Like his predecessors Shidō Bu'nan (Munan) (1603–1676) and Dōkyō Etan (Shoju Rojin, "The Old Man of Shōju Hermitage") (1642–1721), Hakuin stressed the importance of
kensho and post-satori practice, deepening one's understanding and working for the benefit of others. Just like them he was critical of the state of practice in the Rinzai-establishment, which he saw as lacking in rigorous training.
Post-satori practice Hakuin saw "deep compassion and commitment to help all sentient beings everywhere" as an indispensable part of the
Buddhist path to awakening. Hakuin emphasized the need for "post-satori training", purifying the mind of karmic tendencies and The insight in the need of arousing
bodhicitta formed Hakuin's final awakening:
Koan practice Koan-training Hakuin deeply believed that the most effective way for a student to achieve insight was through extensive
meditation on a
koan. Only with incessant investigation of his koan will a student be able to become one with the koan, and attain enlightenment. The psychological pressure and
doubt that comes when one struggles with a koan is meant to create tension that leads to awakening. Hakuin called this the "great doubt", writing, "At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully". Hakuin used two or three stages in his application of koan-training. Students had to develop their ability to see (
kensho) their true nature. Yet, they also had to sustain the "great doubt", going beyond their initial awakening and further deepen their insight struggling with "difficult-to-pass" (
nanto)
koans, which Hakuin seems to have inherited from his teachers. This further training and awakening culminates in a full integration of understanding and quietude with the action of daily life, and
bodhicitta, upholding the four bodhisattva-vows and striving to liberate all living beings.
Hear the sound of one hand In later life he used the instruction "Hear the sound of one hand," which actually consists of two parts, to raise the great doubt with beginners. He first mentioned it when writing
Kannon Bosatsu is
Kanzeon (
Avalokiteshvara,
Guanyin), the bodhisattva of great compassion, who hears the sounds of all people suffering in this world. The second part is "Put a stop all sounds," referring to the first bodhisattva vow of liberating all sentient beings. Hakuin preferred this to the most commonly assigned first koan from the Chinese tradition, the
Mu koan. He believed his "Sound of One Hand" to be more effective in generating the great doubt, and remarked that "its superiority to the former methods is like the difference between cloud and mud". While 'the sound of one hand' is the classical instruction used by Hakuin, in
Hakuin on kensho and other writings he emphasises the
Hua Tou-like question "Who is the host of seeing and hearing?" to arouse the great doubt, akin to
Bassui Tokushō's (1327–1387) "
Who is hearing this sound?", and the Ōbaku use of the "
nembutsu kōan", which entailed the practice of reciting the name of
Amitabha while holding in one's mind the kōan, "Who is reciting?" Bassui equates Buddha-nature or the One Mind with Kanzeon, compassion. "...someone who, for every sound he heard, contemplated the mind of the hearer, thereby realizing his true nature." Bassui further explains that "The one gate the so-called one who hears the Dharma [...] was the perfection achieved by the bodhisattva Kannon." As for antecedents of 'the sound of one hand', it "has a close relation to," or is "adapted from,"
Xuedou Chongxian's (980-1052) poetic commentary that "a single hand by itself produces no sound," which appears in case 18 of
The Blue Cliff Record. One hand also appears in some interactions and explanations. When first meeting Shōju Rōjin, Hakuin The "Recorded Sayings" of
Zhaozhou Congshen (Jōshū Jūshin, 778–897) contain the following episode: Regarding his final awakening, in his biography
Wild Ivy Hakuin wrote
Four ways of knowing Asanga, one of the main proponents of
Yogacara, introduced the idea of four ways of knowing: the perfection of action, observing knowing, universal knowing, and great mirror knowing. He relates these to the
Eight Consciousnesses: • The five senses are connected to the perfection of action, • Samjna (cognition) is connected to observing knowing, • Manas (mind) is related to universal knowing, • Alaya-vijnana is connected to great mirror knowing. In time, these ways of knowing were also connected to the doctrine of the
three bodies of the Buddha (
Dharmakāya,
Sambhogakāya and Nirmanakaya), together forming the "Yuishiki doctrine". Hakuin related these four ways of knowing to four gates on the Buddhist path: the Gate of Inspiration, the Gate of Practice, the Gate of Awakening, and the Gate of Nirvana. • The Gate of Inspiration is initial awakening,
kensho, seeing into one's true nature. • The Gate of Practice is the purification of oneself by continuous practice. • The Gate of Awakening is the study of the ancient masters and the Buddhist sutras, to deepen the insight into the Buddhist teachings, and acquire the skills needed to help other sentient beings on the Buddhist path to awakening. • The Gate of Nirvana is the "ultimate liberation", "knowing without any kind of defilement".
