Zen Master Hakuin’s Instructive Admonitions

 

There's a great piece of writing by Zen Master Hakuin titled "Reply to an Aged Nun of the Hokke Sect." In it, Hakuin reveals his fundamental ecumenical view as a Zen Buddhist when speaking to a nun of the Nichiren Sect of Buddhism, called the Hokke or Dharma Flower Sect from their emphasis on the Lotus Sutra. When we awaken to mind, the One Mind, we know without doubt that every religion is about the fundamental mind-source. This is sometimes simplistically stated as "all rivers empty into the sea." But the cliche reveals the truth of the One Mind. As Hakuin says elsewhere, “Then, by dipping his finger in the water and tasting it, he will know in an instant what sea water tastes like the world over, because it is of course the same everywhere, in India, China, the great southern sea or the great northern sea.”

 

The letter can be found in “The Embossed Tea Kettle: Orate Gama and other works of Hakuin Zenji” translated by R.D.M. Shaw, D.D. and also in “TheZen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings” translated by Philip B. Yampolsky.

Here I have cherry-picked excerpts of the instructive admonitions that Hakuin provides in this letter.  This is Yampolsky’s translation, slightly edited, available in many places on the internet..  

 

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Zen Master Hakuin’s Instructive Admonitions Excerpted from His “Letter in Answer to an Old Nun of the HokkeSect”

 

This One Mind, derived from the two characters Myoho (妙法 “Wonderous Dharma”) mentioned above, when spread out includes all the Dharma worlds of the ten directions, and when contracted returns to the no-thought and no-mind of the self-nature. Therefore, such things as "outside the mind no thing exists," "in the three worlds there is One Mind alone," and "the true appearance of all things," have been preached. Reaching this ultimate place is called “the Lotus Sutra,” or “the Buddha of Infinite Light;” in Zen it is called “the Original Face,” in Shingon “the Sun Disc of the Inherent Nature of the Letter A,” in Ritsu “the Basic, Intangible Form of the Precepts.” Everyone must realize that these are all different names for the One Mind. […]

The ancestors of the various schools encourage sitting in meditation and, although they advocate the recitation of the sutras, isn't this recitation merely a device to make us reach the state where the mind is unperturbed, pure, and without distractions? The founder of Eihei-ji (Dogen) has said: "If one practices and holds to it for one day, it is worthy of veneration; if one fails to hold to and practice it for a hundred years, these are a hundred years of regret." It is enough to make one shed tears at the regrettable and wretched state of understanding in which, while possessing the difficult-to-obtain body of a human, a person does not cultivate in himself the determination to practice. Instead, like a dog or a cat or some beast that has no understanding at all, he allows his whole life, one so difficult to encounter, to rot carelessly away, and returns to his old abode in the three worlds of suffering, without having learned a thing. […]

To do this one must raise the great ball of doubt. […]

It is nothing more than to see into your own mind. And what is this "own mind?" Don't look for something white or something red, but by all means see it at once. Courageously and firmly establish your aspiration, raise up the great vow, and night and day investigate it to the end. For investigating the mind there are many methods. […]

Make each inhalation and exhalation of your breath the [koan]. Recite it without ceasing with intense devotion. If you recite it without flagging, it will not be long before the mind-nature will truly be set as firmly as a large rock. Dimly you will gain an awareness of a state in which the One Mind is without disturbance. At this time, do not discard this awareness, but continue your constant recitation. Then you will awaken to the Great Matter of true meditation, and all the ordinary consciousnesses and emotions will not operate. It will be as if you had entered into the Diamond Sphere, as if you were seated within a lapis lazuli vase, and, without any discriminating thought at all, suddenly you will be no different from one who has died the Great Death. After you have returned to life, unconsciously the pure and uninvolved true principle of undistracted meditation will appear before you. You will see right before you, in the place where you stand, the True Face of the Lotus, and at once you body and mind will drop off. The true, unlimited, eternal, perfected Tathagata will manifest himself clearly before your eyes and never depart, though you should attempt to drive him away. […]

Opening the True Eye that sees that this very world is itself the brilliance of Nirvana, one reaches the state where all plants, trees, and lands have without the slightest doubt attained to Buddhahood. What is there among the good fruits of the worlds of men and devas that can be compared to this? This is the basic vow that accounts for the appearance in this world of the many Buddhas of the three periods. […]

Do not lament about how far away it is. Is there anything nearer than to see your own eyeballs with your own eyeballs? Do not be afraid about how deep a thing is. If you try to see and hear it at the bottom of a deep chasm or in the depths of the sea, then you may well fear how deep a thing is. Is there anything nearer than to see your own mind with your own mind, to use your own nostrils to smell your own nose? Although the world is in a degenerate age, the Dharma itself is not degenerate. If you take the world as degenerate and cast it away without looking back, you will be like someone who enters into a treasure mountain yet suffers from hunger and cold. Do not fear that because this is a degenerate age [awakening] cannot be accomplished. […]

Although the numerous Tathagatas who have appeared successively in the world have expounded Dharmas as numerous as the sands in the Ganges, they have all appeared solely for the purpose of opening up the Buddha's wisdom to all sentient beings. No matter what Dharma you practice, if you don't seek to open up the Buddha's wisdom, you will never be able to come into accord with the vow of the many Buddhas. The opening up of the Buddha's wisdom is to make clear the Wondrous Dharma of the One Mind. There is nothing more regrettable in this degenerate world than to discard tidings of this Wondrous Dharma of the One Mind and to just go along as one pleases. […]