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SATORI
167 conversion from the old mode of consciousness to a new. The first experience, however, may be short or long, of low or high degree, complete or, far more likely, very incomplete, for the road from a first taste of satori to the Buddha's Supreme Enlightenment must be long indeed. But the gates, once opened, never again completely close, and the satori thereafter is of increasing frequency, length and quality, until the time comes for some measure of control. At first there will be an increasing ability to induce the mood of satori by one means or another; finally comes the power to command it. For only when consciousness can be raised at will to the plane of (comparative) enlightenment, and there maintained at will, does the pilgrim truly enter into his heritage, and "being free he knows that he is free" and mountains are once more mountains and it's time for tea.
