1DLE TALK ON A )\TIGHT BOAT

Text by Hakuin Ekaku Zenji

Teisha by Shodo Harada Roshi
Idle Talk on a Night Boat
with Teisha by
Shodo Harada Roshi

Yasenkanna

One Drop Zen

©2017
This work includes an edited reprint of Idle Talk on a Night Boat. The text is taken
from Hakuin's Precious Mirror Cave which is edited and translated by Norman Contents
Waddell.
Translators Introduction
Hakuin's Precious Mirror Cave was published in 2009 by Counterpoint Press (see Preface to Idle Talk on a Night Boat 7
www.counterpointpress.com)
Opening Remarks on Idle Talk on a Night Boat 50
The copyright on the work Idle Talk on a Night Boat is held by Norman Waddell, Idle Talk on a Night Boat 57
and is used with his permission. Master Hakuyu 64
Cure 75
A number of footnotes have been dropped from this edition but the original Sustaining life 86
numbering has been retained.
Remedies for Sustaining Life 96
This work is for the use of attendees of sesshin with Shodo Harada Roshi. The Drawing Ki into the Tanden 100
copyright on the commentary on the work Idle Talk on a Night Boat is held by Authentic meditation is no-meditation 106
Shodo Harada Roshi. Cultivating the Mind-Energy 116
The Soft Butter Method 125
©2017 Norman Waddell, Shodo Harada Roshi
Taking Leave of Master Hakuyu 133
This work may not be reproduced in any form without written permission.
The benefits ofNaikan 135
Notes 138
Index 152

Cover image is titled Moonlit Sea by SH ODA Koho ./1 IIJ ~¾( 1877-1924)
 Translator's Introduction

Idle Talk on a Night Boat, Hakuin's most popular work, is an

account of his struggle against "Zen sickness" (zen-byo) and
of the cure he achieved through techniques of meditation he
learned from a cave-dwelling hermit named Hakuyu. From
the time it was first published as a single volume in 1757,
Idle Talk on a Night Boat has remained in print more or less
continuously until the present day. Over this span of two
and a half centuries, the work has been used as a primer on
therapeutic meditation, both as a cure for "Zen sickness" and as
a means of preserving health, by numberless students engaged
in the rigors of Zen training. Although Hakuin wrote it for
his monastic community, the meditations it sets forth became
popular and were used in secular circles as well. Prior to the
discovery of penicillin, many sufferers of tuberculosis in Japan
used the techniques, apparently with some success, to judge
from the large number of books promoting its benefits that
appeared from the late nineteenth century up into the early
post-war period2

The basic story appeared in print quite early in Hakuin's

s
writing career, in A Record of Sendai Comments on the
Poems of Cold Mountain iKanzan-shi sendai-kimon, 1746), his
commentary on the poems of the Chinese Zen hermit Han-
shan. He included it, surprisingly, in the form of an extremely
long note to one of Han-shan's verses, with the comment
that he had written a short work titled Idle Talk on a Night
Boat (Yasenkanna) setting forth a technique-the "butter
method"-for concentrating ki-energy in the lower abdomen.3
Asserting that students suffering from Zen sickness would
find the technique useful, he claimed that his own monks had
such a high recovery rate using his method-"nine out of ten
achieving complete recoveries" -that they were soon avidly
copying the manuscript for their personal use.

Hakuin attributes the lengthy preface that accompanies this

version, comprising about forty percent of the entire work, to
 a disciple he calls "Hunger and Cold, the Master of Poverty
Hermitage," but it was obviously written by Hakuin himself.
In it he sets forth his reason for writing Idle Talk. He explains
that in almost forty years as a temple priest he had witnessed
many dedicated students fall victim to Zen sickn ess. He then
describes a secret, four-step technique for concentrating ki in
the lower body that he guarantees will cure any type of Zen
sickn ess. Th is four-step meditation technique in the Preface is
different from the "butter method" he described in the main
text, which he says he learned from the hermit Hakuyu, and is
presumably a newer meditation he had worked out that could
be performed as a kind of koan practice and was thus closer to
traditional Zen meditation.
Th e main part of Idle Talk opens with a brief account of the
sickn ess Hakuin struggled against while on pilgrimage in his
twenties, whose symptoms gradually grew so severe that they
forced him to curtail his training. Physically and mentally
exh austed and desperate for help, he traveled to Kyoto to
visit the hermit Hakuyu, who was reputed to know secret
techniques of meditation that might alleviate or even cure his
condition. Th e rest of the text- three quarters of the whole-
is devoted to describing the visit to Hakuyu and recording the
instructions that Hakuin received from him.
Th ese instructions include basic principles of Chinese medical
theory, cited from Chinese medical literature and Taoist
and Buddhist sources, which illuminate various aspects of
therapeutic meditation and outline specific techniques for
preserving health and attaining long life. All these quotations
emphasize the concentration of ki in the lower body- the
tanden or "cinnabar field" located below the navel. Finally,
Hakuyu teaches Hakuin his own recipe for dealing with Zen
sickn ess, a technique he calls the "butter method." In the final
portion of the work, Hakuin reports that after leaving Hakuyu's
cave he began to practice the butter method, which in time
not only enabled him to completely cure his Zen sickness
and remain healthy and vigorous into old age but also was
2 3
instrumental in helping him to achieve satori and penetrate
many previously intractable koans.
Doubts about Hakuyu's historicity and the truth of Hakuin's
story first surfaced during the second half of the eighteenth
century, probably during Hakuin's own lifetime. Hakuin's
disciple Torei, in his Chronological Biography of Hakuin
(Chapter Six in Hakuin 's Precious Mirror Cave), records his
concern about criticisms he was hearing that Hakuin "was
given to spinning tall tales and engaging in idle talk." He even
deemed it necessary, for the sake of his teacher's reputation,
to undertake a fact-finding trip to the Shirakawa district of
Kyoto, where he says he succeeded in locating an old man who
was able to verify that a recluse named Hakuyu had indeed
lived in the area.
But the doubts about Hakuyu continued, most prominently in
the widely read Lives of Eccentrics of Recent Times (1790). At
the end of a long section devoted to a description of Hakuyu
and his life, author Ban Kokei concludes that Hakuyu was a
creation of Hakuin's imagination. But Kokei corrected this
statement seven years later when he published a sequel, Further
Lives of Eccentrics of Recent Times, where he put forward
new evidence that proved Hakuyu's existence to his complete
satisfaction. The well-known novelist Takizawa Bakin reached
the same conclusion in the late eighteenth century, stating that
he had been able to verify that a hermit named Hakuyu had
indeed lived in the Shirakawa district. Bakin believed, however,
that Hakuin's story about visiting the man was fiction.
The old doubts resurfaced among new generations of readers,
and it was not until Ito Kazuo's Hakuyushi: shijitsu no shin-
tankyu (New Research into the Historicity of Hakuyu) was
published in 1960 that the issue of Hakuyu's historicity was
finally laid to rest. Ito reexamined the question in considerable
detail, sifting systematically through the evidence uncovered
by previous writers. In addition, he uncovered a death registry
(reimei-ki) in Jogan- in, a Jodo temple in the Shirakawa district
 not far from Hakuyu's cave, which clearly recorded the date
and manner of Hakuyu's death:
Th e hermit Hakuyu-s- about whom all that is kn own is
that his family name was Ishikawa and he was born in the
province of Musashi- fell from a cliff on the 23rd day of
the seventh month, 1709, and died two days later on the
25th. He had lived in the mountains for forty-eight years,
having initially gone there at the age of fifteen.
Th is would mean that Hakuyu died at the respectable, though
not superhuman, age of sixty-three. According to Ito's research,
Hakuyu's real name was Ishikawa Jishun (1646-1709). He was
not the teacher of Ishikawa Jozan, as Hakuin suggests in the
text, but probably was Jozan's student. In 1661, at the age of
fifteen, Jishun entered the hills in back of Shisendo, Jozan's
villa in the Shirakawa district, and took up residence in a
cave, shunning the world for the next forty-eight years. Ito
also discovered an entry in the diary of the Neo-Confucian
teacher Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714) recording a trip he made
in 1692 to visit Hakuyu, as he was by then known, at his cave
in Shirakawa.
Although Ito's book dispelled any lingering doubts about
Hakuyu's historicity, the other key question-whether or not
Hakuin fabricated the story of his visit to Hakuyu-has not been
completely resolved. Among those who have closely studied
the evidence in what turns out to be an extremely complicated
question, there is fairly wide agreement that Hakuin did not
visit Hakuyu but was simply using the hermit-like figure as a
means of better dramatizing his story and thus ensuring that
Idle Talk would reach a large audience. There are still those,
however, including many of the rank and file in Hakuin's own
Rinzai school, who are inclined to believe that the visit did
take place. It is unlikely at this date that anyone could prove
the contrary, but it is hard to dismiss the fact that the death
registry places Hakuyu's fatal accident a year before Hakuin
says he visited him. Hakuin's title for his work also hints that
he was stretching the truth. Idle Talk on a Night Boat alludes
to the popular saying Shirakawa yobune ("a night boat on the
4 5
Shirakawa River") that was used in describing a person who
pretends to have been somewhere or to have seen something
that he has not. Hakuin's play on this saying w~s probably
an attempt to alert readers at the outset not to read his story
literally, that he was engaging in fiction.
However, although the story of the Hakuyu visit Hakuin tells
in Idle Talk on a Night Boat is now generally considered to be
fiction, he apparently did suffer from Zen sickness and did cure
himself by practicing meditation techniques similar to those
he sets forth. Owing to the widely conflicting dates Hakuin
assigns the ailment in his writings, it is difficult to determine
when he actually contracted the ailment. The most plausible
scenario, pieced together mainly from the accounts in Wild Ivy
and in the original manuscript version of Torei's Chronological
Biography, would have the first symptoms appearing in his
later twenties and recurring to plague him for a number of
years after that. It was probably not until his thirty-first year or
later that he was finally able to overcome the malady.
Hakuin may have discovered the meditation techniques during
his wide reading in Chinese medical literature and Buddhist
and Taoist texts, as well as from advice he may have received
from veteran teachers. In Wild Ivy, he appears to credit Egoku
Domyo, the Obaku teacher he visited in his twenty-ninth year,
with providing the guidance that led to his recovery. Egoku
is quoted as warning him against wasting his life looking for
someone to cure his illness-" any attempt to cure Zen sickness
can only make it worse"-and advising him to seek a secluded
spot and devote himself to uninterrupted zazen. Then, using
words which sound like an echo of those attributed to Hakuyii
in Idle Talk, Egoku tells him that the cure for his illness and
its cause were the same: he had contracted Zen sickness from
too much zazen and that practice was now his only hope for
curing it.
I have used the text ofYasenkanna published as volume 4 in the
Hakuin Zenji Hogo Zenshu, edited by Yoshizawa Katsuhiro
(Zen-bunka Kenkyusho, 2000). For the annotation, I have
 relied heavily on this edition, as well as on two other works: Preface to
Yasenkanna hyoshaku (Dispelling Doubts about Yasenkanna), Idle Talk on a Night Boat
the most detailed of all the many commentaries on the work,
by an anonymous nineteenth-century author (Kogakkan,
compiled by hunger and cold, the master ofpoverty
1914); and Hyoshaku Yasenkanna (Detailed Commentary hermitage 8
on Yasenkanna), by the Hakuin scholar Rikukawa Taiun
(Sankibo,1963).7
Osesshin opening poem September 2015

All sentient beings possess Buddha mind

Seeing truth and obtaining the way
Who can do this but you?
Forget the merit of sitting formal zazen
What venerable master Hakuin says is truly profound.

From today, we will read the writing by Hakuin Ekaku

Zenji referred to in Japanese as Yasen Kanna. Hakuins great
compassion derived from his own various challenges as he lived
with a deep determination to keep the four vows.

Today in Japanese Zen, only the lineage of Hakuin remains.

All other lineages have disappeared in Japan. From the time of
the Buddha it has been said that the truth is not something that
can be found in words. The only thing we can we find in words
is a help for the realization of this truth. If it could be done by
reading words, everyone would be already awakened. So why
aren't they? It's because it is not possible with words but only
from a living teacher and a living realization; otherwise it is not
the realization of the true Dharma.

From the time of the Buddha, many lineages have been taught,
but they have all faded away, and this one line remains. For this
very same reason Bodhidharma went to China from India at the

