When does Zen satori, or for that matter the nature of enlightenment, itself, become transformed into a mind game or the same, a language game? I think it occurs when someone says: “Enlightenment (J., satori) is the disappearance of the distinction between enlightenment and non-enlightenment.”
If we consider the foregoing proposition as a concise definition of enlightenment we need to ask ourselves, might this proposition be misleading, as if to take us off the trail to enlightenment? In other words, while I sense this proposition to be valid for me, maybe it’s not saying anything about actual enlightenment. What if the proposition is simply refuting the universe of language, itself, saying nothing more or less than it’s all a bunch of words—and I don’t care?
If we also take into consideration the vast majority of people, they could not care less about enlightenment let alone the distinction between enlightenment and non-enlightment. So are they enlightened since they are absent such a distinction?
Overall, we may judge that a mind or language game is a verbal sleight of hand trick that actually keeps us anchored in our present reality which is entirely phenomenal and illusory. To be honest, there is enlightenment (sambodhi). It is fundamentally the distinction between immaculate mind and maculate mind.
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