Background
Hakuin Ekaku was born on January 19, 1686 in Hara-juku, Japan.
Hakuin Ekaku was born on January 19, 1686 in Hara-juku, Japan.
As a child, Hakuin attended a lecture by a Nichiren monk on the topic of the Eight Hot Hells. As a young man, Hakuin traveled from one temple to another, studying for a time with several teachers.
At the age of fifteen Hakuin secured grudging permission from his parents to enter life at nearby Shoin-ji temple, from which he was eventually sent to Daisho-ji, also near his home village, where he spent his novitiate and where he read the entire Lotus Sutra. He said to have found the esteemed scripture deeply disappointing, as it "consisted of nothing more than simple tales about cause and effect." He didn't change his low opinion about it until the night of his enlightenment twenty-five years later. Four years after his entry into the monastic life, his teacher allowed him to set off on a pilgrimage to live with Zen masters all over Japan. This pilgrimage ended up lasting fourteen years, ending only when he was called back to become a priest at Shoin-ji, which had fallen into near-ruin during the years he was away. It became his place of practice and teaching for the rest of his life.
On a spring night in 1726, when he was forty-one, after numerous other "small " enlightenment experiences, Hakuin attained final, decisive awakening while reading the passage in the Lotus Sutra that declares a bodhisattva's mission as one of practicing beyond enlightenment until all beings are saved. That passage became the theme of the rest of his life. Up until that night, Hakuin's practice was directed toward his own awakening. But from that moment on, his life was completely devoted to leading others to liberation-something for which he seems to have had a talent. Students gathered around him in increasing numbers, and before long, monks, nuns, and laypeople from all over Japan began to make their way to this once-obscure temple to hear Hakuin expound on the dharma. The countryside around Shoin-ji sometimes came to resemble a big Zen camp meeting.
Hakuin left over fifty written works, most of them based on recorded talks, several of which have been translated into English by the great modern Hakuin scholar Norman Waddell, and several of which Shambhala has been honored to publish. "The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Hakuin" is a translation of the work whose Japanese title translates "Talks Given Introductory to Zen Lectures on the Records of Sokko", which is considered one of his most important works, most representative of his teaching in general.
Hakuin's teaching style was what might be referred to today as "in your face." That quality is nowhere more apparent than in his commentary on the "Heart Sutra", which was based on talks he gave around the age of sixty, at the height of his influence. The seriousness of Hakuin's efforts to save all beings, including lay-beings, was demonstrated in his correspondence, some of which has been collected and translated into English under the title "Beating the Cloth Drum." It's full of his advice for practice and life to both monks and laypeople, and it includes an especially interesting series of intimate letters between Hakuin and his dharma heir and biographer, Torei.
His paintings and calligraphies were a powerful vehicle for his dharma transmission, particularly to the world beyond the monastic community, because what he presented in them went beyond words and intellectual concepts to speak directly to the heart. Using traditional Buddhist images and sayings - but also themes from folklore and daily life - Hakuin created a new visual language for Zen: profound and whimsical at the same time, and unlike anything that came before. He died on January 18, 1769 in Hara, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.
Mu
True Mountain Covered with Cloud (Shin Un'zan)
Bonseki
One Hundred Demons
Swallow Among the Waves
Zazen
Ensô
The Monkey Is Reaching For The Moon
Self-portrait
Daruma
One hand clapping
Self-portrait
Nichi Nichi
Chrysanthemums
Fujiyama from Shoin-ji
Ant on a Stone Mill
The Bridge at Mama
Blind Men Crossing a Bridge
Two Blind Men Crossing a Log Bridge
Hotei with his Treasure Bag
Bonji
Dragon Staff
Virtue
Mount Fuji and Eggplants
Monkey and Tortoise
Landscape
Self-portrait
Hotei on a Boat
Lame Beggar on a Handcart
Hitomaro
Akiba Sajakubo
Death
Seven Gods of Good Fortune
Sutasuta Bozu
Orchid and Bee
Plum and Sparrow
Daruma in Red
Ensô
Hakuin saw "deep compassion and commitment to help all sentient beings everywhere" as an indispensable part of the Buddhist path to awakening.
Hakuin stressed zazen as the most important practice. He taught that three things are essential to zazen: great faith, great doubt, and great resolve. He systematized koan study, arranging the traditional koans into a particular order by degree of difficulty.
Quotations:
"You know the sound of two hands clapping; tell me, what is the sound of one hand?"
"All beings are by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water, there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas. How sad that people ignore the near and search the truth afar: like someone in the midst of water crying out in thirst: like a child of a wealthy home wandering among the poor."
"Should you desire the great tranquility prepare to sweat white beads."
"If you forget yourself, you become the universe."