6 7
 advanced age of 150 years old and taught this living Dharma
to Niso Eka Daishi. To see directly True Nature and become
Buddha, this living Mind has to be realized from a true, living
teacher, not from words.
The way of Zen taught down through the Sixth Patriarch was
further carried by five lines and six schools, but almost all of
them faded away. And the many Zen lines brought to Japan
are finally all continued only by the lineage of Master Hakuin.
To transmit to a true successor is that difficult, like walking
over water on a very, very thin sheet of ice. And so the entire
life of a teacher is given to this realization of a successor. How
few of these have been that are like Hakuin Ekaku Zenji. After
deeply awakening at Eigen-ji, he met the reclusive Shoju Rojin
at Shoju-on hermitage. And from there his own conceit had to
be completely washed away, being told it was a great mistake
to think his shallow awakening was that of the Buddha. Daito
Kokushi as well awakened with Nanpo Jomyo Zenji. For forty
years he cultivated his awakening in everyday life to iron out
all contradictions. He struggled for it not to be a superficial
understanding.
It is said that Master Hakuin was one who would come only once
in five hundred years. His efforts cannot be underestimated. It
can be seen in reading his Records how his efforts were made.
Of course, he did not write this about himself. He was always
deepening his state of mind, continually deepening through
this writing of calligraphies, writing of various things as he
taught in texts. Today in Japan, all Rinzai Zen comes from the
line of Hakuin Zenji. The many Zen masters in Japan all can be
traced back to the Hakuin lineage.
Hakuin Zenji always kept the wisdom passing on to his students
as he furthered his own realization of deep wisdom. And this
8 9
Yasenkanna, the Idle Talk on a Night Boat, was also given to
every disciple who knew that unless we hit a great wall with our
efforts, our ego will not be able to be rooted out.
Without doing this it is not possible to throw away that ego
and realize that state of being one with the heavens and earth,
free from always being played around with by thinking and
extraneous ideas. Not just content with a slight understanding,
we must follow that path of awakened mind arising aways. Thus
we will read together the works of this Master Hakuin.
At the age of seven, Hakuin saw the clouds form and pass and
in seeing this felt deeply how all is ephemeral, how nothing is
lasting. For a seven-year-old child to see this is very rare, and it
showed well his potential. To see clouds is common for a child,
but not to see them in this way. He already had a clear spiritual
background. At this time, at the age of seven, he was already
going to the temple to hear the teachings given there. From
when he was a child, this potential was already clearly present.
One day at the temple he heard about falling into Hell and was
terrified. He could feel deeply within what it must be like.
Since this was in the olden days, the bath was made by using a
great fire under the metal bathtub to heat the water. But Hakuin
was so fearful about Hell that when he saw the licking of the
flames up the bath's side he was terrified. He told his mother
about his fear, and he would always cling to her and want to be
near her, begging her to tell him how he could not have to go
to Hell.
She told him that because he was born on a day that was under
the protection of Tenjin Samba, he should prey to Tenjin Samba
to protect him and help him. And so he would always chant
 the protective sutra that was from Tenjin Samba. He did this
constantly. He wanted to be sure it would work, and so he
made a test, to see if he was truly protected by this chanting
of the sutra of Tenjin Samba. He pressed one of the red-hot
chopsticks for taking care of the fire and the charcoal into his
leg, but his flesh burned, and he decided that his vow was not
good enough. He was not doing enough to save himself from
Hell just by chanting the sutra of Tanjin Samba. He would have
to get ordained.
His father forbade it. But he continued to go to t_h e temple
praying to Tenjin Samba to protect him. Finally, when Hakuin
reached the age of fifteen, his father felt he could not be left
to continue in this way and allowed him to become ordained.
Hakuin worked hard at his zazen. Then, at the temple, he heard
a teisho about the great Master Garito, a disciple of Tokusan,
who was slaughtered by ruffians and died with a great moan.
Hakuin, hearing that the great Ganto was killed in this way,
decided Buddhism was useless. What was it for if you could be
killed this way by ruffians? If this was only a tale to tell children
to make them behave, then he had no reason to have such a
deep vow. Finding a way out of Hell was not going to be done in
this way. He was not convinced.
At the age of nineteen, he was at the temple on the day when
they dry out all the sutras, putting all the books out in the
sunshine to air them thoroughly and to get rid of any insects
or worms. He decided to make another gesture. He held a deep
question within and asked this question: What would be the
best path for him?
Holding this deep question, he closed his eyes and picked up
a book randomly and opened it, again randomly, to whatever
page it would open to. There he found the words of Jimyo Osho
7 8
in his "Breaking Through the Barrier;' where he wrote about
how the monks of old made great struggles and huge efforts to
break through. Jimyo was a student of the great Funyo Zensho
Zenji. In the very severe freezing winters at his temple, Funyo
Zensho Zenji would pour ice water on the monks as they were
sitting outside in the freezing weather. Most of them left, until
only Jimyo was there keeping going and holding to his vow. His
vow was so deep that to stay awake during nighttime sitting of
yaza he would hold a pointed awl over his thigh so that if he
would nod off and sleep, he would pierce his thigh with this
awl. In this way he kept his zazen strong and awake.
This great master Funyo Zensho Zenji trained him in such a
way that he then came to be known as the Lion West of the
Yangtze River. In this way, Jimyo became known from his great
training and his being a great master and his great efforts. He
left the words "Great efforts without fail bring great results:'
For what are we alive in this world if our being here has no
effect, if we have not had any positive influence? Recharging
and bringing people into awakening-if we haven't done this,
for what are we born?
This is the message which Hakuin opened to, and from this
Hakuin saw that it had not been only about the ruffians killing
the great Ganto, there were also masters like Funyo Zensho
Zenji and Jimyo, and he renewed his passionate determination.
He again became fired up to gather people and do zazen and
continue his path of training.
At Hiroshima he had joined a great gathering of many people
doing a retreat together. Walking from Hiroshima to his home
in Hime-ji he was so engrossed, so absorbed in his koan of Mu,
he didn't even know when he was passing the castle of Hime-ji.
He got on a boat to cross the river, and he fell soundly asleep.
 He had been working so hard on his koan, even while using
great strength to help carry the packages of someone else he was
traveling with, that when he sat in the boat he fell completely
asleep.
When he woke up he start yelling at the boatman, saying, "When
was he going to move this boat?" And the boatman said, "What
are you talking about, you stupid monk. You've been sleeping
there. I've been back and forth across this river several times,
and you wouldn't wake up:' And then he decided that in fact
there was nothing to be lost. After all, these trips across the river
had been so bumpy that everyone had been throwing up on the
boat, and he had been sound asleep the whole time.
Later, at Egan-ji, when Hakuin was twenty-four years old, he
closed himself in the daimyo's graveyard, vowing not to leave
until he was awakened. _?n the seventh day, he heard the great
~11 of the temple. At that moment, he heard that he was that
ringing. He had become it completely. He had broken through
completely. But the very breaking through made him become
haughty about his own experience. He didn't understand why
eyer bod didn't break through the same way, since it was so
---
easy. He became very wobbly in his emotional state of min .
It was at this time that Dokyo Etan Zenji aided him in many
different ways to bring him through this. This is not about
feeling good about a single superficial layer of awakening. He
had to see each and every person as well, knowing how to bring
each and every person he encountered to awakening. He then
returned to take care of his ailing teacher. But, at the same time,
he again became very determined, which was accompanied
again by being very emotionally unruly. That nervous, irritated
insecurity showed him that he had to cultivate all facets of his
9 12
being, not just his sitting.
He began on the path of doing just that. He was living at a
time when there were oriental medicines and different kinds
of acupuncture. He studied all of those and knew he had to go
further. From this study of all these various medical ways of
that time, he brought together the things that are written in
this book. Although he attributed them to a legendary hermit
named Hakuyu, in fact these were all written by Master Hakuin.
While this text is by Master Hakuin, various people of training
have also written about how to breathe and how to care for
psychological phenomena that are not based in reality, that
are mental ideas as opposed to the experienced truth. There
are physical and mental ideas, and then there are also deeper
experiences that don't always match, as Master Goso Hoen Zenji
presented in the koan of Seijo and her soul being separated.
In her everyday life, Seijo had a child and a household and an
everyday self, which could not match with her spiritual inner
self. Resolving this gap and, with every footstep, every hand
motion, resolving this question is not a conceptual possibility.
It has to be walked directly. Master Hakuin is teaching us here
how to see our body and how to polish our state of mind.
When a person who is haughty falls into discouragement, gets
conceited, falls into self-hatred, how do they align again? This
is what Master Hakuin is teaching us. To all people, not only
people of training, but to everyone he is teaching about how
to take every footstep, how to use every hand motion, how to
do this. And for this we are all taught deeply by this text. We
can use it for our everyday life and also in our deepening into
awakening. For this reason it is important to read this text.
 People of old always walked in order to travel. There were no
cars or trains, but boats were of great help at those times. Boat
trips could be only an hour long or even a night long. In a
single boat, those who rode together met coincidentally--just as
happens today when we travel by train--and there new worlds
might be born. From this we have this title. As the night boat
moves slowly through the night, no scenery is visible in the
darkness, and so everyone in the boat exchanges stories and
talks, sometimes meaningful things are said, sometimes things
that have no meaning. Sometimes people even make up things
or pretend that they know something interesting. A saying goes
in Japan about how people brag as if they went by this place
with the river when in fact the name of the place has the river's
name in it but there's no river there whatsoever. The joke is
about passing by a river in a place that has no such thing.
And Hakuin is humbly naming his text in that way. It was
gathered beginning when he was twenty-six, but this was
written when he was seventy-six.
This text is written by Hakuin under the name Kyubo-anju
kot6-sen. Even though he lived in a very poor temple, Shoin-ji,
i it was very famous. We can find the graves of two hundred
nameless people who were training there and died there during
their training.
t When Hakuin was seventy-three years old, he wrote this
preface:
In spring of the seventh year of the Horeki era (1757), a
certain Kyoto bookseller by the name of Ogawa dispatched a
letter to Shoin-ji in far-off Suruga province. It was addressed
to the monks who attended Master Kokurin [Hakuin].
11
It has come to my attention that there is lying buried
among your teacher's papers a manuscript bearing
some such tide as Idle Talk on a Night Boat.
It is said to contain many secret techniques for
cultivating the life essence through disciplining the
ki,9 keeping the defensive ki and nutritive blood
replete, 10 and above all achieving long life. In short,
it contains the ultimate essentials for "refining the
elixir" that were known to the divine sages.
In this way, the bookstore owner, Ogawa, who was also a
publisher, wrote to Hakuin, but not to Hakuin directly, rather
to his attendant, which was the polite way at that time, saying
that he had heard that there might be there some manuscripts
on the cultivation of the ways that were taught in Taoism,
which is one of the three religions, along with Confucianism
and Buddhism, that was influential in China in the olden times.
Taoism emphasized physical cultivation, bringing the ki of the
organs and the whole body into unification. He asked if there
wasn't in those texts of Master Hakuin something that might
have the teaching of that wisdom.
Superior students of today, who are keenly concerned
about such matters, would welcome a work like this
with the same eagerness as a farmer in a parching
field scanning the skies for signs of rain.
Our whole body, our breathing, our circulation are not only for
today's life but for the future as well, entrusting our being to
the ways of the heavens and earth. The same life energy of the
heavens and earth is infinite life energy. Ogawa said, "I have
heard that there is a teaching of this in the way of Zen that
Master Hakuin has written, and it is asleep there, not available to
the world. I want to put it out into the world for many to benefit
12
 by, to share it. I kn ow about this because I kn ow someone who
sat close by and heard these teachings. But I think it should be
made public for all people's vows to be realized:' In this way,
Master Hakuin, feeling he should put this out and share it, gave
us this one chunk of of his writing as this Yasen Kanna. And
from now we will read this together.
Occasionally Zen monks have made copies of the
manuscript, but they keep them carefully hidden away
and do not show them to others. Th at is like concealing
the celestial dipper in a box so the gods cannot use it
to send the world rain.11 To assuage the thirst of these
superior religious seekers, I would like to have the
manuscript printed and ensure that it will be passed
on to future generations. I have heard how in his latter
years your teacher takes constant pleasure in helping his
fellow men. If he believed publishing his work would
benefit people, surely he would not refuse my request.
My fellow attendants and I got out the box of manuscripts
and took it to the master. 12 His mouth formed into a
faint smile. We then opened the box, only to find that
more than half of the pages were already gone, ingested
into the bellies of the bookworms. Thereupon monks
from the master's assembly brought together the copies
of the text that they had made, and from them we
were able to piece together a fair copy. In all, it came
to some fifty pages of writing. We wrapped it up and
sent it off to Mr. Ogawa in Kyoto. Being slightly senior
to the other monks, I was urged to write something to
introduce the work to readers and explain how it came
to be written. Without hesitating, I accepted the task.
It has been nearly forty years now since the master hung
13
up his bowl pouch at Shoin-ji.13 Ever since, monks intent
on plumbing the Zen depths have been coming to him.
From the moment they set foot inside the gates, they
have willingly endured the venomous slobber the master
spewed at them. They welcomed the stinging blows of
his stick. The thought ofleaving never even entered their
minds. Some stayed for ten, even twenty years, totally
indifferent to the possibility that they might have to lay
down their lives at Shoin-ji and become dust under the
temple pines. 14 They were, to a man, towering giants
of the Zen forest, dauntless heroes to all mankind.
They took shelter in old houses and other abandoned
dwellings, in ancient temple halls and ruined shrines. Their
lodgings were spread over an area five or six ri around
Shoin-ji. Hunger awaited them at daybreak. Freezing cold
lurked after them at night. They sustained themselves on
greens and wheat chaff. Their ears were assaulted by the
master's deafening shouts and abuse, their bones pummelled
by furious blows from his fists and stick. What they saw
made their foreheads furrow in disbelief. What they heard
made their bodies break out in cold sweat. There were scenes
a demon would have wept to see, sights that would have
made devils press their palms together in pious supplication.
Now Master Hakuin speaks of his own experience to the
students. Hakuin became abbot at the Kakurinzan temple
Shoin-ji at the age of thirty-three, because it was a leaking and
broken-down temple in his own village. He had to walk around
inside the temple with an umbrella when it rained, it was so
broken down. It was the official temple of the village.
At thirty-three he had planned to do more training, but instead
with his parents' and the village people's urging, he took care of
14
 the teaching temple of Shoin-ji. He had no big plans to make it
into a fancy kind of temple. People of the village just wanted it
to not break down and stay in good enough shape. But Master
Hakuin himself wanted people who wanted to train to come
there.
It was an era when every three years all of the daimyo of the
different areas all over the country of Japan were required by
law to journey to Tokyo--once every three years, from every
single place in Japan. Shimizu, where Hakuin had lived, was
a port where the boats left for the capital, and the daimyos, in
huge parties which were moved in processions of thousands
along the road to Tokyo, cost huge amounts of money for food
and even for salaries and for supplies. The three hundred years
of unchanging politics during which it was required to go to
Tokyo every three years made it impossible for the daimlyos
to save any money, because it used up all of their money in
traveling to Tokyo. And this was the plan-that they wouldn't
have any money to do anything else.
Shoin-ji was close to this route people took to go to Tokyo,
and all kinds of people went stopped in at Shoin-ji. When they
needed money for anything, even though the temple had no
income, these people would come, and things like the leaky
roof would soon be fixed. The Bizen daimyo-the area of
Okayama was called the Bizen area at that time-would always
come and do sanzen with Master Hakuin when he was going to
and coming back from Tokyo. And he would without fail ask
Master Hakuin what could he possibly provide for him or give
to him, and of course Hakuin would always say he didn't need
anything.
But one day, he did. That morning, the young monk in the
15
kitchen had broken the sesame grinding bowl. And so he
asked, because they were made in the Bizen area, if he could
have a sesame grinding bowl. But instead in a very short time
the daimyos people brought two hundred Bizen pottery sesame
grinding bowls, impossible for Hakuin to use in any way. And
so he gave one to every single person in the whole village, and
there was still one left, and he put it on the top of a tree that had
been recently cut to protect the raw place. And it is still in that
place today.
While it was a very poor temple, it was visited by people of all
kinds, and many who were traveling would come there. Hakuin
also himself traveled because in that time there were huge
gatherings of monks. Hundreds of them would come together
to do sesshins and to sit. And at that time he would be invited
to do Dharma talks and teach those great gatherings.
Why did they come? Why were they coming to Shoin-ji? Why
were they inviting him to these gatherings? We have the words
of Master Dogen, which say it so clearly. "To study the way is to
study the self. To study the self is to forget the self." They wanted
to know who they really were, and for this one has to throw
oneself away completely, to realize what is prior to one's small
self. We are not that socialized version of a being.
As the Buddha said when he was awakened, "How wondrous,
how wondrous, all beings are without exception endowed with
this same bright, clear Mind to which I have just awakened:'
But because they are so engrossed in their attachments and in
their extraneous ideas and in their conditioning, people are
unable to see this. He was not saying that there was some kind
of a super-person there. And that is not what he meant when
upon birth he said, "In all the Heavens and all the Earth there is
only One." He was not saying that he was above anyone else but
16
 that we all have this true clear nature.
The point is not that there is nothing to do, to be accomplished,
or to get things that we want to acquire. But if we live in that
way that is pitiful, if our life ends up in a way that we never get
to experience this true Mind to which the Buddha awakened, to
the fact that it is within each of us. For this the Buddha taught
all the way until his later years, until in his eighties he said now
his body was like a worn-down broken cart, falling apart. His
disciples all said, "But, if you depart, where shall we turn to?"
And the Buddha said, "Take refuge in the truth. Take refuge in
the Dharma. Do not take refuge in anything external:'
In this world, there is nothing that is not given the light of the
true Mind, but if we don't realize that clarity of light, that true
Mind, then we are continually looking aside, looking externally,
looking elsewhere. And this is also so pitiful. We stay blind our
whole life. Take refuge in the Dharma and do not take refuge
in others. We all have a huge clear nature, with which we can
recharge all beings. Realizing this truth is what has to be done.
But we again and again look for it externally. We have to realize
where it is within deeply. If we realize this true nature, we see
from where all existence comes forth. And with that, all wisdom
comes forth as well.
As a person of old has said, this huge universe has never said
anything, and yet it exists without end, the heavens and the
earth continuing through to today, manifesting every sort of
phenomena, all kinds of climate, all kinds of environment,
all kinds of existences. This universe as well does not exist
separate from this great space. Yet we have lived our entire lives
without ever experiencing this true Mind directly. It is our own
responsibility to be able to do this. If we have any wisdom at all,
we can. As the Buddha had said when he was awakened, "All
17
beings are endowed with this True Nature:' But everyone has to
realize it, has to experience it for oneself.
And so first of all, before anything else, it is important that we
liberate ourselves, clearing out all of our concepts, liberating
ourselves from our attachment to our small-minded ego.
But we have to experience this way of being without fail and
without stopping. This is Buddhism, and this is why people
came to do sanzen with Master Hakuin. "To study the way is
to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget
the self is to be enlightened by all things:' As Master Dogen
has said, to do this we have to forget our self. If we don't let
go of that ego with a great cleaning out, we will not be able to
realize this experience directly. When we don't carry around
that conceptual mind all the time, we are able to see how we
are blessed with so many things. We realize that we are blessed
to be able to save all the things we are given for maintaining
life--our food, shelter, the things in the environment. We have
to recognize all of the various gifts that we have and our good
fortune in receiving these things that enable us to be alive. But
we don't live in this way.
"To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barrier between
self and other:' That we are supported by so many people and
so many things in the environment that makes the world we
live in is not an idea, it is a reality. It is true. We are only able to
- stay alive because we are supported. And in this way we have
to see that to be able to directly realize that Buddha Nature is
our responsibility. And then when we know that, without a
question, we can be uncompromising in our training.
If we are compromising in our training, we cannot possibly
realize our True Nature. When we realize directly that state of
mind, we can see that this hasn't got anything to do with thinking
18
 about it or being moved around by anything else whatsoever.
From morning until night, night until morning, we must not be
pulled around by anything. This is the way the Buddha himself
realized this truth. And for being able to realize this truth as
well, everyone came to the temple of Master Hakuin.
People of old said as well, you all gather here, have you actually
awakened? What is seeing here? What is hearing this voice?
What is tasting? You who are all sitting here in pain and feeling
so restricted, what is making you do that?
Our body is not eternal. We die. We have to say farewell to
everyone. So what is that truth that pierces beyond that fact
for everyone? Have you encountered that truth? Have you seen
that Original Nature? From where do we all manifest? What
is that? Daruma Daishi said, "Nothing holy, only emptiness:'
Master Joshu said, "Mu:' Master Unman said, "Barrier:' Master
Rinzai said, "True person of no rank:' Everyone, every one of
us has the possibility of realizing this deep encounter of truth,
of experiencing it. So right here, will you experience your True
Nature? There is nothing we do zazen for except to realize
kensho, directly encountering our True Nature.
Our body is only a tool. It is only something we pose, restricting,
hurting. Daruma Daishi at age 140 went all the way to China so
that people might realize this truth. That clear Nature, to see it
directly and become Buddha-there is nothing other than that.
This is what the Buddha Dharma is. Not the sutras, which are
merely fingers pointing at the moon, not an Ancient's records,
which are nothing but a tile for knocking at the gate in the
nighttime.
Hakuin Zenji at Shoinji taught all people who came there. This
19
was his central target as well: nothing but that for the truth.
When che monks first arrived at Shoin-ji, they
possessed the beaury of a Sung Yu or Ho Yen, their
complexions glowing in radiant health. Bue before
long chey were as thin and haggard as a Tu Fu or Chia
Tao, pallid skin drawn taut over their bony cheeks.
You would have thought you were witnessing Ch'u
Yuan at che river's edge about to leap to his death 15
Would a single one of these monks have remained at
Shoin-ji even a moment if he had not been totally devoted
co his quest, grudging neither health nor life itself?
In this way, Hakuin Zenji tells about those who came to train
at Shoinji. For even twenty to forty years they would come, not
retreating, receiving his stick. They would not even be able to
stay in the temple but had to sleep on porches and in broken-
down places nearby, coming to Shoinji to hear a tiesho, freezing
in their time there. Hungry in the day, finding a place to sleep
at night somehow. Even though they came to train, he could not
feed them and care for them. They had this great bravery and
would get grain hulls from the farmers or bits of vegetables that
had been left after a cutting. Yet even though this was how they
were living, still, they would come to receive the stick which hit
into the marrow of their bone. Every one of them understood
this as his deep compassion. They would grimace and they
knew well that they would go into a cold sweat when he would
give severe teachings. And yet they would continue going forth
in their search for truth.
When they first came, they were handsome, with shining
complexions, only to later become sick with tuberculosis,
20
 ready to kill themselves. If they weren't full of deep faith, they
wouldn't have been able to stay. They wanted to that degree to
realize this truth, or why would they be there.
In utter dedication to their quest, these monks cast aside
all restraint, pushing themselves past the limit of human
endurance. Some injured their lungs, parching them
of fluid; this led to painful abdominal ailments, which
became chronic and serious and difficult to cure.
The master observed their suffering with deep concern
and compassion. For days, he went around with a
worried look on his face. Unable to suppress his feelings
any longer, he finally "made his cloud descend,"16 and
like a mother wringing the last drops of milk from her
paps to nourish a beloved son, he began to impart to
them the essential secrets of Naikan meditation.17
They would get sick and die there. It was so hard to bear for
Hakuin as well. They were so sick and miserable. Although he
had not asked them to come, yet he had given them this place
to be and they would not leave because they knew that leaving
would not bring them the ability to get rid of their ego. No
matter what, the only thing they wanted was to become one
who could offer what is most important to society, or else why
would they be there. They knew only this great vow. But one
day the situation was so bad, he could not bear it any longer.
Even though he knew he must not give in to grandmotherly
kindness, which would make the monks flacid, he shared his
own experience and gave them the teaching of Naikan.
Master Hakuin had been through the same thing himself, and
he had daily made efforts and continually done Naikan. That
is why to the age of eighty-four, he taught every single day all
21
over Japan. Because he had kept going and used the Naikan the
whole time, he gave its teaching to the students. Training has to
be that which gives everything. Crystallizing our mind is what
our training is, putting everything into realizing that training.
And yet Master Hakuin's wisdom was to reduce the pain that
was involved in that training. He gave them this great teaching
of the Naikan, which now the Roshi wants to share with us.
Here Hakuin Zenji teaches in order to cure the illnesses of the
people of training with the secrets of hermit Hakuyu. Here he
gives the profound secrets.
The master began, "If one of you superior religious
seekers who are vigorously engaged in Zen training
finds that your heart-fire is mounting upward against
the natural flow, draining you physically and mentally
and upsetting the proper balance of your five organs, 18
you may attempt to correct this condition by means
of acupuncture, moxabustion, or medicines.
These are the ways of healing-moxabustion, acupuncture,
and medicine-to correct this stagnation of ki. But if it is a
psychological challenge that we have to work with, it is very
hard to cure even with these three, even with a great knowledge
or a master doctor.
In the olden days it was said that when we trip and fall on the
ground, we can get up only by pushing on that same ground in
order to stand up again. A psychological challenge manifests in
our body, and so we have to cure the physical. For that we have
to know our body well, and this is what Hakuin is talking about
and telling us, teaching us how to know our body well. He says
that we have to work to let go of that mist and cloudiness in our
22
 mind that happens when we get stagnant.
But even if you could enlist the aid of a physician as
illustrious as Hua To, P'ien Ch'ueh, or Tsang Kung,
you would find it impossible to cure yourself.19
These are names of excellent ancient people of medicine. The
students who have the most difficult time are often those who
have given everything to their practice but don't take the care
they need to take. With Hakuin Zenji's powerful teaching, he
goes right into the primary and cuts through everything of the
secondary and tertiary to teach these methods.
People who are training hard can sometimes develop severe
problems where their ki goes very high. Then their footsteps
become unsteady, and if they go into the external world they are
moved around by everything. Their judgment and awareness
become confused, and they begin to have high energy in the
ki because of this awareness of the senses and being caught in
their heads. All of these are things that use our body above the
neck. This is why our ki goes higher and higher.
When we are in placenta in our mother's womb, everything
we need is supplied to us. There, the umbilical cord from our
mother gives us every single thing we need. Our eyes, our other
senses, our awareness don't need to move and function at all.
Our abdomen with our navel is where we are supplied by the
umbilical cord with everything that we need. And this is where
we separate from when we give that first loud birth cry. Now the
mouth becomes where our food comes in, but our tanden, our
lower abdomen area, is the place in our belly where we must
still continue to find our strength. In our first cry we breathe
freely and are now independent of the umbilical cord. And so
when a baby is first born, its cry is so huge. This is a radical
23
revolution. That little tiny lump of flesh expresses its potential
in that great cry. And all of the absolute abilities we are born
with begin to work, without us ever being taught how to use
them by anyone.
Hakuin Zenji learned this from many eastern medical books,
but it can also be read in many of the sutras. Large amounts of
the material taught there is about our physical body. Here we
learn from Master Hakuin that for making our ki stable and
balanced we should breathe from our tanden for 10 centimeters
of exhalation, 10 centimeters of inhalation with each breath. If
we breathe in that rhythm and in that way, then every day the ki
, of an average person will circulate through the body evenly fifty
times. Someone has counted it, and that makes 35,700 breaths
in a day. Even if we are able to do this steadily without any break,
even when we are sleeping, this will of course be different in
different people. But when we are able to do this it will bring
our ki into stable following of the ki passages through our body.
The ki will flow evenly. And if it flows without obstruction, as
it does in most people, then we can become healthy and stable.
After a few months we are thoroughly able to do this. Then
more and more, as we from there out of necessity and interest
bring our attention to information we receive from the external
world, we'll be able to use that information because we will not
have a problem with it going to our head and making our ki high.
With our own awareness working from our tanden, we can use
those senses. And then we can input so much information, and
yet we can also maintain its balance between the world of the
yin and the yang by using this area below our diaphragm. This
is the area where all of our organs are, and our organs going up
and down regularly, sustained by this proper breathing keeps
our breath regular.
24
 But when our ki in any case goes up to our head, then we can
use this method to stabilize. When our ki is going up to our
head, we use up much more oxygen. When we use up much
more oxygen, it makes the balance of the carbon dioxide in our
bodies stronger, and then we start to go through a condition of
lacking in oxygen. Then our head becomes unclear and foggy
and we have a difficult time thinking straight. Our essence
becomes far away, and our overtiredness becomes strong and
constant.
The sun is considered the parent of the body in this system.
And when the relationship is disturbed, the sun aspect of the
body, then it is hard for us and we cannot continue. If it is
physically caused, it is easier to find a cure. But if it is something
that comes from our state of mind, it is very difficult.
"I possess a secret technique, perfected by the divine sages,
for returning the elixir to the source below the navel. 20 I
want you to try this technique. If you do, you will see for
yourselves its marvelous efficacy: it will appear to you like
a bright sun breaking through a veil of cloud and mist.
But if we develop a state in which we are so nervous, afraid to
encounter others, always crying, we have to quickly cure that,
or it gets worse. Today experts on psychologically challenged
people know this, and Master Hakuin says it too. It came from
the time of the Buddha, who taught how people of training had
to take care of themselves.
When the Buddha entered the mountains near the Niranjana
River, it was already a mecca for people of training. The wisdom
of the ancestors was known to be available there, to already be
