Top 22 Quotes & Sayings by Hakuin Ekaku

Explore popular quotes and sayings by Hakuin Ekaku.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Hakuin Ekaku was one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as the reviver of the Rinzai school from a moribund period of stagnation, refocusing it on its traditionally rigorous training methods integrating meditation and koan practice.

1686 - 1769

Source: Wikipedia

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

Hakuin Ekaku

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

Hakuin Ekaku

In singing and dancing is the voice of the Law.

Hakuin Ekaku

Nirvana is right here, before our eyes.

Hakuin Ekaku

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

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

Hakuin Ekaku

If only you could hear the sound of snow

Hakuin Ekaku

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

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

Hakuin Ekaku

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

Hakuin Ekaku

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

Hakuin Ekaku

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

Hakuin Ekaku

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

Hakuin Ekaku

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

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

Hakuin Ekaku

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

Hakuin Ekaku

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

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