suddenisms

Noun

suddenism (plural suddenisms)

1. A tendency for processes to occur suddenly rather than gradually.
   • In regard to our Dog-hole of an Earth, my own Conviction is that the great Law of Nature is "Graduality" & not "Suddenism", & that the Cataclysms which have disturbed our Crust are but the Exceptions which prove the Rule itself—1864 August 1, G. Chichester Oxenden, “Letter to Charles Darwin”, in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Volume 12, Cambridge University Press, published 2001, page 294
2. The achievement of sudden enlightenment.
   • Unqualified suddenism is as impossible to maintain as unqualified gradualism.1983, Luis O. Gómez, “The Direct and Gradual Approaches of Zen Master Mahāyāna: Fragments of the Teachings of Mo-ho-yen”, in Robert M. Gimello, Peter N. Gregory, editors, Studies in Ch'an and...