The Kenshō Trap: When Spiritual Knowledge Becomes Another Prison

Spiritual knowledge becomes the ultimate identity theft.

The human mind craves validation, status, and belonging – even on the spiritual path. A recent comment on an article of mine demonstrated this perfectly:

“To be Awakened is to have achieved the non-dual esoteric experience of Satori. To achieve Satori, you must first achieve Kensho.“

Oh boy, some spiritual seekers wield terminology like bouncers checking IDs at the enlightenment nightclub. “Sorry pal, no Kenshō stamp on your spiritual passport? No entry to Satori city for you!” This creates the perfect prison – one with invisible bars made of concepts about freedom. When someone demands you “prove Your level of understanding,” they’ve missed the point entirely. Truth needs no credentials, and awakening requires no validation from self-appointed gatekeepers.

The map-territory confusion reaches its zenith in spiritual pursuits. People memorize every contour line on the enlightenment map while never taking a single step on actual terrain. They measure the distance to a place that exists only in the mind’s imagination…

…while standing exactly where reality already is.

Meditation: Expression Not Maintenance

Meditation continues after awakening for entirely different reasons.

My critic pointed out a supposed contradiction:

“For this statement of yours, on awakening, to be correct ‘needing no maintenance, protection or replenishing…’ you would not need to meditate three times a day.“

This misunderstands the fundamental nature of post-awakening practices. It’s like asking why someone who knows how to swim still enters the water.

Once upon a time there was a Zen teacher who sat in meditation forty years before his awakening and forty years after. Before, he sat to attain something. After, he sat because sitting is what happens. Before, meditation was a means to an end – a spiritual technology for upgrading consciousness. After, it was simply life expressing itself, like a tree growing or a river flowing. No one accuses a river of “maintaining” its riverness by continuing to flow.

The question reveals more about the questioner than the questioned. It exposes the transactional nature of their spiritual search – the belief that practices are merely tools to acquire spiritual goods. But what if meditation isn’t spiritual maintenance but spiritual expression…

…like breathing isn’t life maintenance but life itself?

The Academic Armor

Spiritual terminology creates the perfect defense system.

The ego possesses a remarkable ability to transform anything into self-protection – even teachings designed to dismantle it. My comment-section warrior references the “Cognitive Bias addressed by Dunning and Kruger in their 1999 paper,” name-drops Descartes, and demands explanations of “the Hard Problem of consciousness as a double entendre.“

Each reference forms another plate in the armor protecting the vulnerable self beneath. When he states “Your teaching Neo-Advaita and it offers instant enlightenment,” he creates another conceptual barrier between himself and direct experience. The terminology itself becomes a substitute for the thing it points to – like studying restaurant menus instead of eating food, then claiming expertise in cuisine.

This academic armor feels substantial and protective. It gives the mind something to do while avoiding the one thing that threatens it most: the direct confrontation with its own emptiness…

…which no terminology can describe or defend against.

The Dunning-Kruger Spiritual Curve

Those most certain about awakening understand it least.

My commenter asks “Where do you sit on this curve?” regarding Dunning-Kruger bias without realizing the perfect irony. This cognitive bias describes how people with limited knowledge in a domain overestimate their expertise. The spiritual version manifests as absolute certainty about what awakening is, who has it, and how it must be attained.

Consider the progression: The beginner reads a few books and feels certain they understand enlightenment. The intermediate student accumulates knowledge and realizes how little they know. The advanced seeker recognizes that conceptual understanding is itself the barrier. The awakened one sees that there was never anyone to awaken in the first place. The certainty curve inverts – those who “know” the most claim the least.

When someone claims to know exactly what “non-dual esoteric experience of Satori” is and precisely how it follows Kenshō, they reveal their position on the curve. The more someone claims to know with certainty, the more trapped they remain in the knowledge that prevents seeing…

…because “knowing better” is the ultimate ignorance.

Beyond Spiritual Combat

True freedom abandons the entire battlefield of spiritual status.

The spiritual path contains a magnificent joke at its core: the very thing seeking enlightenment is what prevents its realization. My commenter ends with:

“This is a little personal to me as the only post of mine available ends by arguing against your teaching.“

The combat zone he creates exists within the dream of separation that awakening dispels. These spiritual warriors battle endlessly over whose understanding is superior, whose practices more authentic, whose lineage more legitimate. It’s like dream characters arguing about who’s most awake while remaining sound asleep. When someone claims that NirvanaNuke is about teaching “Neo-Advaita” that only treats “existential dread. Not awakening!” they’re still playing the game of spiritual one-upmanship.

Real freedom isn’t winning the spiritual credentialing game but abandoning it entirely. It’s not about proving your level of understanding but seeing through the need for proof. The debate itself becomes meaningless when you see that the debaters don’t exist as separate entities…

…and neither do you.

The Ultimate Doorway

Drop the spiritual resume and step through.

The path beyond spiritual knowledge doesn’t require more terminology, better practices, or deeper understanding. It demands the courage to stand naked without conceptual clothing of any kind.

When seekers trade jargon like “Kenshō” and “Satori” while demanding “prove Your level of understanding,” they reinforce the very barriers they claim to transcend. Every concept about awakening becomes another brick in the wall separating you from what you already are. The wall grows higher with each spiritual term memorized, each authority quoted, each distinction made between “real” and “fake” enlightenment.

The invitation isn’t to acquire better spiritual knowledge but to question the knower itself. Not to win arguments in comment sections but to investigate who believes they exist to argue. Not to prove your spiritual credentials but to see through the one who seeks credentials. The doorway has always been open…

…you just need to stop building walls around it.

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P.S. I recently created a website for people who hate spiritual terminology wars. It's called NirvanaNuke.com. No Kenshō credentials required for entry.

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