I had a kensho-like experience around 2018 or 2019, probably my last sesshin. But it was not declared a kensho by my sensei back then, which made me realize and curious that zen, at least in the community where I practiced it, may have a taxonomy of transcendental experiences and several requirements for each kind.
There were about two to three people who had kensho during that sesshin. Their names were announced after the sesshin and the participants applauded them by clapping their hands. It was all surprising to me to witness this. Meanwhile, another participant who had her own kensho-like experience (she stayed by herself in the shrine for about two hour more after the session was over), was not part of those who were applauded.
Because I was curious, I asked those who experienced kensho to describe their experience. They provided a few clues. One said he couldn’t move his hands. They felt like a rock, but castigated me after by asking, telling me to stop probing about something that couldn’t be probed.
Andrew James Brown has a different perspective on what a kensho experience could be like in jiyu shukyo. Here is what he has to say:
For what it is worth, as far as I have come to understand it, the “kensho” experience in free-religion is quite different from that available in many/most traditional religious traditions. What is seen (or one can have reasonable hopes of seeing) in a moment of free-religious kensho is, for me, summed-up well in Imaoka Shin’ichirō-sensei’s eight statements. It’s about seeing, really seeing, how diversity and difference — although it is a fundamental part of reality that has to be acknowledged and lived with — never need stop us from seeing how, somehow, we always-already remain meaningfully connected with each other and all things.