taught. It was said that the wisdom of the ancients that was
taught there would cure all disappointment and despair. All the
25
things a person needed to learn to train were taught there. Of
all different negative and positive ways, the Buddha learned the
ways of ki there thoroughly, not just waiting for something to
happen, he was definitely eagerly learning whatever he could
and doing what he knew he had to do.
In this case, the information was later written in the sutra called
the Anapanasati. Here we have everything about this kind of
breathing, but this sutra for some reason was then for a long
time ignored. People of training during Hakuins time especially
became very conceptual without such instruction in how to use
their physical body and their breathing in their training. While
it was all written right there in the Anapanasati Sutra, right in
the sutras, no one was reading it. Hakuin discovered it, and
taught how we need to breathe.
"Once you undertake to practice this secret technique,
you should, for the time being, cease your practice
of zazen and set aside your koan study. First of all, it
is important for you to get a good sound sleep.
Here Master Hakuin offers the secret teachings which are called
Naikan. He says to put aside our koan and zazen practice and
get a good sleep. This didn't begin with Hakuin. We have the
famous poem by the poet Sotoba in the Sung Dynasty:
The mountains are the Buddha's body,
the torrent of the river his teaching.
Last night 84,000 poems.
How hard to make them understand.
This is the poetry of Sotoba, who lived in a time of great
upheavel in China, and in order to return to what he felt was
26
I
important at that time, he went deeply into the Taoist way of
creating health. He then taught how to go inside and that we
should do this by beginning with a deep sleep from which
we awaken naturally. Coming out of a good sleep, awakening
naturally, gives us a liberated state of mind, which enables us to
make the best practice of this inward health.
When you begin this, put your koan and zazen practice aside.
Get a good deep sleep. This is not about long hours of sleep,
it is about a deep sleep. And this is difficult for those with
psychological problems, who have a hard time sleeping deeply.
Because we have to let go of every single issue on our mind and
sleep deeply, three hours of such deep sleep will do it. Superficial
sleeping will not heal us. This is very difficult for some. But this
is the first requirement. And from that deep sleep, we awaken
naturally, not by having someone or something awaken us.
Before you close your eyes, lie on your back with
your legs together. Stretch them out straight, pushing
downward as hard as you can with the arches of your
feet. Then draw all the ki in your body down into the
tanden or cinnabar field so that it fills the lower body-
the space below the navel, extending down through
the lower back and legs to the arches of the feet.
Lie on your back, stretch your legs out. Push down on the balls
of your feet-actually, it's not the balls of your feet, it's the place
on the bottom of your foot, on your foot sole, which when you
put your foot flat does not touch the ground, like the inner part
of the arch. In this way it is taught in Oriental medicine.
The whole universe and our bodies are all made up of ki. In
accordance with our parents' karmic affiliation, we were given
27
a body of original ki before our physical body was born.
Eventually our eyes and mouth and nose and ears come into
being, and then we have a ki which surges through all of those
senses and also through all of our organs. And this is what is
hearing this talk right now. All of this, this original ki, is yang
ki. This is the life energy ki. While the things that support that,
that come in from the outside to our body, the food, the water,
the air, all of these are a ki of yin nature. Our life energy is
the yang ki, and that which supports it, supports our physical
body, is the yin ki. And as our source of life energy, there is the
tanden. The tanden is located in an area in the lower abdomen
in what is called the sea of ki.
At the bottoms of our feet, on our foot sole, we have one place
which when we put our foot flat on the ground doesn't touch
the dirt. And that is the place which is also a location where ki
goes in and out of our body. We follow our ki. We bring the ki
from our tanden down to our feet, and we follow that slowly
down to the bottom of our feet and in this way gather the ki.
In this way, Master Hakuin teaches for those students especially
whose ki is scattered and external, leaving them unable to focus.
The teaching all came from the time of the Buddha and was
a refuge for all people of training throughout the generations.
And now it was also used by the immortals and hermits and
against losing our vitality when we give our focus mainly to
external phenomena. This is what Master Hakuin is teaching.
How much we need this today as well.
For everyone here as well, when doing zazen it is so important
to keep our energy centered in our tanden and not going
externally to our thinking. It is written about also in the
Zazengi, but it isn't as clear. We have to know the details of how
28
 to go about doing it.
Periodically repeat the following thoughts:
1. This tanden of mine in the ocean of ki-the
lower back and legs, the arches of the feet-is
nothing other than my true and original face. How
can that original face have nostrils?
Master Hakuin explains further. We cannot keep centering in
our head. Instead we center in our abdomen and our tanden,
the location of our original face, where there is no eyes or ears
or nose or mouth. We can see if we look at our body that it is
as if we have two bodies, one on top of the other, and they are
centered at the tanden area. Above we have our top body-eyes,
nose, mouth, and ears, which all face externally and bring in
information from the outside. At the tanden level there are no
senses, no orifices to bring these things in from the external
world. This is the center of our life energy.
,-
The senses give away our energy. It is known that people who
are psychological challenged, who are often so busy with their
senses and scattered, are not able to sleep at night, even if they
think they are. To sleep deeply is a first step to great healing.
To deeply sleep is the first of anything. To regain that center is
most important.
Our body center needs to be our main focus in our abdomen, in
our tanden, because there is our source of life energy, our true
home. If we give away all the energy through all of our senses
all the time, we become unbalanced, and that is where we find
the source of difficult psychological challenges. To be healthy
29
we have to keep centered and focused in our tanden.
We can find that original face and we can think of that as our
true master. Our body feels a form, but it is not a form. In this
way, Master Hakuin is teaching us how to do zazen. "How can
that original face have nostrils"?
2. This randen of mine in the ocean of ki-the
lower back and legs, the arches of the feet-is all the
home and native place of my original being. What
tidings could come from that native place?
We lie down comfortably and place our legs a shoulder's width
apart. We rest this exhausted body and mind until our deep
healthy energy and ki return and are gathered in our abdomen.
and place our awareness in our belly and move this energy down
our thighs, calves, ankles and all the way through the bottoms
of our feet. We put our ki into the soles of our feet and into the
toes, and feel that ki which is the source of heavens and earth.
All the way down to the bottoms of our feet from our tanden
it is a sea of ki, from the tan den down through our lower body,
our thighs, knees calves and feet, the full tautness is actual.
3. This tanden of mine in the ocean of ki-the lower
back and legs, the arches of the feet-is all the Pure
Land of my own mind.21 How could the splendors
of that Pure Land exist apart from my mind?
The Pure Land as well-do not be caught on that.
4. This tanden of mine in the ocean of ki is all the
Amida Buddha of my own self How could Amida
Buddha preach the Dharma apart from that self?
30
I
Our body is offered to Amida Buddha which is our body. There
are no words to explain this. The buddha is offered to buddha,
again and again we concentrate on this.
Hakuin Zenji gives three examples here, and there are still more.
There are ten of these contemplations, but do not be caught on
their words. So he says, when you get to the last contemplation,
return to the first again. We all get caught so easily on so many
external things.
It is not about the words' meaning but about bringing together
our scattered ki, which makes us so confused that we can't see
things clearly. This returns our body and awareness to good
balance. But we also must make sure that we don't make this
Naikan into something else to be stuck on and attached to. While
it says, "This tan den of mine in the ocean of ki-the lower back
and legs, the arches of the feet-is nothing other than my true
and original face;' it also says, "How can that original face have
nostrils?" There's nothing at all there. But if we use the tanden
constantly and correctly, our full tautness increases.
Hakuin Zen·i ives these contemplations without wasting
a moment, putting our ki and focus into our tan en. rom
_morning until night, reading sutras, doing samu, eating m~
if we don't relent in our focused practice, then our lower
abdomen will become like a full and taut balloon. Not only will
our tanden fill with ki, our whole body will do the same.
"Turn these contemplations over and over in your mind.22
As you do, the cumulative effect of focusing your thoughts
on them will gradually increase. Before you even realize
it, all your primal ki will concentrate in your lower body,
filling the space from the lower back and legs down to
31
the arches of the feet. The abdomen below the navel
will become taut and distended-as taut and full as a
leather kickball that has not been used in a game. 23
To fulfill our energy and bring it to its fullest tautness, do it as it
says like filling a balloon full to ready to burst, then we can feel
the tanden and feel that tautness clearly.
This is Naikan, which means to be working within. It is not
something external that we can conceptually try to make
happen and try to produce. It is Hakuin's great kindness which
will then become an injury. We have to experience that full
tautness from within, like that balloon which is blown up
completely, until we feel it with our whole body and being. In
the same way, as Murnan Ekai teaches, with every single one of
our 360 bones and 84,000 hair pores, we have to give everything
to this. And in the doing of that, we have to let go of any ideas
of something which is nihilistic or confirming. We have to keep
going with it in every single moment of the day, from morning
until night, from night until morning, until it becomes like
we are holding a red-hot hot iron ball in our mouth, unable
to spit it out or to swallow it down. We continue, letting go of
every bit of conditioning, every idea, every attachment, every
egoistic notion, until every single thing has been dropped away
so completely we have no more sense of there being even an
inside and an outside. We become like a person who has been
having a dream but is mute and cannot tell it. In this way, he is
saying the same thing as Master Hakuin.
l[ we try to mentally produce all of these things, it is not being
9one the right way. They have to he slowly and thoroughly
cultivated until we feel the full tautness throughout our whole
body. And then we feel reinvigorated within.
32
 "Continue to practice the contemplations assiduously in
this same way. ~as little as five to seven days and in no
more than two or three weeks, all the various disorders.
you have been suffering from-caused by congestion
.within the five organs and six viscera that depletes ki
and weakens the bod -will be swe t totall awa and
cease to exist. 24 If in that time you are not totally cured,
this old neck of mine is yours for the taking."25
Our congestion within our organs is the problem. We have to
let go of that. When we have relieved our ki of that congestion,
we can return to our original balance. We are then in alignment.
If we are not, we have not done it right. This is the question, if
we are doing it in the right way or not. And this is what Master
Hakuin is saying: if you are doing it right and it doesn't work,
then you can call him a liar and take off his head.
Master Hakuin is not saying that this is only something we can
do when we are ill and lying down, although that is a way of
centering. What he is saying is that we have to do it from within
with our deep center established. It can be done in any single
thing that we are doing in our work. The point is that we have
to do it with everything we are and with a firm center and deep
concentration. Even when we work or do our job it has to be
done, bringing full tautness into every single thing that we do
to cultivate that deep samadhi.
Roshi heard from his teacher Mumon Roshi often about how
he had become sick under his first teacher, Kawaguchi Ekai
Roshi, who had a very strict way of teaching. And because of
the illness that he fell into at that time, he eventually contracted
tuberculosis. During this time he read and used the Naikan
book until his copy of it was dog-eared, he read it so much.
One who is being raised in the way of the koan should not fall
33
sick. But even when they are doing it properly they can still use
Naikan If there is a problem, Naikan should be done as soon as
they are noting that, and they will be quickly better. And even
Hakuin says that if this doesn't work for you, you can take his
neck.
The master's students bowed deeply to him, their hearts
filled with joy. They began to put in practice the instructions
they had received. Each one of them experienced for
himself the marvelous effects of Naikan meditation. For
some, results came quickly; for others, it took somewhat
longer. It depended entirely on how assiduously they
practiced the technique. Almost all experienced complete
recoveries. Their praise of the meditation knew no bounds.
The master continued:
"Even when the infirmity in your hearts is completely
cured, you must not rest content with that. The
stronger you become, the harder you must strive in your
practice. The deeper you penetrate into enlightenment,
the more resolutely you must press forward.
"When I was a young man taking my first steps along
the religious path, I too developed a serious illness. Cure
seemed impossible. The misery I suffered was ten times
greater than anything you have experienced. I was at the
end of my tether. I didn't know what to do, which way
to turn. One thing I was sure of I'd be better off dying
and having done with it. At least I'd be free and no longer
troubled by this wretched carcass-bag of skin.26 Anything
was better than going on as I was, wallowing impotently
in black despair. Yet still I suffered. How I suffered! Then
I encountered a wise man who taught me the secret
34
 method of Naikan meditation.27 Thanks to him, I was
able to cure myself completely, just like you monks.
"According to this man, Naikan meditation is the secret
method the divine sages employed to prolong their lives and
attain immortality, enabling those of even mediocre and
inferior ability to live for three hundred years. A person of
superior capacity might prolong his life almost indefinitely.
I could scarcely contain my joy when I heard him say
that. I began to practice the meditation and continued it
faithfully for some three years. Gradually, my body and
mind returned to perfect health. My vital spirits revived.
I felt myself grow steadily stronger and more confident.
To those who are so thankful for their cure, Hakuin reminds
them that they must not stop there. He tells them how they
are all originally healthy. But if they become sick they should
immediately do the Naikan, not wasting a moment. I was sick
at the early stages of my practice, he says, it was many times
the degree of sickness that any of you have. I wanted to quickly
throw off this physical body, to leap out of this bag of a body.
And yet I was able to completely recover.
Hermit Hakuyu said that people have different levels of karmic
affiliation and ability, and even is someone who has a low level
of perseverance or karmic affiliation can still reach an age of
300 years old. His saying that made me so glad that for three
years I continued and became very healthy in body and mind.
But if I look at it closely, even if I were able to become 700 or
800 years old, it would just be a lot of long life. And if that is
nothing more than an aged bearcat sleeping in a cave, whom of
those former hermits are visible to anyone today anyway? Not
35
to anyone. So there is nothing so splendid about living long.
What is important is what we do during that life we do live. If
we see this, we see that the most important point of this taoist
path is excellent, but just to become very old and protect an old,
wrinkled body, what is that about? In the Mahayana, having
a long life to be able to use it to realize True Nature directly
and become a Buddha is what is most important. And this
liberates all beings so that they can realize those vows, to be
able to exhaustively realize the Dharma, to follow the way of
the Buddha.
To just brag and sound like we know a lot has no meaning. To
actually be able to give this transmission to a true descendant
and in that passing on this light to enable people to follow
through to their resolution is what is most important. How
about those hermits?
"It became increasingly clear at this point that even if I
did master the method of Naikan meditation and lived
28
to be eight hundred years old like P' eng Tsu, I'd still be
no better than one of those disembodied, corpse-guarding
spirits 29 that cling mulishly to emptiness." I'd turn into
a mangy old polecat, slumbering away in a comfortable
old burrow, until eventually I passed away. Why do I
say this? Well, has anyone today ever caught sight of Ko
Hung? Or T'Ieh-kuai? How about Chang Hua or Fei
Chang?30 Or any others who are celebrated for longevity?
In any event, attaining long life in itself cannot compare
with establishing the Four Great Universal Vows in your
heart and constantly working to impart the great Dharma
to others as you acquire the imposing comportment of
the Bodhisattva.31 It cannot compare with realizing the
36
 true and invincible Dharrna-body, which, once attained,
is never lost, which is as unborn and undying as the
great void. It cannot compare with realizing the great,
incorruptible, adamantine body of the Buddh as.
W e bring this to the com plete realization of the tru th an d
invisible D harrn a, this D harm a body w hich is invinci ble and
w hic h w e have to keep alive tru thfu lly. O therw ise, w e w ill not
be able to share it w ith others and thus fu lfill the m ost im portant
aspect of being able to realize this N aikan.
In this w ay not only H akuin but all teachers taught. W hy are w e
here? W hat is the point of our being alive? M aster G oso H oen
Zenji had m any koans. Al l of them w ere in the ra nks of the
hardest level of koans: Seijo and her soul separated. W hat is it?
Th e koan about the w ater buffalo passing by the w indow. G oso
H oen Zenji lived in the w orl d fo r a long tim e befo re ordaining
at age 48 w ith H akuun Shutan Zenji. H e w ould say about this
koan about the w ater buffalo that the w ater buffalo w ould pass
by the w indow and first w e could see its horn s going by, and
then w e could see its head going by, then w e could see its torso
going by, w e could see its fo ur legs going by, but w hy did only
his tail not go by that w indow. W hat about that?
Li fe is like this. Th e horn s are the sel fishness of the egoistic sel f,
w hich is alw ays trying to get w hat is m ost w anted. W e break
that ego w ith tra ining, lett ing go of our ow n sm all-m inded
desires, and yet w e are still fu ll of m ental ideas, thinkn g about
Buddhism , talk ing about it w ith concepts. Th is is our head.
W hile the horn s are our selfish ego, the head is our m ental
ideas. A nd then w e have our desires. Th ose are our body going
by the w indow. Fur ther, w e have all of our likes and dislikes,
our preferences. Th ose are our fo ur legs. A nd if w e are alw ays
still egoistic, em otional, m ental, our tra ining is not realized yet.
37
So what is truly, truly good fortune? What is it, anyway, that tail,
which hasn't passed through yet? It is not our desires, it is not
our preferences, it is not our egos, so what is it? After all else,
what is that? What is it that has been purified? The pure life
energy which cannot be named the Buddha Nature. And this is
what Mumon Ekai is leading us to when he teaches us to realize
this koan of Mu: to give it everything we are and have in all
twenty-four hours of the day until we have become it so totally
and completely that we experience that great death of the Ego,
beyond desires, beyond purification, beyond suffering, beyond
ego. All of this from this Great Death which we all set out and
work to create in doing our practice.
It is the same for the Naikan, which aids us in awakening. People
don't know what they are alive for. Who will lead them if we
don't know that? We have to see clearly where we are headed.
And sometimes, on the way to that Great Death, we get ill. And
we may need Naikan then. But all of that life energy that we
have gathered, when we realize this, we have to take it to that
ultimate edge, that very ultimate edge which we reach just before
we realize that Great Death, where we cannot judge, we cannot
think, we cannot see, we cannot hear, we cannot taste, our ego
is unfindable. We lose all of the abilities of all of our senses. We
become completely empty, and we don't know where we are;
we don't know what's going on, we are so completely empty-
minded. And if we don't come through this, we will continue to
be pushed and pulled around by our desires and our ego.
Realizing this Great Death is also something which
reinvigorates the whole world, not just our personal self. This
life energy, which is being expressed as an example, as a tale,
by Goso Hoen Zenji, is what this is, that which is awakened
to and reinvigorates. And this is the reinvigoration of all of
society to which we must offer our entire body and life, not
38
 as a mental understanding of what we have to do, but as an
actual doing of that, where the Four Vows are not merely ideas
or lip service or some kind of a theme, they are actually lived in
everyday life, repaying our parents, repaying our country that
raised us, repaying the society, repaying that truth. And not
only that, but repaying that great debt to our practice, without
which we would be blind. We must not fail to repay our debt
to our parents, our country, our society, and that truth and our
practice, or else how is the next generation going to be raised?
Otherwise the next generation will only be greedily gobbling
up everything possible that has been given to them instead of
seeing the importance of realizing the truth and keeping that
alive.
It is for this that Hakuin is teaching the Naikan. It is not for our
personal health but for the health of the whole society, for the
minds that can't see that if the next generation is not healthy
and fully realizing the truth then it cannot pass it along to those
who come after it. Th is is what Goso Hoen Zenji and all of the
Ancients have taught us. What Hakuin Zenji is teaching us
with this Naikan for all humankind is not something which is
only to be understood and used for one single individual's good
fortune.
"Later, when I acquired two or three students of my own,
men of superior ability who were deeply committed to
penetrating the secret depths, I had them do the Naikan
meditation along with their Zen practice-just like
peasants who work their fields and fight in the militia
as well. Perhaps thirty years have passed since then. My
students have increased, one or two each year. Now they
number almost two hundred. Over those three decades,
I've had monks come from all over the country. Some
of the more zealous type pushed themselves too hard
39
in their practice and reached a state of extreme physical
and mental exhaustion that rendered them feeble and
fervorless. Some were pushed to the brink of madness
as the heart-fire rushed upward against the natural flow.
Out of concern and compassion, I took them aside and
imparted tothem the secret teaching of Naikan meditation.
It returned them to health almost immediately, and the
farther they advanced into satori, the more assiduously
they were able to give themselves to their training.
Here Hakuin Zenji says this is why there is no point to sleep
long years in some cave like a mangy cat. Being able o truly
bring sanzen and Naikan together is the point of living many
years. Hakuin taught and yearly the number of people training
with him increased, up to 200. And among them there were
those who got sick, and there were those who had so much
fervor that their heart energy rushed up. And for all of those
to awaken, he had used the Naikan and successfully brought
them to a deep realization. Because of Naikan, he was able
to bring them to that realization with the Naikans great all-
embracing training when it is combined with sanzen. Naikan is
not something which is only for a single individual's getting rid
of desire, ego, and attachments.
Hakuin Zenji tells people doing training and working in society
to help bring them back. Today he shows us how we experience
so much pressure from the external world, in all walks of life,
leading us into deep psychological challenges. And those can
be cured by Naikan. Today, doctors are almost completely,
without exception, using medicines, and with that people's own
character is not what is cured or is curing them.
People become violent in society and even hurt others. They
are not healed by medicines, but just toned down to not be
40
 dangerous for others. So for those who are too immature to deal
with their external pressure, there is almost no way to overcome
that and heal. And without going through this challenge, they
spend their whole life tranquillized and controlled. There are
so many people who are living like this and treated in this way.
We all have our own strength and concentration, but with our
ki becoming higher and higher, we lose balance. We lose our
ability to restore our inner balance with our own strength and
concentration. It actually is as hermit Hakuyu said: when we fall
on the ground, we push against the same ground to stand again.
This way helps us gain our strength and our self-confidence.
And what is most important in this way of healing is to have a
goal to fulfill. Thus we have the Four Vows, to offer our life to
society and also to all beings, to be able to see that we have to
realize this place.
"As for the Mahayana practice of zazen, there are no words to
praise it fully. The Six Paramitas, such as giving, maintaining
the precepts, and various other good deeds like invoking the
Buddha's name, repentance, and spiritual training, all finally
return to the practice of zazen,"
As Daruma Daishi taught, we see True Nature and become
Buddha, but hot by reading sutras, as Hakuin Zenji finally also
says it further, "Giving proof to the truth that Self-nature is no-
nature:' We have to take it to this point. If we do not take it to
the point of entering into samadhi, it won't work.
Samadhi is defined by the Sixth Patriarch as letting go of all of
our connections to thoughts and ideas of wrong and right and
good and bad in whatever we experience and letting go of all
of our concerns within. Not being caught on our small self we
cultivate the state of mind of offering our clarity of mind to all
41
beings. When we follow this way of being in everything we do,
forgetting ourselves completely, our efficiency and the amount
of work we are able to do increases. It is proven. We feel that we
need this in our daily life. This is just like an excellent dancer
on the stage was also forgetting themselves completely. This is
the same as the essence of Naikan and of doing sanzen. We are
polishing our own depth of understanding and awareness while
sharing that with others.
In this way, Hakuin continues by saying, "I have trained over
two hundred people now:'
'Tm more than seventy years of age, but even now I don't
have the slightest trace of illness or infirmity. I still have a
good set of sound teeth. My hearing grows more acute with
each passing year. So does my sight; I often forget to put on
my spectacles at all. I give my regular sermons twice each
month without fail. I travel extensively to conduct Zen
meetings in answer to teaching requests from all over the
country. Three hundred and sometimes five hundred people
attend these gatherings. They last for fifty, even seventy
days at a stretch. The monks select various sutras and Zen
texts, and I deliver my arbitrary views on them. I must have
conducted fifty or sixty of these meetings, yet never have I
missed a single lecture. I feel more fit and vigorous today,
both physically and mentally, than I did when I was in my
twenties or thirties. There is not a doubt in my mind that it
is all due to the marvelous effects of Naikan meditation."
The monks came and bowed before the master, their eyes
wet with tears. "Please, Master Hakuin," they said, "write
down the essentials of Naikan meditation. By committing
them to paper, you will relieve the suffering of future
generations of monks like us, when they succumb to the
42
 exh austion and lassitude brought on by Zen sickn ess.'
Nodding his agreement, the master took up his
brush and without delay began writing out a
draft. In it, he set forth the following points:
Th e secret of sustaining life and attaining longevity is found
in disciplining the body. Th e secret of disciplining the body
is to focus the mind in the tanden located in the ocean of
ki. When the mind focuses in the tanden, ki gathers there.
When ki gathers in the tanden, the true elixir is produced.' 32
First and foremost we have to discipline our body, focusing
the mind in the tanden. These are not Hakuin's own words, but
are taken from ancient Chinese medical texts in which Master
Hakuin found deep meaning.
There is nothing sadder than being born into this world and not
realizing our own truest goal of being alive. And therefore, for
doing this, we have to discipline our body and thus continue to
cultivate our good health.
Below our navel, about 5 centimeters, we find our tanden. And
with our own center clarified by knowing where that is, we
bring that area into full tautness. This was written by a Sung
Dynasty doctor. If we put our mind in focused awareness in the
tanden, then we can bring forth the ocean of ki, and the entire
universe is fulfilled in our doing that.
According to modern doctors, there is a center for hormone
distribution in that same area, and they also say that all of our
organs each have their own history, derived from the person in
whom they are. That person's history is their history, and they
work as well when the person sleeps to maintain their strength
43
in accordance with these hormones. If the balance is not held,
then we become vulnerable and unable to do our own work
when various challenges to our sympathetic nervous system
arise.
In addition, our eyes, ears, nose, mouth are windows to the
world. They all have their own power to be not moved around by
ressures from the outside world. Their energy is coming from
fhat great original Energy. In this way also, various pressures
from crises and dilemmas such as floods or famine will be dealt
with in such a way that they can become our own strengths.
At sarei Roshi was asked about alchemy in the Oriental way as
compared to the Western way. The Buddha's teaching is also
alchemical. It is not about metals becoming other metals, but it
is about transforming from within. We have the Four Wisdoms
as Master Hakuin writes about them in the Song of Zazen.
"How bright and clear the perfect moonlight of the Fourfold
Wisdom! At this moment what more need we seek? As the
eternal tranquility of Truth reveals itself to us, this very place
is the Land of Lotuses and this very body is the body of the
Buddha:'
From parent to child, we have a transformation passing on. We
go to sleep and we see a dream of flying in the sky. We probably
were at some point a bird in a past life. Or a fish who swam. Or
we see a snake and we are terrified. Perhaps we were attacked by
, a snake in a past life. We have of course filed all of this in what is
called the collective consciousness. We all have eyes, ears, nose,
and senses which feed this collective consciousness. And these
are being used to also access our past. It is because we have this
collective consciousness that we see a flower and we know: This
is a flower. This awareness accesses our collective consciousness.
Because we have another deeper access as well we know from
44
 our memories that this is a red flower and simultaneously can
see and know almost instantly.
We have five senses, and each sense has a root, and each
sense has an expression. This enables all of these parts of our
consciousness to work together. And from this, past memories
draw forth our awareness also into things expressed such as
anger and resentment, muddy, clouded things held there.
Then we have to admit that we have had and do have this
behavior. And this then transforms to a deeper wisdom. This
transformation is the alchemy of Buddhism.
However, the seventh stratum of our deep awareness, our
self-awareness-centered stratum, comes and goes and makes
it difficult for us to perceive purely, always bringing with it
our small-self views. When we perceive purely we are not just
saying we purify our mind in zazen, we are actually purifying
our state of mind by doing the zazen. This is an actuality.
To purify our mind is something which is basic in all religions.
But we do not have it purified by a god or an other power but
instead purify it ourselves. Even if we have thinking, we must
not be pulled around by the thinking, we must not be like a
dog who is untrained pulling on his leash to go into each and
every house it passes. It becomes harder and harder not to be
so scattered. But if we purify, and we work on purifying our
awareness, then we are not pulled around by things. We're able
to see them as they are. This is zazen: not to get caught on our
ego but to see it and know that that purification makes us all
equal as all beings. Even if we have an ego, it's fine; if we don't
get caught on our ego that's fine. If ego is not involved, that's
fine. This is the Buddha's alchemy.
So all of our senses and our ability to move our arms and legs are
45
our wisdom of being able to see everything like that great round
all-embracing mirror, the first of the wisdoms. We have this
wisdom, that state of mind where we can see everything; then
that transforms again into a wisdom where we see everything as
it actually is. At the beginning this great mind mirror wisdom,
the first of the four wisdoms, is completely pitch black. It is prior
to our reflecting anything, before our awareness of anything.
If we sit deeply, we have of course experienced this. Then the
reat round mirror wisdom changes from darkness to be able to
reveal and see all things equally. Everything is equal. This great
round mirror wisdom is prior to reflecting of anything. It then
becomes the mind and is able to see all things as equal. And
here is where samadhi is so important.
This then transforms to the mysterious perceiving wisdom
that is able to see everything exactly, precisely as it is: a
mirror reflection of how it is. That simultaneously acts with
the all-perfecting action wisdom, each one transforming and
becoming the next one, working together for the purification of
our mind. And this is why zazen is so important. "How bright
and clear the perfect moonlight of the Fourfold Wisdom! At
this moment what more need we seek?" This mind is able to go
from being pitch black to being able to mysteriously function
in any situation: this is the alchemy of an ignorant person
becoming a Buddha.
When the elixir is produced, the physical frame is strong
and firm and the life-force is full and replete. When
the life-force is full and replete, longevity is assured.
This corresponds to the secret method that the ancient
sages perfected for "refining the elixir nine times over"
and "returning it to the source."33 You must know that
the elixir is not something located apart from the self
The essential concern above all else is to make the fire
46
 or heat in your mind (heart) descend into the lower ed this preface on the twenty-fifth of the first
comp Os
body so that it fills the tanden in the ocean of ki.
mon th , in the seventh year of the Horeki era [1757].

