by Tang Huyen

An awakened has nothing to defend or protect,
least of all himself and his faults and errors,
his viewpoints and perspectives, and can admit
them, change them, or do whatever is required,
even as he keeps distance, detachment, balance
and perspective on them.

According to Buddhist scriptures, if you can
read minds, then you can tell whether somebody
is awakened by failing to see anything when you
try to read his mind, for his mind is empty and
doesn't stop anywhere and doesn't stand
anywhere. It's the standing and stopping that
makes a mind visible, and a mind that doesn't
stop and stand (which is what an awakened
mind is supposed to be) can't be seen.

If you can't read minds, you have to rely on
external behaviour to infer his internal states,
and I would suggest below a few rough parameters
that may help identify him (or at least to discard
the unworthy). To attempt to judge whether
somebody is awakened or not is of course to
impose norms and standards on somebody who
(if awakened) is beyond norms and standards, but
one has to start somewhere, and the sketch below
gives some (very fallible) idea on how to proceed.
Of course to apply it requires much sensitivity and
perspicacity.

Firstly an awakened has plenty of room in his
mind, so that he can take much that would
disturb a deluded without getting bothered,
even less upset, like criticism or blame. If
somebody blows up on criticism or blame,
especially by mere words on the screen, you
can safely adjudge him deluded. If somebody
has no tolerance for criticism or blame, you
can safely adjudge him deluded. Secondly an
awakened is flexible (as opposed to rigid) and
can switch between different and divergent
perspectives, even contrary ones, as if they
were transparent (as opposed to opaque) and
manipulable (as opposed to unwieldy) to him.
Thidly an awakened knows how to keep
balance, in mood and affect, but also in
perspective.

Generally, an awakened has nothing to
defend or protect, least of all himself and his
faults and errors, his viewpoints and
perspectives, and can admit them, change
them, or do whatever is required, even as he
keeps distance, detachment, balance and
perspective on them. Now an awakened may
or may not hold up every single time, but if he
falters, he should know that fact and also be
able to recover quickly from it. Contrariwise,
somebody who, say, blows up on being
challenged (especially regarding his claimed
attainments) and who hardly recovers even
after weeks or months is not awakened, far
from it.

As I said before, such tests are more in the
direction of elimination than in positive
identification. For a more practical approach,
I'd suggest that you look toward determining
the external behaviour of somebody who has
attained to peace with himself and to
reconciliation with himself, somebody who is
settled with himself and has gotten over himself.
Such a person should satisfy most of the above
tests, and should display grace, generosity,
magnanimity, especially with regard to criticism
and blame — generally maturity, which is so rare
on these boards.

Somebody who has not attained to that much is
small fry and a fortiori is not going to be
awakened, regardless of what kind of smooth
talk ("Zennie talk") he can deliver.

Colophon

Posted to talk.religion.buddhism on January 31, 2005, in reply to DC's question about whether enlightened persons can reliably identify each other from external behaviour. Author: Tang Huyen. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

A systematic practical account of how to test for awakening — or at least to eliminate the unworthy. The Buddhist scriptural criterion (SA, Abhidhamma) for reading an awakened mind: it is empty, does not stop or stand, and therefore cannot be seen. The external behavioral tests: tolerance for criticism without blowing up; flexibility between perspectives rather than rigidity; balance in mood and affect; and above all, nothing to defend. The recovery test: does one recognize a faltering and recover quickly? Tang Huyen's conclusion is that the positive markers reduce to one thing — peace with and reconciliation to oneself, a settledness that manifests as grace and magnanimity.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Works Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

🌲