The Five Ranks Hakuin found the study and understanding of
Dongshan Liangjie's (Jp. Tōzan Ryōkan)
Five Ranks highly useful in post-satori practice. Today, they form part of the 5th step of the Japanese Rinzai koan-curriculum.
Opposition to "Do-nothing Zen" One of Hakuin's major concerns was the danger of what he called "Do-nothing Zen" teachers, who upon reaching some small experience of enlightenment devoted the rest of their life to, as he puts it, "passing day after day in a state of seated sleep". Quietist practices seeking simply to empty the mind, or teachers who taught that a tranquil "emptiness" was enlightenment, were Hakuin's constant targets. In this regard he was especially critical of followers of the maverick Zen master
Bankei. He stressed a never-ending and severe training to deepen the insight of
satori and forge one's ability to manifest it in all activities. He urged his students to never be satisfied with shallow attainments, and truly believed that enlightenment was possible for anyone if they exerted themselves and approached their practice with real energy.
Zen-sickness and vital energy In several of his writings, most notably
Yasenkanna ("Idle Talk on a Night Boat") Hakuin describes how he cured his Zen-sickness (
zenbyō) by using two methods explained to him by Hakuyū, a
Taoist cave-dwelling hermit. These methods are 'introspective meditation', a contemplation practice called
naikan using
abdominal breathing and focussing on the
hara, and a
visualization, the 'soft butter method'. According to Katō Shǒshun, this zen-sickness most likely happened when Hakuin was in his late twenties. Shǒshun conjects that these remedies were worked out by Hakuin on his own, from "a combination of traditional medical and meditation texts and folk therapies current at the time." According to Waddell,
Yasenkanna has been in print ever since it was published, reflecting its popularity in secular circles. In the preface to
Yasenkanna, attributed by Hakuin to a disciple called "Hunger and Cold, the Master of Poverty Hermitage," Hakuin explains that a long life can be attained by disciplining the body through gathering the
ki, the life-force or "the fire or heat in your mind (heart)," in the
tanden or lower belly, producing "the true elixir" (
shintan), which is "not something located apart from the self." He describes a four-step contemplation to concentrate the
ki in the
tanden, as a cure against zen-sickness. In the
naikan method, as explained by "the master," the practitioner lays down on his back, and concentrates the
ki in the
tanden, using the following contemplations: This method is different from the 'soft butter' method, and, according to Waddell, closer to traditional Zen-practice. Hakuin himself warns that longevity is not the goal of Buddhism, and is incomparable to following the Bodhisattva vows, "constantly working to impart the great Dharma to others as you acquire the imposing comportment of the Bodhisattva." In the main text of the
Yasenkanna Hakuin lets Hakuyū give an extensive explanation on the principles of Chinese medicine and the dictum of "bringing the heart down into your lower body," without giving concrete instructions for practice. Hakuin has Hakuyū further explain that "false meditation is meditation that is diverse and unfocused," while "true meditation is no-meditation." Hakuyū then comes with a series of quotations and references from Buddhist sources. In passing, Hakuyū refers to "a method in the
Agama in which butter is used." On Hakuin's request, Hakuyū then sets out to explain the 'butter method'. In this method, one visualizes a lump of soft butter on the head, which slowly melts, relaxing the body as it spreads over all parts of it. ==Influence==