Monks of Shoin-ji, if you practice assiduously the essential

teachings I have given you and are never remiss in your
efforts, it will not only cure you of Zen sickness and relieve
you of fatigue and spiritual torpor, it will also enable those Explaining here, explaining there,
of you burdened with the mass of years of accumulated the truth of Naikan.
doubt to reach the final crowning matter of Zen training, to Opening the Mind's Eye,
experience a joy so intense you will find yourselves clapping you will surely know your essence.
your hands ecstatically and whooping in fits of laughter. Who was it who had said that,
this very place is the Land of the Lotuses
The elixir is not something that is external. We have to put our and each and every one of us-a living Buddha!
center in our tanden. The path of healing and path of kensho
are not separated paths. Hakuin told these things to the monks Osesshin closing poem September 2015.
so that they could see this and not fall into Zen sickness. And
he speaks of this from his own experience.

Finally, Hakuin concludes,

Why is this?

When the moon arrives at the zenith,

shadows disappear from the wall.34

This poem is by a Tang Dynasty Taoist poet. And just as when

the moon reaches the zenith, at that moment, at that instant,
all shadows are gone from this earth and everything becomes
clear. This is the way of the truth of the Taoist teaching. This is
what Hakuin is telling us from his own experience of it.

Offering incense and prostrating himself, Hunger and

Cold, the Master of Poverty Hermitage, respectfully

47 48
 opening Remarks on Idle Talk on a Night Boat

In this text Master Hakuin tells about his own psychological

challenges when he hit a wall. And then, those challenges
manifested in his physical body, stifling his health, preventing
him from realizing his path. People ask, Why does someone
who has broken through so deeply get sick? It is because one
superficial layer of awakening is not sufficient. It has to be
chewed horizontally, chewed vertically, or it doesn't sink in. Our
truth and our life have to merge, or we get crushed in our own
self-satisfaction over our shallow experience, our realization.
And here Master Hakuin tells his own experience of this.

We cannot settle for a conceptual experience. We have to live

daily without being moved around by anything whatsoever.
First we have to align every footstep and hand motion. We have
to align all of our home life. We have to align everything in
the neighborhood around us. We have to align everything in
the country and then, in that, the world becomes aligned. Until
everyone is aligned, our awakening is not yet complete.

The Four Vows

Sentient Beings are numberless: I vow to liberate them.
Desires are inexhaustible: I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas are boundless: I vow to master them
The Buddha's Way is unsurpassable: I vow to become it.

