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At the beginning of 2018, I began a year-long focus on Hakuin\u2019s teaching, specifically, Norman Waddell\u2019s newly translated Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Zenji.\u00a0<\/em>In this blog post, I want to share the most important thing that about Hakuin\u2019s Zen.<\/p>\n First, a little background. Hakuin\u00a0(1686 \u2013 1768) was a Japanese monk in the Rinzai tradition. Widely regarded as an exceptional artist, story teller, and fierce Zen master, he and his successors kept alive the Rinzai lineage in Japan, and largely through the efforts of the S\u014dt\u014d monk,\u00a0Harada Daiun Sogaku<\/a>, are the source of much of the k\u014dan introspection practiced outside of Japan today. For more on Hakuin, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of Hakuin\u2019s outstanding gifts to us is the raw openness with which he showed up. He repeatedly took the Japanese custom of self-disparagement beyond normal limits and into fresh and sometimes hysterical extremes. For Hakuin, the bodhisattva of compassion, Kannon, as a lowly clam crossing over from the shore of suffering to the nirvana, was it. He inspires us to be exactly who we are. For more on this, see the image above and\u00a0click here.<\/a><\/p>\n Furthermore, Hakuin penetrated the depths of the buddhadharma and shared his insights, usually through a vividly immanent expression of old Zen k\u014dans, but also through reinvigorating the study and practice of the sutras. He also created new k\u014dans like, \u201cWhat is the sound of the single hand?\u201d \u201cEast wall strikes west wall,\u201d and \u201cWhat is the color of the wind?\u201d<\/span> Indeed, Hakuin was a k\u014dan master the likes of whom are seen only rarely on this little blue dumpling planet.<\/p>\n Hakuin also emphasized the importance of kensh\u014d (awakening) and also the essential importance of continued post-kensh\u014d training, vigorously moving through all the barriers and nasty briars left by our dharma ancestors. For more on this, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n But none of these are his most important contribution to us. Hakuin\u2019s most important contribution came from his own definitive awakening. For this, I\u2019ll quote Waddell at some length:<\/p>\n \u201cThe religious quest that had been the single focus of his life for more than a quarter century finally came to an end one night in his forty-first year. He was in his chambers at Sh\u014din-ji reading the Lotus Sutra<\/em>, the very same chapter, the one on parables, he had dismissed years before as \u2018a mere collection of simple tales about cause and effect.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn that chapter, the Buddha reveals to his disciple Shariputra the true nature of the Mahayana Bodhisattva, whose own enlightenment is but the first step in his career of assisting others to attain theirs. This is identical to the teaching Sh\u014dju had tried to drive home to Hakuin years before. Like Shariputra, Hakuin had erroneously regarded his original realization as full and perfect enlightenment, and he would have been unable to proceed beyond that realization without the timely assistance of a genuine teacher. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs Hakuin read, the sound of a cricket churring at the foundation stones of the temple reached his ears; at that instant, he crossed the threshold into great enlightenment. The accumulated doubts and uncertainties of forty years suddenly ceased to exist. The reason why the Lotus Sutra<\/em> was regarded as supreme among all the Buddha\u2019s preachings was revealed to him \u2018with blinding clarity.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0He found teardrops \u2018cascading down his face like strings of beads\u2014they poured out like beans from a ruptured sack.\u2019\u201d (1)<\/span><\/p>\n Simply put, the point of dharma practice, of a human life well-lived, is to awaken thoroughly enough to help others awaken. Hakuin\u2019s open-hearted presentation, his art, his k\u014dan offerings, his emphasis on kensh\u014d, are all just about this \u2013 actualizing the bodhisattva vow. A quick search of the\u00a0Complete Poison Blossoms <\/em>finds\u00a0Hakuin returning to this theme 80 times (more or less).\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Here is verse where Hakuin lays it out most clearly:<\/p>\n \u201cEven if you are able to enter through the gates into nonduality,<\/span> Yes! Cutting through all of the secondary and tertiary motivations for Zen practice (love of zazen; psychological, spiritual, physical healing; the subtlety and depth of the k\u014dan literature; fluidity in life and death; mastering expression of the great matter; etc.), Hakuin returns, simply and finally, to Great Vehicle Awakening Truth (aka, Mahayana Buddhism), encouraging us through his example, to put our shoulders to the wheel of the four great universal vows. (3)<\/p>\n Hakuin\u2019s Zen offers a path where fulfilling the four great universal vows is an actual possibility, clearly defined, not just vague buddha-dogma.\u00a0I find the clarity of this focus utterly vivifying, cutting through the self-centered focus of our present culture and dharma scene.<\/p>\n It\u2019s really about this great love. This great love isn\u2019t a mushy, idealistic, romantic love, but a tough and messy love that is made alive through cultivating wholehearted verification, and then showing up in this world to help others realize this very mind is buddha.<\/p>\n That is it.<\/p>\n (1)\u00a0Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin<\/em>,\u00a0Hakuin Zenji & Norman Waddell, (Kindle Locations 410-413).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (2) Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn,\u00a0<\/em>Hakuin Zenji & Norman Waddell, p. 138.<\/span><\/p>\n (3) An interpretive version: \u201cThe many beings are numberless; Vowing to carry them across. D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach Sensei, with the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>, an internet-based Zen community. D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is now available (Shambhala). He is also the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/a><\/i>. Click here<\/a> to support the teaching practice of D\u014dsh\u014d R\u014dshi at Patreon.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the beginning of 2018, I began a year-long focus on Hakuin\u2019s teaching, specifically, Norman Waddell\u2019s newly translated Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Zenji.\u00a0In this blog post, I want to share the most important thing that about Hakuin\u2019s Zen. First, a little background. Hakuin\u00a0(1686 \u2013 1768) was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[130,129,6,166],"class_list":["post-4919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodhisattva-vow","tag-hakuin","tag-koan","tag-love"],"yoast_head":"\nSome Cool Stuff About Hakuin That Aren\u2019t Most Important<\/h4>\n
Hakuin\u2019s Definitive Awakening and the Most Important Thing<\/h4>\n
Spurring Forward the Wheel of the Four Great Universal Vows<\/h4>\n
\n<\/span>If you lack the Bodhi-mind you\u2019ll end up under Mara\u2019s sway.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Anyone who wants to achieve complete mastery of the Dharma<\/span>
\n<\/span>Has to spur forward the wheel of the four great universal vows.\u201d (2)<\/span><\/p>\n
\nGreed, anger, and ignorance rise endlessly; Vowing to cut off the mind road.
\nDharma gates are countless; Vowing to wake to them all.
\nBuddha\u2019s Way is all embracing;\u00a0Vowing to follow through.\u201d<\/p>\n
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