Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Hakuin on Kensho: The Four Ways of Knowing

Hakuin on Kensho: The Four Ways of Knowing

Hakuin
Low, Albert

Paperback

Buddhism

ISBN10: 1590303776
ISBN13: 9781590303771
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: Sep 12 2006
Pages: 144
Weight: 0.40
Height: 0.40 Width: 5.62 Depth: 8.36
Language: English
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 (1689-1769) 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.

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