The Soft Butter Meditation (Orategama)

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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.

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Hakuin Ekaku

Lineage: Rinzai

By Hakuin Ekaku

• Not Knowing How Near the Truth Isproverb
• Meditation in Activityproverb
• Song of Zazen (Zazen Wasan)verse
• Letter to a Sick Monk on Introspective Practicesermon
• All Beings Are Originally Buddhaproverb

From Orategama

• Letter to a Sick Monk on Introspective Practice
• Orategama (The Embossed Tea-Kettle)

Sources

• contentWikisource — English-language free library

  Orategama (A Chat on a Boat in the Evening), Hakuin Ekaku

  Orategama: The Soft Butter Meditation (Orategama)