Hakuin Ekaku
Hakuin Ekaku
1686 – 1769
Hakuin Ekaku, who lived from 1686 to 1769, is credited with single-handedly reviving and systematizing the Rinzai school of Zen after a period of significant decline. Through his own intense and prolonged practice—marked by repeated experiences of kensho and equally repeated disillusionment when he recognized deeper layers of his own confusion—Hakuin developed a curriculum of koan practice that moved systematically through progressively deeper layers of inquiry. This curriculum became the standard structure for Rinzai training that continues to this day.
Hakuin's own biography is written in his awakening autobiography Orategama and Wild Ivy, extraordinary documents of the psychological and physical extremes of intensive practice. He developed what he called "Zen sickness"—a dangerous energetic imbalance from excessive one-pointed effort—and was cured by the hermit Hakuyu, from whom he learned the practice of "soft butter" visualization for cultivating the body's energy. Hakuin was also a prolific and unconventional visual artist, creating thousands of brushwork paintings and calligraphies that expressed Dharma teachings through visceral imagery. His famous Circle of Emptiness paintings and his portraits of Bodhidharma are among the most iconic works of Japanese religious art. His restoration of Rinzai practice gave the Japanese Zen tradition a renewed vitality that has persisted to the modern period.
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Teachings
- proverbNot Knowing How Near the Truth Is
Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.
- proverbMeditation in Activity
Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.
- verseSong of Zazen (Zazen Wasan)
All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha. How sad that people ignore the near and search for truth afar: like someone in the midst of water crying out in thirst.
- sermonThe Soft Butter Meditation (Orategama)
Imagine that a lump of soft butter, pure in color and fragrance, the size of a duck egg, is placed on the top of your head. As it begins to melt, it slowly flows downward, moistening and saturating your head, your shoulders, your arms, your chest, your lungs, your liver, your stomach, your back, your spine. All the ailments in these areas dissolve and flow downward like water. You can hear them trickling down. The melted butter continues flowing down through your legs to the soles of your feet, where it comes to rest. Then the whole process begins again. As you continue this meditation, the ailments of the body are healed, and the obstructions of the mind are cleared. This practice never fails.
- sermonLetter to a Sick Monk on Introspective Practice
You say that your practice has brought you to a state of exhaustion and illness. This is because you have been exerting yourself in the wrong way. True practice is not a matter of straining and forcing. When you sit, let the breath sink naturally to the ocean of ki below the navel. Let the strength gather in the legs and lower body while the upper body remains relaxed and open. Do not chase after enlightenment with a tense and agitated mind. The great matter is right here, in this breath, in this moment. When the mind is settled in the tanden and the breath flows naturally, the body heals itself and the Way opens of its own accord.
Master Record Sources
- datesZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
1686-1769
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Hakuin Ekaku
- schoolZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Rinzai
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Shoju Rojin