Without these being filled, we are lost in our own unresolved

karma. We can't be realized or truly see without those vows
being realized. Being alive is to have karma, to have a body, to
have all of our past experiences all gathered in the collective
consciousness. Like the Himalaya Mountains, which are always
gathering new snow, in the same way we have been gathering

50
 experiences in our collective unconscious since the beginning
of the planet, 4.6 billion years ago. And it is still continuing. We
have the sun's commencement with the big bang. We have to
reach this source point or, even without that experience, at least
go to the beginning of life 4.6 billion years ago, evolving along
with this planet, being born and dying, being born and dying,
being born and dying. How immeasurably many lives have we
been through and have existed on this planet.
If it had paused or been stopped, none of us would be here
today. And it has not all been good things we have done. In the
survival of the fittest we have used everything we could to stay
alive. And all of that is filed in that collective unconsciousness.
That person that we are right now--if we just start feeling proud
of how we are, because we do zazen, we get caught smack on the
phenomena. We have to sit to where we see the beginning of it
all, or it is not zazen.
If we open up and read the Ancients' records, the sutras, we can
see the same everywhere, vows for the awakening of all beings'
ignorance and liberation of all of their suffering. Until all beings
are purifying our awarenes, no matter how negative it is, we
won't get out of these circumstances.
First of everything, we each have to purify clearly to where there
is no misunderstanding. And that is why zazen is not about
prioritizing our own good fortune, but working continually for
all in society. And for this we offer our whole body, our whole
being, our whole life. This is what Master Hakuin completely
and exhaustively is teaching us with words and powerful
calligraphy called One Person Who Lived During Five Hundred
Years Who Is Like This. He is putting everything into fulfilling
those Four Vows. This was Hakuin Zenji's deepest truth.
51
Hakuin Zenji was ill-the ills of society had been taken in by
his body. If it had only been for his own self-satisfaction, it
wouldn't have been like this. It took only a few months for his
first glimpse of deep awakening at Takata Eganji. Most would
be fine with what he had experienced at just that. But when
he took Dokyo Etan Zenji as his teacher he was guided more
deeply. And if he hadn't met him, he may not have been sick.
But neither would he have functioned so completely.
The great master Dokyo Etan Zenji took Hakuins awakening
right out from under him. In that way, when_ his name_ was still
Ekaku he was still caught and called a Zen pnest stuck m a dark
bleeding cave. Dokyo Etan Zenji kicked him off the porch, until
he fell off unconscious. This was the method he used to awaken
Hakuin completely. He gave Master Hakuin, then called Ekaku,
the koan of the monk being asked where Master Nansen went
when he died. And he would not budge for him, keeping him
on that koan. Every time he would bring in an answer, Dokyo
Etan calling him a Zen bozo in a dark hole.
One day while Hakuin, Ekaku, was doing takuhatsu in the
small village, Iiyama, where he was living, he fell into a deep
samadhi. The people who he was doing takuhatsu to told him to
keep going, to not stop. But he was just stopped, he was in deep
samadhi. They even started hitting him with sticks, because no
matter how much they told him, he wouldn't move. He fell over.
His hat went flying. And then when he came to, he just laughed
and laughed. This deep awakening he had many times, countless
times, not unlike Master Daie who had 14 great awakenings
and countless small ones. And Hakuin nodded, saying, "This is
just how it is:'
Just a single awakening will not liberate all beings. We have
to know how few there are in this world that even have one
52
 experience. Then the deep belief in the Buddha and our honest
humility keep us working. This is the true way of Master Hakuin
We have to see this, not conceptually, see through the concept
of why the great Hakuin became sick. But because even that
would not stop him, when he was sick he had put everything
on the line. The Buddha's wisdom, Buddha Dharma, is not for
saving one person, but for saving all beings.
Then there is the shallow view of why is the world still so
unliberated if the Buddha was alive and came to this planet.
Eight billion people live on this planet, this planet which has
been through better and worse times. How did humans possibly
exist through all of this? The truth of the 4.5 billion years is that
there is still not this power to improve and involve what is going
on right now in humankind. But now it is about how long will
civilization even last at all on the planet. We have to see this
clearly. And it is this which Hakuin is pointing out. And so is
the Buddha. And so are all of the Ancients seeing this very fact.
Without this, the deepest faith will not work.
The life energy that gives us all life today-there is a huge
difference between those who see it personally and those who
see it as for the point of the whole world's awakening. This view
is what Hakuin Zenji was working with. It is one way of aiding
all people. When someone asked him why he did so much
calligraphy and writing, without resting even, he said, "In 50
years, all of these things that I am making, because they are
things of form, will have faded. I am not making them to have
a lot of things left behind. But if with the doing of this even
one person or a half a person is moved by this, I can't spare any
efforts whatsoever:'
Master Hakuin also put a final note to the work of Daito
Kokushi on his writing of the Kaian Kokugo. He was writing
53
about Joshu's koan about the mountain of Mount Godai
[Mumonkan, #31], the holy mountain of Manjusri at the foot
of which there was a teashop. And on this mountain, was also
joshus temple, Kanon-in. In this teahouse there was an elderly
woman who ran it, an old grandmother. And when the many
monks would come in and ask her, "which is the way up the
mountain, or the way to the temple?" she would always say to
them, "Go straight:' And immediately they would go out and
start going in a straight line, and she would call from behind
them, "Idiotic monk! Why are you doing just what you were
told?"
This was the holy mountain of Manjusri, and so many, many
pilgrimaging monks came. And every single one asked her for
directions, and she told them all, "Go straight." To think it was
about a mountain and a road they were asking may be just an
interpretation, or perhaps she was telling them to go straight
in their training. All the monks who came to the temple of
Master Joshu at Kanon-in complained about this old lady, and
they compared notes and saw that they had had the same thing
happen to them. So he said, since they were all complaining
loudly, he would go and check out this old lady.
He went down and he asked her the way to his own temple,
and she said, "Go straight!" And when he started walking out
the door she said, "Idiotic monk, doing exactly what you're
told?" He went back to the monks and he told them he had
seen through her for all of them. In this koan, Joshu clearly saw
through her, where the monks hadn't a clue. Was she the real
thing? Was she not the real thing?
In the work of Daito Kokushi in the Kaian Kokugo it was seen
differently. In the sunshine's brightness, a tiny candle protected
for its small light is the Buddha Dharma. In this way, Daito
54
 Kokushi saw this koan differently from others.
In China it is said if a person who is working for the government
and taking care of some of the money of the treasury is robbed
of that money, which belongs to the country, not only has he
lost that money, but he is also punished for that robbery. Daito
Kokushi said this is just the way the Buddha Dharma could be
understood.
One day Hakuin exclaimed how true this statement of Daito
Kokushi was. And one who kn ows Buddha Dharma must see
this clearly. It cannot be understood with a year or two. It takes
cultivation through very deeply seeing eyes that can actually
see the truth. People of old say we gather many, many fools and
together we fill the well with snow. Only when it's like that can
we liberate this world.
can't clear out all those attachments and concepts. We have to
study this carefully and see how we can realize this completely.
For Master Hakuin to write this work, he had to go deeply into
Oriental medicine as well as the study of the Buddha's way of
teaching breathing, the Anapanasati, also in the work called The
Embossed Tea Kettle. These who studied Taoism and others
who were interested in such things may have known these
works earlier. But in fact, many read them and didn't realize
the deep value of them, only gliding over what they said for a
little bit of comfort and interest. But to truly use this work and
what Hakuin is teaching for both health and the deep security
necessary for our practice, we can't ignore the importance of
these. It was because of that that Master Hakuin brought these
things to light.

The year 2016 is the 250th anniversary of the death of Master

Hakuin, the 1, 150th anniversary of the death of Master Rinzai.
Hakuin was famous also for writing the kana hogo, very strict,
subtle, and abstrusely written vernacular texts. The one we are
reading here is called "Idle Talks on a Night Boat." For each
person to awaken to their body and mind's best way of training,
reading this book is very necessary. To be able to study the
Buddha Dharma, do zazen deeply, purify our mind, we have
to live a life and know our body well, or while we are vowing
in a very deep way we can get sick and end up quitting and not
realizing our vow. That is too unfortunate.

We are born with this huge, all-encompassing mind and deep

wisdom of a human being. We cannot believe this because we
only see what is right in front of us and so close to us so much that
we crush our own hugely seeing eye. How can we reinvigorate
our brain with its 150 billion cells? If we can't invigorate this, we

