Katsu (Zen)

Katsu (Chinese: 喝; Pinyin: hè, Wade-Giles: ho; Cantonese: , rōmaji: katsu) is a shout that is described in Chan and Zen Buddhism encounter-stories, to expose the enlightened state (Japanese: satori) of the Zen-master, and/or to induce initial enlightenment experience in a student. The shout is also sometimes used in the East Asian martial arts for a variety of purposes; in this context, katsu is very similar to the shout kiai. rdf:langString