In Buddhism, when the Mind in the absolute sense is free of defilements it is said to be luminous (prabhāsa) in the sense of being ‘radiant like’ whereas before there was only thought (the process or activity of thinking) which is a defilement since it acts to hide Mind, making it seem absent.
With kenshō there is always a luminous state that comes with it which is verification of having awakened, if not also a kind of anointing (abhiṣeka). It is not discussed that much in the literature, if at all, because Zen masters who have had kenshō understand that some students will imagine that they have experienced it.
But the worst part of bringing up the subject of the luminous or prabhāsa is that in reading Buddhism the reader will treat it as a literary artifact. It is not. This is what separates the men from the boys, so to speak, the aryan from the an-aryan.
As strange as it sounds when two awakened people who have been anointed by the luminous meet, each senses the other’s prabhāsa. This is how a realZen master or Lama knows who is still a garden variety snake and who is a real dragon. The idea that there is some kind of external, secondary verification process is almost ludicrous because what is to be verified is the luminous Mind which is primary and self-verifying. This is what the Mind to Mind transmission means. With kenshō also comes the anointing or abhiṣeka. And I dare say that this is only the beginning.
What comes later is mahāyana-prabhāsa, that is the light of the Mahayana. This is when the Tathagatas appear before the student imparting into him their sustaining power. This is a very accurate description (you can read about it in the Lankavatara Sutra). During the empowerment the adept’s own prabhāsa and the Tathagata’s prabhāsa meet. A huge amount of prabhāsa enters the student which is the Tathagata’s. From this empowerment the student’s future is set. The Tathagatas then leave in a week or two and the student returns to normal who now has to learn the ways of a Tathagata. Sound crazy? Trust me it’s not. Buddhism is quite amazing.
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