55 56
 Idle Talk on a Night Boat
On the day I first committed myself to a life of Zen
practice, I pledged to summon all the faith and courage at
my command and dedicate myself with steadfast resolve to
the pursuit of the Buddha Way. I embarked on a regimen
of rigorous austerities that I continued for several years,
pushing myself relentlessly. One night, everything suddenly
fell away. All the doubts and uncertainties that had been
burdening me over the years suddenly disappeared,
roots and all, just like melted ice. Karmic roots that for
endless kalpas had bound me to the cycle of birth and
death completely vanished, like foam on the water.35
When Hakuin was 19, he began his training. At 24, he went to
the temple of Eganji in Takata, determined to break through
or die. On the seventh morning, when the morning bell rang,
Hakuin Zenji's deep samadhi was penetrated, and he felt that
state of mind of having become the very ringing of that bell. All
of his life and training problems up until then, at that moment,
fell away, along with all of his karma of the six realms. His
attachment to life and death was gone, like a bursting bubble.
It is true, I thought to myself, the Way is not far from man.
All those stories about the ancient masters taking twenty
or even thirty years to attain it must be fabrications. For
the next several months I was waltzing on air, flagging
my arms and stamping my feet in mindless rapture.
Afterwards, as I began reflecting over my everyday behavior,
I could see that the two aspects of my life-the active and
the meditative-were totally out of balance. No matter
what I was doing, I never felt free or completely at ease.
57
In Buddhist way of seeing there are six realms into which this
wheel of karma is divided. First there is the world of hell. Then
the world of the hungry ghost. Then the angry demons, animals,
d then the heavenly realms. The human realm has
S an
h umans.
the character of apologizing and repenting one's behavior,
reviewing and experiencing shame. Especially in the human
review our behavior and therefore we experience
ream1 We
shame. Our Mind then opens and our path to awakening is
before us.
The world of the heavenly beings is always happy and without
suffering, but there is no self-reflection on behavior so they
are easily intoxicated and high on their own abilities. This is
the realm of great joy and but without a reviewing of behavior,
there is no true awakening. Even if the heavenly realms are
marvellous there is no awakening there.
That world of heavenly beings does not stay joyful forever but
changes again to melancholy when the conditions change and
one false idea appears in one 's head. Then again the wheel of
the changing realms of hell, ghosts, demons, animals, humans,
and heaven starts turning and revolving. This is how it is seen.
In the Buddhist expression all of these realms are ways of
living. These six realms can be looked at as the content of
various aspects of our daily life, our living day to day. In our
daily experience we often get angry and furious for no reason
at all. With no meaning we get really angry. Sometimes we just
want to go against people and see what will happen. This is the
world of the angry demons. While still alive we have then fallen
into the world of the angry demons. Because of this we lose our
ability to see things clearly and with perspective.
Some other time we aimlessly desire and burn with passion
58
 in our hearts and act in a way that we are ashamed to talk to
anyone else about. This is the world of ignorant desire, falling
into the world of animals.
At another time there is something that we just want no matter
what, and we can't stop our desire for it, yet when we are not
satisfied: this state of mind is that of the hungry ghost. To want
something and desire it so badly and yet to never be able to
satisfy our craving no matter how much we are given of what
we think we want so much. The hungry ghost.
Another is that realm of not being able to believe anyone. In
front of us we have our family and friends and fellow country
people, but we can't believe any of them. This is the realm of
. hell.
Then there is the time when we look back quietly at what we
have done and think to ourselves, "Oh boy-I really wish I hadn't
done that. That is not what I really wish I'd done!" We attack
ourselves and review our behavior, and when we look deeply at
what we have done unskilfully we can't even swallow our food
At night we sometimes can't even sleep we feel so confused and
undecided. This is the world of humans.
And then again, we have times when we forget all the difficulti
of our life and just start humming and feeling good for no
reason at all. We get absorbed into and find great joy in poet
and philosophy and culture, sports or music; this is the worl
of the heavenly beings. We feel truly round and warm and fu
To just be happy is fine, but there is no awakening in just that.
Humans most particular quality is to know shame and to revie
our behavior. We can reflect on our behavior and from that
can know a vow, and so comes forth from here the Bodhisat
59
o is the world of hell, hungry ghosts, demons, animals,
vow. S
and heavenly realms. That is why in these six realms it
h uma ns ,
is most important to be born as a human.
Whether or not there is a human rebirth in the future is not the
. rather whether or not these worlds of expression are seen
issue,
through the eyes of wisdom is the question. The actual, true you
has to be awakened.
That which is you, that very you: of what essence is it?
It is not a question of who will be born as what in the next life.
Prior to that there is a more important and precious thing, that
which is the awakening of our eye of wisdom. With that eye
of wisdom we see what it means to experience the six realms .
The knowledge can help realign our unawakened ignorance.
Without wisdom we cannot be relieved of the endless
repetitions of the six realms, we will be overwhelmed and never
reach where we most need to be.
We have to be able to see and know this wisdom and this is why
we need help.
I realized I would have to rekindle a fearless resolve and once
again throw myself life and limb together into the Dharma
struggle. With my teeth clenched tightly and eyes focused
straight ahead, I began devoting myself single-mindedly
to my practice, forsaking food and sleep altogether.
Hakuin Zenji wrote of his own experience, saying that, even
though everyone thinks it is a far-away thing, he did it in three
years. Why do the ancients say it takes 20 or 30 years? His
deepest joy was continual for two or three months. This was
at Takata Eganji, a Soto sect temple. But in those days there
60
 was not such a differentiation made between Soto and Rinza]
He was present at a gathering attended by hundreds of monks
and several roshis as well. But while Hakuins joyfulness wa8
ongoing, they could not handle him at all. He was always telling
everyone to not look away-they must focus! They must break
through right there! It was right in front of their eyes!-loudly
moaning and grieving over the Dharma fading away because
people were not sincere and serious enough. Here he was in
tears, and in the next moment he would reenter his joyful stage,
loudly wondering why no one could do the same thing that he
had done.
The head monk, the many roshis, could not deal with him at
all. Finally, there was a disciple of Dokyo Etan Zenji who was
also attending this gathering. And he said to him, "In Iitama at
Shojuan there is a great master. After the great gathering, please
come and meet this great master, Dokyo Etan Zenji, and he will
be able to confirm your awakening.
Hakuin Zenji knew very well that it was important to have his
awakening confirmed. And so he went and met Dokyo Etan
Zenji in the deep mountains in Iiyama. Dokyo Etan was a very
old monk, but he could see at a glimpse that Hakuin was not
your regular monk.
Dokyo Etan asked Hakuin how he had seen the koan of
[oshu's Mu. And Hakuin laughingly said, "Where is there any
importance to any such thing as that?"
Dokyo Etan grabbed Hakuins nose and twisted it. And
Hakuin said, "Oh, so it has such great big hands, huh?"
Dokyo Etan wanted Hakuin to see the superficiality of his own
awakening, and he tried this and that. In front of Dokyo Etan's
huge Path power, Hakuin was like a mosquito on a big rock. If
61
he hadn't met Dokyo Etan, Hakuin probably would not have
e the real thing. But while he was being trained by
ever b e Com
Dokyo Etan Zenji, he could see the huge depths which were still
further to probe.
In the same way, when the Buddha first taught the Agon Kyo
Sutra, there were many who could not understand it whatsoever.
Even the arhats, who were supposedly awakened, told him that
they couldn't get this in a dream, and the Buddha could see they
weren't getting it even in a dream, and they all walked out. He
had taught them first the Agon Kyo so that this would not just
be realized and would be available in a form in which it could
be able to continue for two generations to follow. That is why
something so deep needed to be given, so that they could teach
it further down the line.
To just sweep away the ego for a moment will not bring great
wisdom. We have to open up that quiet clear state of mind.
Then we can realize the same wisdom that the ancients realized.
Dokyo Etan, also known as Shoju Rojin, told Hakuin not to be
in a hurry, but to carefully and tenaciously deepen his work on
this. And Hakuin Zenji knew very well that the great master
Daie Zenji was known to have had eighteen huge breakthroughs
and countless numbers of small ones.
This Hakuin knew. And he knew that he could not be satisfied
with a superficial awakening. But in daily life it didn't seem that
he was able to express what he had realized. He could sit deeply,
but he was totally unfocused and unbalanced and unclear with
no true freedom. He saw that what Dokyo Etan Zenji had said
to him was so true. He decided that he had to once again deeply
awaken. He opened his eyes wide and was determined to once
again recover that joy he had felt. But before a month was over,
as he was making these kinds of efforts, his tears were running
62
 down his face constantly.
Before the month was out, my heart-fire began to rise
upward against the natural course, parching my lungs
of their essential fluid. 37 My feet and legs were ice-cold;
they felt as though they were immersed in tubs of snow.
There was a continuous thrumming in my ears, as though
I was walking beside a raging mountain torrent. I became
abnormally weak and timid, shrinking and fearful in
whatever I did. I felt totally drained, physically and
mentally exhausted. Strange visions appeared to me during
waking and sleeping hours alike. My armpits were always
wet with perspiration. My eyes watered constantly.
Hakuin Zenji himself truly actually experienced these
symptoms, and he used his own experience to elucidate what
he is teaching here for others.
Yasenkanna is teaching about the result of an unharmonious
state of mind on a physical body. Hakuin Zenji then writes that
he goes to meet the hermit Hakuyu, but in fact this is nothing
proven. The legend is that Hakuyu fell in the river and drowned
the year before Hakuin says he met him. Yet these symptoms
that he writes about here were in fact present. To cure himseH
he did go to seek hermit Hakuyu, but after that it is Hakuin'
creation of a story. However, the teaching of the Buddha of the
Anapasati breathing teachings was definitely chased down and
deeply studied by Hakuin. For breathing and the movement
ki this wisdom whose base was in the Buddha's teaching is wh
he now presents to us.
I traveled far and wide, visiting wise Zen teachers
and seeking out noted physicians, but none of the
remedies they offered brought me any relief.
63
Master Hakuyo
Then I happened to meet someone who told me
mit named Master Hakuyu, who lived in
a b out a her
a cave high in the mountains of the Shirakawa district
of Kyoto. He was reputed to be between a hundred
and eighty and two hundred and forty years old.
Hakuin heard that there was someone living in the mountains
of Shirakawa who was called Hakuyu Sensei and was 240 years
old. In tai chi, 120 years is a humans true life expectancy, five
times our youth, which is through our twenties. If a human life
is 120 years, so Master Joshu lived it perfectly. But because we
have desires and strong ego, we rarely live to that age, because
we misuse our organs. Today's medicine is attempting to help
people to reach this age. But that is impossible without also
involving our state of mind.
His cave was three or four leagues from any human
habitation. He didn't like having visitors and would run off
and hide whenever he saw someone approach his dwelling.
It was hard to cell from looking at him whether he was
a man of great wisdom or a mere fool, but the people
in the surrounding villages venerated him as a sage.
Just as Hakuin Zenji became sick, many people of training get
hurried and lose their essence and fall into Zen sickness. As
it says in the Zazengi, we have to do correct zazen or we rush
ahead with just our ki and lose track of our footsteps. Each
person's vow is what is most important. But it can't be done and
realized only halfway. It is not an academic study where we use
intelligence and gather information in the process of analyzing
something to prove its truth.
64
 The Zen world, the world of mind, is obstructed by all of the
steps that they use in academics. To have a lot of inforrnatio,
becomes an interruption. When our purpose is to clarify
our true mind, information confuses us. The great scholar
Kawakami Hajime, a famous sociological expert, in his essays
wrote that it was a great benefit for him in his life to see clearly
the difference between scientific truth and religious truth.
We have the study of people called sociology or anthropology,
of plants called botany, of living things called biology, of stars
called astronomy. This is scientific truth. But at some point while
studying all these things, we wonder: but what am I? What is it
that is doing all this studying? And then that religious truth is
necessary to be realized. What was I born for? Where do I go
when I die? This truth of who we are must be realized, but any
data obstructs that realization. We can't see directly if we don't
let go of all data completely. Until we hold on to nothing at a~
we cannot see this answer clearly.
As Karakami Hajime says, if we bring in lots of external
information we get confused. So to clarity our mind we need
to find a teacher who can guide us. When we do this, we have
nothing we need to read. All that we read is just fingers merely
pointing to the moon. For pointing to that moon, we have
sutras and writings. And these are only those fingers pointing
not the thing itself. Focusing on them, our mind gets more and
more stuffed up and stuck. This is one reason why we need
a living teacher, not books. Even as we start to train, we can
become confused and unsettled about what to do next. And as
the Zazengi says of this, we need a true teacher who teaches the
correct way to realization, to realize our mind.
Sometimes we get ill with what is called Zen sickness. When the
mind feels deep fear and apprehension, that affects our bodt
65
. • us our racing heart and difficulty in our judgment. To
giving . . ..
catch this quickly, before it becomes Zen sickness, is important.
And for this we have to have the correct guidance. Hakuin Zenji
was a teacher, and at his temple where he taught, the temple of
Shoinji in Hara, there are 200 anonymous graves around the
tern le of people who trained with him. He taught thousands,
but ~here were many who became sick during their training,
even though they all aimed for a clear mind and how to help
society. But these 200 graves are truly a sad and melancholy
• ht . And Master Hakuin spoke often about this, always
sig
expressing his deep sadness and regret about these people.
For himself he wrote that he went to Hermit Hakuyu for the
purpose of introducing this method of Naikan to increase the
energy and ki. This is the central essence of this work of the
Yasen Kanna. So the Naikan method is brought to us in this
way.
In fact, all of this, everything written in this book, is from the
Buddha's teaching in the first half of the early Agon Kyo sutra,
but very few have ever read this work all the way through. It's a
huge work. There are few who have really read it fully. But from
this Hakuin tells and expresses from his own experience as well.
Rumor had it that he had been the teacher of Ishikawa
Jozan, that he was deeply learned in astrology, and well
versed in the medical arts as well. Folks who had approached
him and requested his teaching in the proper manner,
observing the proprieties, had on rare occasions been known
to elicit a remark or two of enigmatic import from him.
After leaving and giving the words deeper thought, the
people would generally discover them to be of great benefit.
In the middle of the first month in the seventh year of the
Hoei era," I shouldered my travel pack, slipped quietly
66
 out of the temple in eastern Mino where I was staying, and
headed for Kyoto.On reaching the capital I bent my steps
northward, crossing over the hills at Kurodani and making
my way to the small hamlet at Shirakawa. I dropped my
pack off at a teahouse and went to make inquiries about
Master Hakuyu's cave. One of the villagers pointed his
finger to a thin thread of rushing water high above in the
hills. Using the sound of the water as my guide, I struck up
into the mountains, hiking on until I came to the stream.
I made my way along the bank for another league or so
until the stream petered out. There was not so much as
a woodcutters' trail to indicate the way. At this point, I
lost my bearings completely and was unable to proceed
another step. Just then I spotted an old man. He directed
my gaze far above to a distant site up among the swirling
clouds and mist at the crest of the mountains. I could
just make out a small yellowish patch, not more than an
inch square, appearing and disappearing in the eddying
mountain vapors. He told me it was a rushwork blind
that hung over the entrance to Master Hakuyu's cave.
Hitching the bottom of my robe up into my sash, I began
the final ascent to Hakuyu's dwelling. I clambered over
jagged rocks and pushed through heavy vines and clinging
underbrush, the snow and frost gnawing into my straw
sandals, damp clouds and mist drenching my robe. It was
very hard going, and by the time I reached the spot where
I had seen the blind, I was covered with thick oily sweat.
I now stood at the entrance to the cave. It commanded
a prospect of unsurpassed beauty, completely above the
vulgar dust of the world. My heart trembling with fear,
my skin prickling with gooseflesh, I leaned against some
rocks for a while and counted several hundred breaths.44
67
of breath, but he didn't want to meet the hermit
He was Out
Hakuyu like this. So for a moment he stood and aligned his
breath with susokkan.
Hakuin Zenji was always teaching of the benefits of doing the
susokkan breathing. On the seven days ofRohatsu in December
honoring the Buddha's awakening day, he has given a teaching
for each night for those monks who are doing the Rohatasu,
beginning with him talking about how to make our backs
straight and use fit cushions. At where he taught, at Hakuins
temple in Shoinji, there was no place to stay. People came to sit,
hear teishos, and do sanzen but had to live on nearby porches
and under eaves-very severe circumstances. And Hakuins
teaching was also severe and sharp. During Rohatsu he taught
especially sharply. In the Rohatsu exhortations he says to take
a thick cushion and sit with it, making our back straight. To be
able to realize deep samadhi is what is most important, then
with one koan we can go in one straight line to be able to realize
that deep energy of samadhi. And is what we have to do in
order to become able to realize our true nature.
If we would breathe in the susokkan -like way, going in one
straight line, with the susokkan or a koan, then he said, as surely
as if we put down our foot we step on the ground, we will realize
true awakening. "Strive hard! Strive hard!" Hakuin Zenji tells
his students in the same way as the Sixth Patriarch identified
it to not give any thoughts of good and bad to anything that
we perceive externally, to not hold on to any concerns within
whatsoever. Zazen is not about figuring out any idea of ego and
dualism. That is prior to zazen. To still have lots of thinking is
prior to being able to do zazen.
In zazen there are no extra thoughts. And that is made possible
because our ki must be full and taut for it to be zazen. So when
68
 our back is bent over and our eyes are fuzzy and unfocused, this
is not zazen. If we don't put down a firm cushion in order to sit
with our back straight, so that our lower back is not pushed out,
we will have even more extra thoughts. Using a thick sitting
cushion with our back well supported, we pull in our chin and
raise our head as if stuck into the sky. This is the way we do
susokkan, exhaling completely to the very very very final end of
the breath. This takes out all the carbon dioxide from our body
so we can then, in place of the carbon dioxide we have gotten
rid of, inhale and bring in fresh oxygen.
We live in oxygen. But we are always doing both--getting rid
of the carbon dioxide and brining in fresh oxygen in the same
pipe of our body, coming and going. This is why we have to
breathe out completely to the most final point. At the beginning
we must learn to exhale completely, we can even bend over at
the waist and feel how all the air is gone. And then, eventually,
if we keep practicing, then we are able to exhale out for 8, 9,
11, 15, 20, 25, 30 seconds. Our exhalation becomes longer and
longer. And then our inhalation becomes longer naturally. With
these supplies of oxygen coming in, from the length of our
exhalation increasing, we can supply our many, many cells with
fresh oxygen. Our brain alone has 15 billion cells. Breathing
properly brings all of them fresh oxygen and takes away their
old carbon dioxide.
Hakuin had climbed up high to the mountain and was out o
breath, and so there he did his susokkan.
Hakuin Zenji was always teaching the breath. In his works for
urging people on in Rohatsu, five of the seven nights of teaching
for that week of Rohatsu were about the breathing. But in fact
these were first taught by the Buddha as the Anapanasati Sutra
Being able to see the world which is right smack in front of us-
69
[oy is brought to us at that moment. Buddha taught
all o f our J
. not be a shallow breath. We are used by our breath
that 1t can
. · shallow We have to align that breath, and so we learn
when it is ·
to exhale long and inhale naturally.
The Buddha taught this to his disciples as the way to breathe.
And to realign its values himself the Buddha taught them after
he had learned it himself, and they were then a~akened. He
wrote in his own writing about his life how in the Anapanasati
breathing he had done it straight for 90 days. The Buddha
taught that very high quality awareness could be. reali_zed by
doing this, but his disciples could not keep up with him. He
taught them carefully for one whole_ week, and finally they
could do the Anapanasatt helped by his actual example.
Even though he taught his whole life, the Four Noble Truths
and the Eightfold Path, these were doctrine. But to experience
the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path,
the breathing is what is most important. To be doing what is
called a practice of those ancient times, the do-in jitsu. Today
we have tai chi, yoga, chi gung, and various practices. Four
thousand years ago they were teaching this same breathing in
do-in jitsu. Two thousand five hundred and fifty years ago the
Buddha taught that and used it.
So when the Buddha was in the mountains with people who
were practicing in a cave, he was learning from them. He even
did breathing practice that was bad for your body in his process
of learning about all kinds of breathing practices. For six years
he worked at all kinds of ascetic practices, including breathing,
but later felt that susokkan was the best of everything he had
learned how to do. And therein he instructed.
But why do we have to count when we do susokkan, the disciples
70
 asked. Buddha taught them that counting numbers helps Us
to be able to stretch the breath out further. If we work on the
breath and we are doing it in a constant way, then we are able
to lead it with a very small amount of will, which is important
We are able to allow the breath to happen of its own. And then
there is no more need of numbers and we can simply follow that
breath without thinking about numbers. In the world we need
very sharp practice to be able to cut everything.
The Buddha refers to this as the way of exhaling long and
inhaling naturally. We exhale long with intention and for as
long as we possibly can. But on the inhalation we allow the air
to come in naturally. In the Agan Sutra he teaches that deep
breathing makes people more comfortable, but it is in our
exhalation being extended lengthily that we can really feel thi
If we don't align our breath, we get caught on our ideas and OU!
emotions. The exhalations are said to push all of that out of OU!
attention field. We toss them out with our breath's exhalation.
In this way the Buddha would also help and attend to his
disciples' confused problems and places. He listened to then
closely and told them to just keep exhaling out. He taught ve
practical and effective ways of practice and led them in <loin
them himself.
Further, the Buddha taught that since we are always bei
swung around by our thoughts and emotions, that accordin
to our exhalations we can let go of those. But because we are
inept at our breathing, we get thrown off by our emotions an
thoughts. For this reason, we have to work with our exhalatio
and let the inhalation be natural. Because the oxygen going int
our cells enriches the cells' energy, we become active and abl
to have intention with our breath. It is the carbon dioxide that·
regulated in our veins when we are able to align our exhalatio
71
etting rid of all the carbon dioxide, bring in the fresh
an d ' g we are weak in our e xh a 1 ation,
· . of
t h en not d'1sposmg
oxygen. If
dioxtde makes us sleepy and dull.
the car b on
The Buddha was not a normal, usual person. He experienced
all of these ways of breath and wrote all about them in the Agan
Kyo Sutra, as he hi1:1~elf experienced them and worked with
them, in his own activity.
Please do not be conceptual with this. It has to be actually
done this way so we can work in the world and live with no
fear and without being moved around by anything. This is
the importance of zazen. The Buddha meant it when he said
to do our zazen correctly. Full lotus is not impossible. It's not
so difficult. The Buddha says full lotus is the most important.
Even though he had such long legs, he said long legs are the best
for doing full lotus. And because the Buddha was an Aryan he
had long legs, but he could sit the full lotus. We fear full lotus,
but zazen has to be, it must be, only can be done truly with
life on the line for its true realization. People have four ways
of being-being active, standing still on the brink of about to
be active, lying down and getting full rest of our physical body,
and sitting, which is for inner alignment. Doing zazen is not for
relaxation and resting. We have to see that it is for alignment.
After shaking off the dirt and dust and straightening my
robe to make myself presentable, I bowed down, hesitantly
pushing the blind aside, and peered into the cave. I could
just make out the figure of Master Hakuyu in the darkness.
He was sitting perfectly erect, his eyes shut. A wonderful
head of black hair flecked with bits of white reached down
over his knees. He had a fine, youthful complexion, ruddy in
hue like a Chinese date. He was seated on a soft mat made of
grasses and wore a large jacket of coarsely woven cloth. The
72
 interior of the cave was small, not more than five feet square,
and except for a small desk, there was no sign of household
articles or other furnishings of any kind. On top of the
desk I could see three scrolls of writing, the Doctrine of the
Mean, Lao Tzu, and the Diamond Sutra.His books were
the most important books of the trio of the Confucian,
Taoist, and Buddhist teachings. He had scrolls of writing
of the doctrine of the mean, of Confucius; of Lao Tzu,
the Taoist book; and the Diamond Sutra. And with these
three books people cultivated themselves in ancient
China as well. Necessary of course for any politician, if
not having read these they could not conduct politics.
Many people of long-time Zen training also had high-rankini
jobs as officials of the government. For the people who followej
the Confucian path, as is written in the Doctrine of the Mea~
along with the other three main texts of the collection of tbi
Confucian main books such as the Analects of Confucius, then
were the words that said clearly that it is the Way to follow 0111
True Nature. That is the command, the orders, of the heave
and earth. And to follow those orders of the heaven and ea
is the Way.
Our original nature is to have only space, and all is born for
from there. For this we have to always work carefully at o
state of mind, not holding on to opinions and negative feelin
And this is the education of the schools of that time, not b ·
schools, schools where there are the parents and the elder
people would teach them. The truth of being great space is wh
is prior to all emotions, that we are great space. Of course,
humans we have emotions, but if they are egoistic, we lose o
harmony and end up in conflict with others if there are so m
opinions.
73
To be free from attachment to sel~sh emotions, _but to kno_w the
. f the emotions we receive from knowing the um verse
great)oyo
nd from there, harmony in human relationships
e a
an d na t ur, . . . .
forth This is the way that 1s taught m Confucianism,
al so come S 1' ·
saint of Taoism, write the Tao Te Ching. If we
Lao Tzu, the
we make bowls and jars out of that clay, what is
1 and
ta ke cay
important is the space which the vessel holds and which you
can put things in. That's the most important for the purpose
and the usefulness of that vessel.
Building a house as well, it is the space inside which is important.
And there also has to be a door and windows for the outer space
to be opened to. That space inside and outside is what is most
important in the having of a house.
]Taoism and Confucianism hold space, and special importance
in Confucianism is very clear about what human behavior.
While Taoism is about a big spaciousness inner life. So then
what about Buddhism? In Buddhism space is also important.
But space is only partway there. As it says in the Heart Sutra,
"that which is form is emptiness, that which is emptiness form:'
We need to use our ego to offer our life for all beings.
We all have the excellent opportunity of being born human. We
need to understand and realize that all the beings in all the three
realms are our children, that all the places in all the three realms
are our home. Just as the Buddha's realization we experience
that state of mind and know true compassion, empathy, and
wisdom.
74
 Cure
I introduced myself as politely as I could, explained the
symptoms and causes of my illness in some detail, and
appealed to the master for his help. After a while, Hakuyu
opened his eyes and gave me a good hard look. Then,
speaking slowly and deliberately, he explained that he was
only a useless, worn-out old man-"more dead than alive."
He dwelled among these mountains living on the chestnuts
and wild mountain fruit he gathered. He passed the nights
together with the mountain deer and other wild creatures.
He professed to be completely ignorant of anything else
and said he was acutely embarrassed that such an important
Buddhist priest had made a long trip expressly to see him.
,I
I persisted, begging repeatedly for his help. At last, he
reached out and gently took my hand. He proceeded to
read my nine pulses and examine my five bodily organs.' -
His fingernails, I noticed, were almost an inch long.
Furrowing his brow, he spoke with a voice tinged with
pity. "Not much can be done. You have developed a serious
illness. By pushing yourself too hard, you forgot the cardinal
rule of religious training. You are suffering from Zen
sickness, which is extremely difficult to cure by medical
means. If you attempted to treat it with acupuncture,
moxabustion, or medicines, even if P'ien Ch'ueh, Tsang
Kung, and Hua To attended you day and night, it would
do you no good. You came to this grievous pass as a result
of meditation. You will never regain your health unless you
are able to master the techniques of Naikan meditation. It
is just as the old saying has it: 'When a person falls to the
earth, it is from the earth that he must raise himself up."'
49
75
. medicine for this. There is medicine for a cold or a
There 1s no
but yours is not able to be treated by acupuncture,
stomac h ac he ' . . .
. n or herbal medicine because 1t 1s that you have lost
t
rnoxab us 10 ,
bal in your state of mind. Even the top doctors of the
the ance , .
. Ch'nese
1 medicine way cant cure this.
ancient
This kind of psychological confusion cannot be cured like
that. To have become so rigid in your training in this way, you
must loosen that rigidity with the Naikan way of loosening and
making spaciousness in your way of being and mind. As it is
said of old, 'When a person falls to the earth, it is from the earth
that he must raise himself up.
