Hakuin Ekaku Quotes

• If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Forget, Forget You, Ifs

  "The Awakening Artist: Madness and Spiritual Awakening in Art". Book by Patrick Howe, July 25, 2013.

  73 Copy quote

• What is this true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Loss, Evil, Meditation

  69 Copy quote

• At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Lying, Doubt, Awakening

  65 Copy quote

• Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Meditation, Midst, Thousand

  75 Copy quote

• Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Meaningful, Knowing, Truth Is

  54 Copy quote

• 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.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Honesty, Ice, Water

  As quoted in "Teachings of the Buddha" edited by Jack Kornfield, (p. 207), 1993.

  78 Copy quote

• From the sea of effortlessness, let your great uncaused compassion shine forth.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Compassion, Sea, Shining

  37 Copy quote

• If only you could hear
  the sound of snow

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Snow, Sound, Ifs

  Hakuin Ekaku (2010). “Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin”, p.51, Shambhala Publications

  51 Copy quote

• At this moment, is there anything lacking? Nirvana is right here now before our eyes. This place is the lotus land. This body now is the Buddha.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Spiritual, Eye, Land

  47 Copy quote

• Meditation in action is endlessly more important than meditation in stillness.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Meditation, Important, Action

  46 Copy quote

• The spirit of meditation is the combating of self-willed thinking-it is a combat against the weight of one's feelings.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Thinking, Self, Meditation

  36 Copy quote

• Once a person is able to achieve true singlemindedness in his practice and smash apart the old nest... into which he has settled... Wisdom immediately appears... and the all-discerning Fivefold Eye opens wide.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Eye, Practice, Focus

  48 Copy quote

• You know the sound of two hands clapping; tell me, what is the sound of one hand?

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Hands, Two, Sound

  As quoted in "Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin" translated by Norman Waddell, (p. 179), 2010.

  54 Copy quote

• Should you desire the great tranquility prepare to sweat white beads.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Art, Sweat, Desire

  "Zen and the Art of Poker: Timeless Secrets to Transform Your Game". Book by Larry W. Phillips, 1999.

  46 Copy quote

• I encourage all you superior seekers in the secret depths to devote yourselves to penetrating and clarifying the self, as earnestly as you would put out a fire on the top of your head.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Fire, Self, Secret

  42 Copy quote

• Nirvana is right here, before our eyes.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Eye

  15 Copy quote

• Contemplation within activity is a million times better than contemplation within stillness.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Contemplation, Activity, Millions

  33 Copy quote

• Underlying great doubt there is great satori, where there is thorough questioning there will be thoroughgoing experience of awakening.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Doubt, Awakening, Thorough

  30 Copy quote

• In singing and dancing is the voice of the Law.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Law, Voice, Dancing

  18 Copy quote

• How bright and transparent the moonlight of wisdom.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Wisdom, Moonlight, Transparent

  17 Copy quote

• From the very beginning all beings are Buddha.
  Like water and ice,without water no ice,
  outside us no Buddhas.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Ice, Water

  26 Copy quote

• What is the sound of one hand?

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Hands, Sound, Clapping

  Hakuin Ekaku (2010). “The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Hakuin: A Translation of the Sokko-roku Kaien-fusetsu”, p.1, Shambhala Publications

  16 Copy quote

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