. Kensho means "seeing into one's true nature." Ken means "seeing", sho means "nature", "essence". Satori (Japanese) is often used interchangeably with kensho, but refers to the experience of kensho. The Rinzai tradition sees kensho as essential to the attainment of Buddhahood, but considers further practice essential to attain Buddhahood.

Bodhi (Sanskrit, Pāli) literally means "to have woken up and understood" and refers to the particular form of understanding or knowledge that the Buddha attained upon his awakening. This knowledge is an understanding into the causality by which sentient beings come into existence, as well as the operations of the mind which keep sentient beings imprisoned in craving, suffering and rebirth. Bodhi is thus the understanding of the way to liberate oneself from this imprisonment.

Yogacara uses the term āśraya parāvŗtti, "revolution of the basis",

... a sudden revulsion, turning, or re-turning of the ālaya vijñaña back into its original state of purity the Mind returns to its original condition of non-attachment, non-discrimination and non-duality".

In this awakening it is realized that obeserver and observed are not distinct entities, but mutual co-dependent.

The full enlightenment attributed to buddhas is known as samyaksaṃbodhi (Skt.; Pāli: sammāsaṃbodhi) or anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, "highest perfect awakening".

Read more about this topic:  Enlightenment In Buddhism

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