"Please; 'l said, "teach me the secret technique
of Naikan meditation. I want to practice
it together with my Zen training."
With a demeanor that was now solemn and majestic, Master
Hakuyu softly and quietly replied, Ahh, I can see that you're
a very determined young man. I suppose I can tell you a
few things about Naikan meditation that I learned many
years ago. It is a secret method for sustaining life known
to few people. Practiced diligently, it will yield remarkable
results and enable you to look forward to a long life as well.
Hakuin Zenji was turned down by the Hermit Hakuyu. But
he was so persistent, finally Hermit Hakuyu said to Hakuin,
he could not offer him much, but he had heard something in
the old days, and he will teach him that, the secret teaching.
It's about cultivating life energy. There are very few who know
these secrets. They are also good for prolonging life and having
long life. I see that you are determined in your vow. You are
not coming to this just from some selfish excess. You have let
your stability get lost from being too much in a hurry in your
76
 practice. To call back your life energy, you must make efforts.
If you make these efforts, then for sure that energy will retur11.
His teacher was teaching him this from his own experience.
As Lao- tzu has taught, from the way of Taoism, everybody,
everything in that great way is divided into yin and yang. And
this is the way and acts in accordance with being yin and yan~
This is the Taoist way of thinking about things. The planet'i
ecology and how everything here works is in accordance Wit~
this way of the yin and yang.
The universe is an ocean of ki, an ocean of molecules also, and
in accordance with karmic affiliation these molecules com,
together then are parting, creating and destroying, endlessly.
Our body is this ki, a body made by our parents' connection.
Yet that doesn't mean we did not exist before that connection.
That is Buddha Nature expressing itself in a human form. B111
from the origin the universe gives us the yin effects of air, wate~
and food, and with that the life energy support of our breathing
which supports those effects.
"The Great Way is divided into the two principles of yin
and yang; combining, they produce human beings and
all other things. Ki, the universal life-force, circulates
silently through the body, moving along channels or
conduits from one to another of the five great organs.
The blood and ki circulate together, ascending and
descending throughout the body, making fifty complete
circulations in each twenty-four-hour period."
The organs which we all have, to invigorate them we ha
blood to replenish them ongoingly. With their origin in parall
the meridians which bring the ki into circulation througho
the body. It is said that the ki flows with the inhalation I
77
. ters and the exhalation 10 centimeters. In one day it
centime .
ircuit of the body 50 times.
ma kesa C
e ki travels through all of the meridians and it is in the breath
1h 10 centimeters in the exhalation and 10 centimeters in
~:alation that this is carried, with 13,500 breaths being done
md 'Ibis number is totally unreliable, since it is so different
a ay.
tth each person. The ki flows along with the blood supporting
~ fl w and in this way 50 times of circulation this fire element
its o ,
. And the water element wants to flow downward when
nses.
they are given to their own tendencies.
If we don't do anything special to it, our body is given breath
and support of all of these organs and their elements. But if our
efforts are too forced, then the fire element separates and goes
up high and won't come down. The water element separates and
goes downward and won't come up. They need balance. The
head gets hot from the fire element going up, and the feet get
cold from the water element going down.
Toe lungs are like the mother organ, and with extreme activity
lose their balance as well, as do the four elements in our body.
The elements of water, air, fire, and wind. Those organs cannot
function normally when we are forcing.
"The lungs, manifesting the Metal element, are a female
organ located above the diaphragm. The liver, manifesting
the Wood element, is a male organ located beneath the
diaphragm. The heart, manifesting the Fire element, is
the major yang organ; it is located in the upper body. The
kidneys, manifesting the Water element, are the major
yin organ; they are located in the lower body. The five
internal organs are invested with seven marvelous powers,
and two each are possessed by the spleen and kidneys. 52
78
 "The exhaled breath issues from the heart and the lungs;
the inhaled breath enters through the kidneys and liver.
With each exhalation of breath the blood and ki move
forward three inches in their conduits: they also advance
three inches with each inhalation of breath. Every twenty-
four hours there are thirteen thousand five hundred
inhalations and expirations of breath, and the blood
and ki make fifty complete circulations of the body.
"Fire is by nature light and unsteady and always wants
to mount upward, while Water is by nature heavy and
settled and wants to flow downward. If a person who is
ignorant of this principle strives too hard in his meditative
practice, the Fire in his heart will rush violently upward,
scorching his lungs and impairing their function.
I increase it and increase it, 13, 20, 30, eventually. The second is
'' "Since a mother-and-child relation exists between the
lungs, representing the Metal element, and the kidneys,
representing the Water element, when the lungs are
afflicted and distressed, the kidneys are also weakened and
debilitated. Debilitation of the lungs and kidneys saps
and enfeebles the other internal organs and disrupts the
proper balance within the six viscera.54 This results in an
imbalance in the function of the body's four constituent
elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind), some of which grow
too strong and some too weak. This leads in turn to a
great variety of ailments and disorders in each of the four
elements. Medicines have no effect in treating them, so
physicians can do little but look on with folded arms.
In this way, Hermit Hakuyu talks about how the body wor
For breath, we get the yang from food, and the yin is the ·
From our lungs we are given support from the yin, the liv
is yang. The lungs are above the diaphragm, the liver belo
79
. h agm. The kidneys are yin, and they are where the
the d rap r .
abdominal muscles anse.
'Ihe Buddha himself said that correct breathing is essential
dhi The Buddha wrote for us the very best breathing
for sarnad from· his own experience,
· e xh a 1·mg 1 ong, m
· h a 1·mg
met h O
naturally. When a person . p 1 aymg · tennis · h'its t h ~ b a 11
wholeheartedly, and the ball will soon ret~rn, when he hits that
all he's in full tension, but when the service return he has to be
~m~ediately soft and recept'.ve. This is the sa~e as the Buddha's
breathing. We hit the ball with our whole bemg.
There are two parts to our breathing. There is a part where we
exhale, where we give it everything and breathe out to its last,
final point. At the beginning maybe 5 to 8 seconds, but we
to inhale, which we allow to happen naturally. So there is like
in a tennis ball a strong concentration and then release. We can
then learn to naturally use this when we see how the Buddha's
main goal is not about this breathing but about the state of
mind of entering samadhi.
As we read it in the words of Hakuin Zenji's Song of Zaren,
"As for the Mahayana practice of zazen, there are no words to
praise it fully. The Six Paramitas, such as giving, maintaining
the precepts, and various other good deeds, like invoking the
Buddha's name, repentance, and spiritual training, all finally
return to the practice of zazen." This applies to everything we
do. We do chanting of the Buddha's name, we do repentance
practice, but no matter what we practice it has to be our entire
body and being. As the Sixth Patriarch has said, anything that
we perceive externally, to not give the slightest bit of idea about
it being good or bad; anything that we are being careful over
80
 considering inside, to not be holding on to that.
If we don't cultivate this samadhi, it is not zazen. There will b,
no wisdom. All practicing has to be practiced with samadh] ot
there is no wisdom coming forth from it. In wisdom, there ~
true wisdom, original wisdom, and there is mental or soci~
wisdom. But if our awareness is not sharp and clear, we cann
realize true wisdom.
Anyone knows the social intelligence. We use it all the tirn~
every day. But what uses this social intelligence? That has to~
seen. That deep original wisdom is what is being used. Puttin,
it more practically, no one has to teach us how to use our ey
when we are born. Or how to use our ears. Or how to use O\Jt
nose. But what are we seeing? That is a rose. We have to ~
taught that. This is what we have to learn; that is the wisdom Wt
have to learn in the world. That is all social wisdom, not de
original wisdom.
Our mind source has no form. This is the same in everyone.
even people who are challenged in their consciousness, as it·
in everything, this true light that we are divides into six rays.
moves through our senses, yet even a person who is challeng
in their consciousness still has this light. For the person w
uses this deep wisdom well, that is being in samadhi. We c
use social wisdom, and when it is deep it is accompanied
samadhi. Playing music in such a way that we forget the not
we forget that our body is even playing, we are no longer caug
on what we are doing, no longer having any self-conscio
awareness whatsoever. And in this way the Buddha gave t ·
teaching so we know how to enter samadhi, and so that all of
can do it from knowing how to do it from his practical learni
81
and practicing, which he did himself.
held the breathing so important because it had
The Bu ddh a .
c hi· m But his disciples were all very bad at it. Susokkan
worke d ior .
ht to them because he had learned it first. If we
was fi rst t au g
, r deepest stratum of self-conscious awareness, then
don't use ou . . .
't nter samadhi. This is what it says m the Agan Sutra.
we d on e . . .
We have to go deeply into our mmd. To have all the disciples
. he taught them to exhale long and inhale naturally.
learnt h is,
There are other kinds of breathing methods; most of them are
used in martial arts. But for meditation the exhalation is most
. tant The exhalation is what gets rid of carbon dioxide.
tmpor • . . .
It then allows the inhalation to come m with the fresh oxygen.
Because the exhalation gets rid of the carbon dioxide, its length
is very important, the longer the better. But we only have one
windpipe, so we have to exhale completely and then inhale
naturally. In our micro circulation areas, the carbon dioxide has
to be gotten rid of. So we have to thoroughly exhale, or we don't
fill everywhere with fresh and new oxygen.
But today we do everything in our lives so much with small
tools and devices that our work is not done with our larger
musculature. And because all of these small and well-designed
tools are so commonly used, we don't really move our body in
such a way that its circulation goes the way it most needs it to.
And that is why the three major illnesses of cancer, heart attack,
and brain hemorrhage, all of them are seriously affected by a
lack of oxygen.
The Buddha's breathing was taught about how completely we
have to do our exhalation. That it is in that way it can be done.
For everyday life it has to be at least 80 seconds for a breath is
82
 the longest, but 8 seconds at least for a breath but it can, if We
work at it, then it can become much longer. This breath is being
breathed out long, which is how it has to be, to its very most
final point. And then, because we breathe out to the last final
point of the exhalation, then the inhalation comes in naturally.
This is one way of breathing. Another way the Buddha taught
is a sudden exhalation. But the first with the long exhalation is
better for getting rid of more carbon dioxide. When we are tired
and getting numb and fuzzy and need a quick refreshing, the
short abrupt breath is effective, and it helps us come awake. It
cleans out the CO2 and gathers back a fresh supply of oxygen.
This is like cutting bamboo. It is often a breath used in martial
arts, that slice of the bamboo which is so sharp and clean is the
way our state of mind becomes when we use this abrupt sharp
, 1 breath.
Our exhalation, which is necessary for getting rid of the carbon
dioxide, is very helpful. And that carbon dioxide, if it is not
gotten rid of, we cannot intake the fresh oxygen we need. And
our blood circulation to the micro circulation area is not then
given sufficient oxygen. Our cells are for protection of our body.
We know that. But cancer cells are said to form where our blood,
our circulation is stagnant, where it is not getting rid of the coi
and not getting enough oxygen. If we are always giving full
oxygen in our breath, then if we have sufficient oxygen going
to our cells, we don't get cancer cells. But without that oxygen,
they multiply exponentially. Cells that are not cancereous only
multiply when it is necessary for them to. But malignant cancer
cells multiply exponentially. This is also why they become
malignant cells, because they did not have enough oxygen to
be able to go in their circulation of 50 times a day in the body.
However, 23 seconds is all we need to make it from the
83
xhalation to the micro circulation. Each breath tells us that this
:lood circulation exhalation is being done by our bloodstream
energetically all the time. If we get ~eak in our exhalation, then
we do not get in enough oxygen mto our blood system. The
Buddha taught all of this from his own experience.
In this way, since everyone is doing zazen, do not to let our
breath and circulation become stagnant. We can feel it, like we
feel it when we press down on the top of our head. We feel this
heaviness when we are stagnant. To do choka [ chanting] in
the morning we need an abrupt way of breathing. We become
alert building our abdominal muscle pressure, then we do not
become sleepy in our zazen.
The lungs and the heart are above the diaphragm; the liver is just
below the diaphragm, and therefore it cannot be massaged to
bring its circulation into aliveness, and so we massage the liver
as moving our diaphragm with that abrupt breathing move, and
that bring aliveness to our liver and other organs as well.
We have in our lungs enough surface area of breathing cells to
cover eight times the space of one tatami, eight tatamis worth
of surface area if we were to unfold all the surface area that is
in our lungs. So all of these places to be able to get the proper
amount of oxygen to them and get rid of their carbon dioxide.
The heart and the diaphragm are what work hardest in our
abrupt breath in which our needing that kind of stimulation
to get our circulation to where it has to go. We also need the
pressure of a long exhalation to move them vigorously.
Because we don't bring into focus all of these things we need
to do with our physical body for our zazen, we get so sleepy.
And then when we're sleeping in zazen that shows we have not
listened to this precious teaching about the breath from the
Buddha.
84
 Master Hakuin very thoroughly studied the Buddha's way of
teaching about breathing called the Anapasati. He mixed that
with Oriental medicine, but the roots of all of this are the way
of the breathing taught by the Buddha, in the Annapasati Sutta.
That our zazen does not become conceptual is so important, or
we cannot enter samadhi. That teaching of Hakuin where he
said zazen in action is 10,000 times more important than sitting ·
zazen. It is true that usually people are not awakened in the
zendo. Rather they are awakened in nature or in functioning.
The Buddha was awakened at becoming the morning star.
Master Kyogen at hearing the sound of the tile hitting the
bamboo. Master Hakuin at the sound of the morning bell.
This does not mean that we should be not skillful in our sitting
in the zendo as well. But to be able to see that for us to do it 24
hours a day as they teach in the dojo. Action is zazen, sitting
is zazen; standing, sitting, and walking, seeing, everything we
do all day long is zazen. If we don't realize that and do it in
every single moment then we crush our efforts. If we take this
passionate momentum and give it everything we can with this
breathing, this is what is most important.
85
Sustaining life
"Sustaining life is much like protecting a country. While
a wise lord and sage ruler always thinks of the common
eople under him, a foolish lord and mediocre ruler
~oncerns himself exclusively with the pastimes of the
upper class. When a ruler becomes engrossed in his own
selfish interests, his nine ministers vaunt their power and
authority, the officials under them seek special favors, and
none of them gives a thought to the poverty and suffering
0
f the people below them. The countryside fills with pale,
gaunt faces, and famine stalks the land, leaving the streets
of the cowns and cities littered with corpses. The wise and
the good retreat into hiding, the common people burn
with resentment and anger, the provincial lords grow
rebellious, and the enemies on the borders rise to the
attack. The people are plunged into an agony of grief and
suffering until finally the nation itself ceases to exist.
"On the other hand, when the ruler turns his attention
below and focuses on the common people, his ministers
and officials perform their duties simply and frugally,
with the hardships and suffering of the common people
always in their thoughts: As a result, farmers will have
an abundance of grain, women will have an abundance
of cloth. The good and the wise gather to the ruler to
render him service, the provincial lords are respectful
and submissive, the common people prosper, and the
country grows strong. Each person is obedient to his
superior, no enemies threaten the borders, and the sounds
of battle are no longer heard in the land, the names of
the weapons of war themselves come to be forgotten.
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 "It is the same with the human body. A person who has
arrived at attainment always keeps the mind or heart below,
filling the lower body. When the lower body is filled with
ki from the mind or heart, there is nowhere within for the
seven misfortunes to operate and nowhere without for the
four evils to gain an entrance.55 The blood and ki are replete,
the mind and heart vigorous and healthy. The lips never
know the bitterness of medical potions, and the body never
feels the pain of moxacautery or the acupuncture needle.
Hakuin gave that description about the politics for the sake of
telling us how it is the same as caring for the human body. The
heart is above the diaphragm. If it gets too hot we cannot see
clearly and we have to put up with the overheated emotions,
such as anger. They become strong and unbalanced because
they are so high in ki. That is why wise people keep their ki
down low in the tanden area.
Seven emotions that we get pushed around by: extreme joy and
anger and sadness, fear, love, hate, and desires. Pulled down by
sadness. Anger freezing us, making us unable to move freely.
Hating and becoming violent-these emotions get extreme
when our mind works overtime externally. That is when these
problems come up. And this happens when our ki is high.
Whereas people who know the way of how things work in the
universe keep their ki down low and don't get pulled around by
the same emotions.
The external heat and cold, catching a cold, being in the
dampness and heat and other negative conditions, they are
able to be brought into balance by lowering our ki. We will not
have to take bitter medicine or be healed by moxabustion or
acupuncture. But if we just let our emotions do whatever they
want to do, our ki automatically goes up high. And then the ki
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of the heart is damaged.
The six of the organs, such as the liver, the kidneys, the pancreas,
and the spleen, the ki nourishes life energy of the whole body,
but the ki being too high and held up too highly is like only
offering to the upper class as is described in the part about
politics. And these both make us unhealthy.
"An average or mediocre person invariably allows the
ki in the heart to rise up unchecked so that it diffuses
throughout the upper body. When the ki is allowed to
rise unchecked, Fire [heart] on the left side damages
the Metal [lungs] on the right side.56 This puts a
strain on the five senses, diminishing their working,
and causes harmful disturbances in the six roots.57
Here what is being said is that zazen is the best, it's the most
comfortable way to awakening. But it must be done correctly.
Hyakujo Zenji says this, that zazen is the most comfortable of
the ways. Yet also in the Zazengi it tells us not to close our eyes,
to make our back straight, and to breathe with our tanden. If we
close our eyes, we cannot sit correctly. Our back straightens, we
sit and we poke the top of our head straight up into the sky and
we have our body straight, and the heavens and earth breathe
from our tanden. But we have to do it correctly. This is what
Hyakujo Zenji is saying. This means that there are those who
don't sit like this, or he wouldn't need to say that.
When Hakuin Zenji tried to get back to his former zazen,
with which he had broken through the first time, he did it in a
mistaken way. The koans as well as susokkan have to be done
24 hours a day, but not by thinking about them, having our
imagination and our ideas lead us. For koans and susokkan it is
the same. We have to continue all day long, as Master Murnan
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 Ekai has said, with all of our 84,000 hair pores, and all of our
smallest 360 bones, we have to put all of it into it. And if we do
this correctly, we will not get stuck and have our ki go high.
This is why in the Rohatsu exhortations of Master Hakuin, for
four of the even days of Rohatsu the exhortations are all about
breathing and susokkan. And this is true for both susokkan and
the koans. This was the way of breathing that must be done to
become clearly able to see this-how our ki moves-and use
this.
"Because of this, the Chuang Tzu says, 'A True
Person breathes from the heels. An ordinary
person breathes from his throat.'58
This is how things work as was taught by the great master
Chuang Tzu who said we should breathe from the bottoms of
our feet. As the Buddha taught us, we should breathe with the
feet. Chuang Tzu says to breathe from the bottom of our feet,
and so why is this? In martial arts, such as in judo or kendo, the
opponent is weakest when they are about to take a breath. When
they go from their exhalation and change to their inhalation is
the moment when they can be caught off-guard.
A master knows this very well and never shows when the
breath is changing from exhalation into an inhalation. There
are many kinds of breath, many kinds of prescribed breathing,
but Halkuin feels they are not important to know about. Yet,
susokkan, the counting of the breath, is. Susokkan eventually
transforms naturally into following the breath instead of the
counting of the breaths, breathing out as long as we can and
then the inhaled breath which follows after that.
89
1here are two different kinds of breathing involved in this.
When we are breathing an abdominal breath, smack into the
tanden, then the breath cannot even be seen. One cannot look
at a person who is breathing with a tanden breath using the
abdominal muscles and know whether or not they are inhaling
or exhaling because it is so subtle. However, when we breathe
from our shoulders or our lungs or the upper part of our
musculature, and the breath goes out and in, this is very easy to
see. Internally, we are inhaling. But if we are breathing with our
abdominal muscles it cannot be seen that way externally.
1his has been studied, and even a very very slight inhalation is
difficult to perceive and measure externally. But if we measure
it inside we can see that suddenly a large amount of oxygen has
been taken in with this very subtle appearing inhalation. We do
not do tanden breath at the very beginning for this reason. It
has a very large effect on people.
Humans usually breathe with their throat in general, their
windpipe area. And it is clearly written that we can exhale with
our mouth but not inhale with our mouth. When we exhale with
our mouth, that is natural. When we inhale with our mouth
we bring many kinds of disturbances and impurities into our
mouth from the external breathing and we do not therefore
inhale from our mouth. We exhale with our mouth; we inhale
with our nose.
If it is an overly shallow breath happening, then it means that
our ki is unbalanced and we have to see whether or not our
sitting is sitting in a way where these are balanced or not.
"Hsu Chun said, 'When the ki is in the lower
heater, the breaths are long; when the ki is in
the upper heater, the breaths are short.'59
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 This Korean doctor Hsu Chun teaches that breathing below
the naval is where the breathing is done with great length.
This refers to a place about five centimeters below and three
centimeters inward from the naval. This place has to be found
by each person from their own experience discovering where
the tanden is for themselves. It differs subtly in every person.
When our ki is brought up too high, we become easily aggravated.
When our lungs and shoulders get tight, it is because our ki is
too high and stagnant, and therefore at that time our breath
becomes short. That can even cause sub-arachnoid problems.
So it is very important for us to keep our ki low, and then our
breath becomes naturally very long and extended.
"Master Shang Yang said, 'In man there is a single genuine
ki. Its descent into the lower heater signifies the return
of the single yang. If a person wants to experience the
occasion when the yin reaches completion and yields
to the returning yang, his proof is the warmth that is
generated when ki is concentrated in the lower body.'
When we gather our ki well in our tanden area, we will feel
warmth in that area. That is what it is called when it is becoming
a single yang, referenced here. This brings in the I Ching. The I
Ching outlines the great laws of the universe, of the heavens and
earth, of all the changes, and these we understand because they
are taken from the analyzing, the analysis of the phenomena
and how they actually move and change.
If we look at how one year cycles- -flowers in spring, green trees
filling up in the summertime, fall when the leaves are falling,
and deep whiteness in the winter. The solstice of the winter is
when the one yang returns from the yin. This is when the ki
in our tanden settles deeply and in with the greatest strength.
91
This is the way ki is, and it might not appear that way, but it is
the same at that time as the most strong time for a tree when
the roots are full and taut, and the trunk of the tree is able to
be given strong support from inside to become full and strong.
"The golden rule in the art of sustaining life is always to
keep the upper body cool and the lower body warm.
In this way Master Hakuin, from the teachings of the Buddha
and from Oriental medicine, teaches us how to cultivate our
life energy, to realize our life energy within, to recover our way
of seeing clearly, and to keep deepening and strengthening our
cultivation.
Today we have so much distraction from social media, but we
must simultaneously strengthen our inner ki with our inner life
energy cultivation, or we have nothing to balance that social
media and make use of it. Even if we have progress in the world,
we may have no deepening within. The Buddha saw this clearly,
and from that deep understanding comes the Buddha Dharma.
"There are twelve conduits along which the blood and ki
circulate through the body. These conduits correspond
to the twelve horary signs or stems, to the twelve months
of the year, and to the twelve hours of the day. They also
correspond to the various permutations the hexagrams in
the I Ching undergo in the course of their yearly cycle. 61
"Five yin lines above, one yang line below-the hexagram
known as Ground Thunder Returns-corresponds seasonally
to the winter solstice." It is this Chuang Tzu refers to when
he speaks of the True Person breathing from the heels.'
In Zen, further along in the sanzen process, this I Ching way is
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 taught and dealt with. It is also used by Confucius, but not until
he was 60 years old. After that he studied it deeply to see how
humans should be. The I Ching is teaching this as a doctrine,
which can be helpful. But we mustn't get attached to it, to what
it says.
This is telling about the winter solstice. From December 21 the
sun goes to the south relative to the earth's axis and does not
ever rise at all because of this in some of the northern countries,
such as Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. When they celebrate
the spring solstice they celebrate the return of the old sun's
light. At the winter solstice it is considered part of a Christian
rhythm to go with Christmas, and the sun is just beginning to
rise a bit more each day.
In Buddhism, the winter solstice is honoring the light rising and
starting and our becoming more perfected by that. Because it is
the time of being able to let go of our greed, our anger, and our
ignorance, things beginning to come to life, growth starting, life
energy peeping forth. As Hippocrates has said, no one can live
and be healed who doesn't want to be. Without that energy that
wants to be healed, it is not possible. Each cell, therefore, has
its own deep wish to live. A greedy wish to live each cell holds.
Not from our heads who are trying to be healthy, but from that
very source the cells' desire is coming forth, and it is from that
source deeply wanting to live.
But humans get very greedy about this, and in that greed it
takes away that way of the cell. That greediness also makes us
have a need to stay alive, which means that greediness, while it
is a desire, is a necessary one from that cell, as well as the cell's
anger. Anger of a cell is a natural instinct, like taking the food
away from a hungry dog. So it gets angry because it is trying to
stay alive. So this is making the matter of anger a very complex
93
issue. The simplest is the way of being an obstruction to your
trying to stay calm, so we naturally get angry at certain times.
Finally, our ignorance comes from our lack of ability to see
clearly with a huge vista. But we so easily become narrow and
don't see. And because we can't see there, that is what is called
our ignorance. We have to align these well. And then, because
that great clear quiet mind, which is the state of mind of serenity
of nirvana, we need to have the life energy but to not be moved
around by its negative qualities.
At the winter solstice, when it is completely dark, you can sleep
away all of those three desires, those three impurities. And we
can have a new start, a renewal, a fresh start. So the solstice is
sometimes considered also for that reason a new year.
"Three yang lines below and three yin lines above-the
hexagram Earth and Heaven at Peace-corresponds
seasonally to the first month, when the ten thousand
things are pregnant with the ki of generation
and the myriad buds and flowers, receiving the
beneficial moisture, burst into blossom.
Doing deep tanden breath is what is being referred about in
this. We read the I Ching in this way and can realize a source of
our health and cultivate it. The I Ching is also teaching us how
to become a deeper source of vigor.
It is the configuration of the True Person, whose
lower body is filled with primal ki. When a person
achieves this stage, the blood and ki are replenished
and the mind is vigorous and full of courage.
"Five yin lines below and one yang line above-the
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 hexagram kn own as Splitting Apart" - corresponds
seasonally co the ninth month. Wh en the heavens are
at chis point, foliage in the garden and forest drains of
color, flowers droop and wither. It is the configuration
of 'the ordinary person breathing from the throat.' A
person who reaches this stage is thin and haggard in
appearance, with teeth growing loose and falling out.
"Because of chis, the Treatise on Prolonging Life
states: 'When all six yang lines are exhausted and a
person is wholly yin, death may easily occur.' What
you must know is chat for sustaining life the key is to
have primal ki constantly filling the lower body.
Remedies for Sustaining Life
"Long ago when Wu Ch'i-ch'u went to visit Master
Shih-c'ai, he first prepared himself by performing
ritual purifications, then he inquired about the art of
refining the elixir. Master Shih-t' ai cold him, 'I possess a
marvelous secret for producing the genuine and profound
elixir, but only a person of superior capacity would be
able to receive and transmit it.' This is the very same
secret Master Kuang Ch'eng imparted to the Yellow
Emperor, who received it only after he had completed
a retirement and abstinence of twenty-one days.
"The genuine elixir does not exist apart from the Great Way;
the Great Way does not exist apart from the genuine elixir.
You Buddhists have a teaching known as the five non-
leakages. Once the six desires are dispelled and the working
of the five senses is forgotten, primal, undifferentiated
ki will gather to repletion before your very eyes. 67

