Go-i

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Go-i (Jap.). A classification in Zen Buddhism, first established by Tung-shan Liang-chieh, of five degrees of enlightenment (kenshō, satori). They are laid out in pairs, each of which summarizes how the phenomenal is more truly to be understood: (i) sho-chu-hen, ‘hen in the midst of shō’, the phenomena are immediate, but are understood as manifesting the underlying, true reality; (ii) hen-chu-sho, ‘shō in the midst of hen’, non-differentiation is then achieved; (iii) sho-chu-rai, ‘it coming out of shō’, body and mind drop away as the realization of śūnyatā obtains; (iv) ken-chu-shi, ‘entering between the two’, the realization of how śūnyatā itself vanishes (into phenomena); (v) ken-chu-to ‘arrival in the midst of both’, form and emptiness interpenetrate, in a realization of dynamic non-interaction.

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