Wu () is a concept of awareness, consciousness, or spiritual enlightenment in the Chinese folk religion and Chinese Buddhism.
The term originally appeared in Chinese Buddhism as a shortened form of juéwù (), a term seen in the (a 36-volume translation of the Mahaparinibbana Sutta) and (a 60-volume translation of the BuddhÃÂvataá¹Âsaka Sà «tra). It is related to bodhi (), but usually describes a much earlier, initial insight. The equivalent term in Japanese Buddhism is satori.
A related term is "opening of awareness" kÃÂiwù (). Fan and Chen (2013), in their discussion of Chinese folk religion (see below), translate juéwù literally as "awakening of awareness".
According to scholarly studies, many practitioners who have recently "reverted" to the Chinese traditional religion use the term juéwù or kÃÂiwù to describe their initial insight into the interconnectedness of reality in terms of the cosmic-moral harmony (bào yìng, ) as it relates to mìng yùn and yuán fèn.
This spiritual awareness, wu, works as an engine that moves these themes from being mere ideas to be motivating forces in one's life:
Awareness is a dynamic factor and appears in two guises: first, as a realisation that arrives as a gift, often unbidden, then as a practice that the person intentionally follows.