A Recipe of Attentional Receptivity to Quicken Knowings
Description of a Kenshō experience
I am continually surprised by a particular phenomenon when it makes an appearance in my life. This phenomenon has me deep diving into the way I use my attention, and here is why…
It happens in a moment, an already known-idea, contemplation, or concept is returning in my awareness and then, bam – in an instant, my consciousness opens to a distinctly broad, uncapped, expansion, and any previous parameter, construct, or preconceived container, gets blown to pieces – and in that moment I am slightly changed from that point, onward. It’s always surprising when it happens as the knowing that comes about is something I was intellectually aware of before, but I become keenly aware in an instant of how it was not a full knowing in the way I thought it was.
When I first experienced this phenomenon, I was totally mystified. How can that even happen, and what was that that just happened to me? How do I know this now, and how could I have thought that I knew it before – because clearly, I did not, and now this totally mundane concept that I had been parroting in my mind as a life contemplation, a potential reality of life, on call as I needed it, now felt far more than just an understanding of life – but had become a boundary-less, spacious, embodied knowing in just a single moment. I experienced a couple more moments like these before I happened upon a term that almost perfectly describes the feeling.
What is Kenshō?
Kenshō – according to Japanese dictionaries, is a term from the Zen tradition where ken means ‘seeing’ and shō means ‘nature, essence’ and is considered to be an initial insight or awakening, rather than full Buddhahood and is to be followed by practice and training to further deepen the insight. Satori is a comparable term often used interchangeably, derived from the verb satoru which means ‘comprehension and understanding’.
Now this phenomenon may not be a Kenshō or Satori moment, and I suspect there are other established terms for phenomenon like this – but these are the closest I have come to know thus far. There are some good sources to review online for these terms, but I want to look at the ingredients and distill a recipe that may be practiced to conjure more of these moments. Below is an updated list of ingredients based on experiences and research of the phenomenon. This will be updated as people write in and get their experiences documented.
Ingredients of a Kenshō Moment (Updated Feb/2023):
- Prior awareness of the concept for which the deeper insight was afforded
- General open mind/seekers mentality
- Heart open, low defenses, and low/absent self-criticisms
- Increased attraction to the concept, unconsciously in prior days, weeks, or months
- Quickening (within minutes, hours or days) of surrounding context/challenge forming a bit of a ‘pressure cooker’
- Sensation of an unexplained movement in energies that you can’t quite put your finger on
- Clearer mind with less-than-normal busyness
- An energy of lively surrender, almost serendipitously, subconsciously
Attentional Receptivity – a Recipe for Kenshō Moments
From these ingredients, a recipe emerges here that could be called Attentional Receptivity.
Attentional Receptivity in the way that all the ingredients are inhabiting a person’s energetic field at once, a minimum level of surrender and receptivity has been met, circumstances and conditions have created the ‘need’ and attention in the subconscious and conscious are primed and tweaked to notice and become aware.
If the meaning of attention is the following (according to the standard Merriam Webster dictionary) then these pivotal moments may occur and breakthroughs may be expedited if we can practice Attentional Receptivity:
Attention definitions:
- the act or state of applying the mind to something.
- a condition of readiness for such attention involving especially a selective narrowing or focusing of consciousness and receptivity
- consideration with a view to action
- an act of civility or courtesy (in this case, surrendering to the call of the unrevealed energies)
- a position assumed by a soldier.
Have you been in a state of Attentional Receptivity that resulted in a Kenshō or Kenshō-like moment? What was it? What were the ingredients that created it?
Might it be possible to practice Attentional Receptivity to work through challenges and expedite a personal, leveling-up?
I’d love to hear your stories on this phenomenon, and continue to refine what makes it possible and repeatable. Please reach out at victoriasinbox@outlook.com.