The world of the six senses and of our entrances to the senses
are only a borrowed world and they are empty in actuality. As it
says in the Heart Sutra, "no eyes, no ears no nose, no tongue, no
body, no mind:' If we see this clearly and correctly we see that
everything is emptiness and we do not get caught on a subjective
nor an objective point of view. We can let go of all attachments
of our ego and desires and ideas and our attachment to our
senses, and then be free from all suffering. We can be in peace.

Our Five Wisdoms of the senses have a 'watcher at the gate'

who analyzes all of the data of our senses, of our desires. We
see, we desire what we see. We hear, we desire what we hear. We
taste, touch, feel, we desire it all, and we are losing our serenity
because of this. So what do we do for this challenge? This is the

95 96
teaching of the five leakages. It's not that our senses are bad, we
have eyes so we can see the beautiful things, ears so that we can
hear the beautiful sounds, a nose so we can smell the exquisite
fragrances, a mouth so that we can taste the fine foods, and it is
not that our senses are bad. Th is is what the Buddha told us so
clearly in the Lotus Sutra. It is that we have to align our mind
that is perceiving what the senses are inputting, or our mind at
its worst becomes like a great gang, a terrifying gang, or great
beasts or evil serpents.
Because we are without alignment that happens. It is like this.
And this is why we have to align, to kn ow how to, to learn how
to align our mind. Because we are human, we do not like to be
criticized, but we do like to be praised. When we are praised,
we are very happy. When we are criticized, we are very mad.
We have to kn ow samadhi to not be caught by anything that is
coming to us through the senses, praise, criticism, or anything
else. Th is is the alignment, because of a samadhi possibility.
Th e great sportsperson can make a play that nobody can believe
is possible, and a person who is doing some art or music can play
something which is called "the music of the Gods:' We need to
do only what we are doing right now, right this minute-only
sitting, only eating our meals-but because throwing so much
else in we get confused, and that is when we cannot align our
mind.
The ways of the heaven and earth, to combine them in
everything we do, forgetting ourselves completely. In this way
we have the poem about playing the shamisen, a Japanese string
instrument, which says, Play the shamisen with your mind.
Don't play it with your hands, play it with your mind, your quiet
mind, not caught on anything at all, no thought, no position.
This and only this is the best way that we can enter samadh·
l.
"This is what T' ai-pai Tao-jen meant when he spoke about
'combining the heaven within me with the Heaven whence
it derives'; what Mencius called 'a vast expansive energy (ki)'.
When, as Mencius has said, we do our zazen in one straight
line, we experience this. We put our focus into our tanden and
exhale to the very end. More and more our tanden fills with
strong energy. We concentrate single-mindedly, and we see this,
the existence of one whole individual being. It is not that the
ego is bad, but that it cannot be held in like an eggshell guarded
by a chick. That great ocean of ki energy can't be utilized if we
don't cultivate, building within that shell. Like putting drops of
water in a cup, until the cup is so full that the surface tension
on the top of the water is as taut as it can become, and suddenly
it splashes over. It is right there that a balloon also explodes, as
well as our state of mind after practicing unwaveringly. We see
that we are not only our ego.
You should draw this ki down and store it in the
tanden-the ocean of ki located below the navel.
Hold it there over the months and years, preserve it
singlemindedly, sustain it unwaveringly. One morning
you will suddenly overturn the elixir furnace.69 When you
do, everywhere within and without the entire universe
will become a single immense piece of pure elixir.
And for this first time we will see the world as it is, giving us
all bright light. Master Hakuin is saying with these very words,
that we are able to experience this.The edge of the universe is
as yet undefinable, but with this experience that immeasurable
universe is only One. As the Buddha said, In all the heavens
and all the earth there is only One. We know that we are not
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 only our body. We know that Great Mind who we actually are,
and in this way we experience it directly.
"When that happens, you will realize for the first time
that you yourself are a genuine sage, as birthless as heaven
and earth, as undying as empty space. It is that moment
that the true and authentic elixir furnace is perfected.
Your goal is not some superficial feat like raising winds
or riding mists, shrinking space or walking over water,
the kind of thing even a lesser sage can perform. You
are out to churn the great sea into the finest butter,
to transform the great earth into purest gold.70
It is for this that we always keep our ki focused in our tanden,
and this works not just for some people but for all people. It's not
something special only some people can do. When the Buddha
awakened, he exclaimed, "How wondrous! How wondrous! All
beings without exception are endowed with this same bright,
clear mind to which I have just awakened:' Realize this directly,
know its revitalization, many people are able to do this. There
may be some who have a superficial goal like raising winds or
riding mists, shrinking space or walking over water, but this is
not the point. Where is there any deep meaning in that when
compared to realizing and bringing this deep awakening to all
beings? To stir up this sea of the whole universe, to be able to
know this place is awakening the greatest feat possible. When
we have broken through then we can share this with all other
beings.
A wise man of the past said, '"Elixir" refers to the
tanden (cinnabar field), 'liquid' to the blood in the
lungs. References to 'reverting the Metal liquid to
cinnabar (tan)' thus indicate the blood in the lungs
returning down into the tanden below the navel."
99
Drawing Ki into the Tanden
At this point I said to Master Hakuyu, "I am deeply
grateful for the instruction you have given. I am going
to discontinue my zazen for a while and concentrate on
curing my illness with the Naikan meditation. One thing
still bothers me, however. Wouldn't the method you teach
be an example of' overly emphasizing cooling remedies
in order to bring the heart-fire down,' which the great
physician Li Shih-ts'ai warned against? And if I concentrate
my mind in a single place, wouldn't that impede the
movement of my blood and ki, making them stagnate?"
In this way Hakuin Zenji writes as if he had learned from the
hermit Hakuyu, rather calling it the hermit Hakuyu's teaching to
teach what Hakuin Zenji himself wants to share. He writes that
he listened to hermit Hakuyu who taught him how to return to
his healthy balance and in order to be able to continue doing
healthy sanzen, healthy zazen, and do training in harmony. So
while Hakuin said to hermit Hakuyu that he should put all of it
away, Hermit Hakuyu disagrees and says that it must be like in
the Yui Kyo Gyo Sutra ["The Buddha's Final Instructions Sutra"]
that the Buddha taught. When we put everything, everything
into one central focus there is nothing that we cannot realize.
Hakuin writes as if he is asking: our whole mind is focused on
one thing only, then don't we become lopsided and unbalanced?
A flicker of a smile crossed Master Hakuyu's face. He
replied, "Not at all. Don't forget that Master Li also
wrote that 'the nature of Fire is to flame upward, so
it must be made to descend; the nature of Water is
to flow downward, so it must be made to rise.
When we do zazen, how come we always are falling asleep?
700
 How can we stop that? The Buddha said we can't stop and hold
our breath. We have to extend our exhalation. The Roshi has
heard that some people even stop breathing in their sleep, and
this is because they do not usually exhale thoroughly in their
awake life. If we exhale completely and fully in that exhalation
the awareness leads just a bit ahead of the breath. Not a lot, but a
small bit. The awareness goes first. The consciousness goes first, -
and then the breath follows just behind it. If we can do this, this
brings our focus into clearer sharpness.
But even if we have plenty of sleep, why do we still feel sleepy? It is
about our energy and our intensity. If we put our awareness just
ahead of the exhalation breath, we can extend this exhalation
and that is what sharpens the focus.
This condition of Fire descending and Water ascending
is called Intermingling. The time when Intermingling
is taking place is called After Completion; the
time when it is not taking place is called Before
Completion. Intermingling is a configuration of life.
Not Intermingling is a configuration of death:'73
Intermingling is what is most necessary for our health and
strong life energy. It depends on the balance of the ki in the
upper and lower body. Master Hakuin studied deeply Eastern
medical ways. It is taught that when we are doing the exhalation
of our breath with proper intensity both the ki in the meridians
and the blood in the veins and arteries will go further. If we
do it with total absorption from the top of our heads to the
bottoms of our feet, then our breathing becomes balanced, and
so does our health and our state of mind.
We have to exhale completely. The connecting tissue is mostly
around the spine that is being used for its capillaries to help
101
with the distribution of the oxygen. And so we have to use our
diaphragm when we are sitting in order to stimulate all of that.
And this connective tissue is able to bring the oxygen to the
heart and the whole body because we use our whole body in
our exhalation. But not only this, says hermit Hakuyu. At the
same time this is not the entire process. Of greater importance
is that the ki in the bottom of our body, and the ki in the top half
of our body have a process called intermingling.
"When Master Li speaks of 'overly emphasizing cooling
remedies to bring down the heart-fire,' he is attempting
to save people who follow the teachings ofTan-hsi from
the mistake of relying too heavily on such remedies.
We need to know these various factors, or else we will end up
with flat zazen with no energy to it.
"One of the ancients said, 'A tendency for ministerial
Fire-Fire in the liver and the kidneys-to rise occurs
because some indisposition is present in the body. In
such cases, Water should be replenished. That is because
Water suppresses Fire."' There are two kinds of Fire, one
functioning like a prince, the other like a minister. The
princely Fire occurs in the upper body and governs in
tranquility. The ministerial Fire occurs in the lower body
and governs in activity. The former is the master of the
mind and heart; the latter functions as its subordinate.76
"Ministerial Fire is of two kinds, one found in the kidneys,
the other in the liver. The kidneys correspond to the dragon,
the liver to thunder. Thus it is said: 'If the dragon remains
hidden in the depths of the sea, the crash of thunder is never
heard. If thunder remains confined in the marshes and bogs,
the dragon never soars into the skies."? Inasmuch as both
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 seas and marshes are composed of water, does not this saying
refer to the suppression of ministerial Fire's tendency to rise?
Today we use our head so much our ki easily goes up to our
head, and we lose the stability of our balanced ki as it is taught
earlier and again here. As this wise man said, we have to be able
to bring the energy from the top of our body down. Above the-
diaphragm, we have the lungs and the heart. And that which
is below the diaphragm is the kidneys and the liver. We bring
the ki down. Return it to being balanced and settled. The heart
prefers a stable, settled state. And for that reason, the kidneys
and the liver must balance that with a vigorous ki. The kidneys
and liver are always helping this.
As it says, kidneys are the dragon and the liver is the thunder
so we bring our ki down to be able to support the heart and the
lungs to function in the proper balance. So that our ki is not
too high and therein burning. When there are many things that
concern us, we have to take down the fever and sickness--which
that can so easily bring by our ki going up so high--by bringing
the ki down to our feet. This strong life energy of bringing the
ki down to our feet will then return the balance to our whole
system.
When not balanced, one might end up in tears all day long,
unable to sleep at night. Hakuyu, is saying that from his own
experience, only this way of balancing the ki will cure us.
"It is also said that the heart overheats when it
becomes tired and depleted of ki. When the heart
is depleted of ki, it can be replenished by making it
descend below and intermingle with the kidneys.
This activity is known as Replenishing. This is the
principle of Already Completed mentioned before.
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"You, young man, developed this grave illness because
your heart-fire was allowed to rush upward against
the natural fl.ow. Unless you succeed in bringing the
heart down into your lower body, you will never
regain your health, not even if you master all the
secret practices the Three Worlds have to offer.
This is the way to stability, the way balance the practice. When
our ki goes up too high, and too sharply with too much strength
then it burns in the lungs and heart. And so we must bring it
down in the ways that they are teaching here.
"You probably look at my appearance and take me for some
kind of Taoist. Because of that, you may think what I've
been telling you has nothing to do with Buddhism. But
you're wrong. This is Zen. If in the future you are able to
understand this, you will smile as you recall my words.
Here, hermit Hakuyu changes his tone saying he is a person
who holds most precious the teaching of the Buddha. Hyakuyu
says if you realize your true nature, then you will understand
that this is the path of the Buddha. This is why you got sick,
you did mistaken practice. This is what happens when you get
a head full of thinking. This is not the teaching of the Buddha.
The Buddha taught the Eightfold Path of right view, right
intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right
effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. He taught
them that we need to concentrate. Of first importance is to
see, to have true seeing, right seeing, that is we are able to
see without the obstruction of anything mental. Let go of all
delusory thoughts. What it means to have right intention is to
be able to put our concentration into what we're doing without
being caught on anything else. What it means to be in right
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 speech is that we should speak clearly and say exactly what ~e
Authentic meditation is no-meditation
want to say without adding extra things. To see clearly with
right view is to have nothing mental obstructing in our seeing.
"As for the practice of meditation, authentic
True speaking is to say nothing untrue, and to not act in a way
meditation is no-meditation. False meditation is
that is different from what we have said.
meditation that is diverse and unfocused.

True livelihood and true action are to live in a way that is more ·
than for our own profit and small self-centered desires. True
effort is to give our energy in simple manner, not seeking praise
and approval. We can know this, we can go beyond a self-
centered way of doing things. Right mindfulness is to hold on
to nothing whatsoever. Right concentration is in every single
mind moment. Live every day in this state of mind, this is
exactly what is being taught.
This is not about reading many, many books about zazen.
When Hakui~ ~id his_k~ans, he got mental. He was puzzling.
He was not sitting. This is not correct sitting. For this, to hold
on to nothing at all. Nothing whatsoever. That is what is most
important.
Having contracted this grave illness by engaging in
diverse meditation, don't you think now that you should
save yourself by means of no-meditation? 78 If you take
the Fire in your heart or mind and draw it down into the
region of the tanden and the arches of the feet, you will
as a matter of course feel cool and refreshed. You will be
without the slightest mental discrimination, without even
a trace of delusory thought. Not the slightest conscious
thought will occur to raise the waves of emotion. This
is true meditation, meditation pure and undefiled.

"So don't talk about discontinuing your Zen

meditation. The Buddha himself taught that we
should cure all kinds of illness by putting the
heart down into the arches of the feet.79

When Master Dagen was in China he was told to put his mind
on the left hand. This was in fact about the sitting posture.
~hen we sit we put the left palm over the right palm. It is
imp~rtant that this is how we sit and that our feet, when they
are sitting in full lotus or even in half lotus, the soles of our
feet are facing upwards and not sideways, because this is a way

105
706
 that we can bring our energy into oneness. Our backbone and
its cerebral spinal fluid must be able to flow smoothly with a
straight sitting-up posture. If our posture is correct, then we
are able to have the circulation of the cerebral spinal fluid going
easily. When that fluid goes easily and circulates well, our head
is clear and we are not attacked by many, many worries and
mental concerns. To not bring any of those worries or mental
concerns into it is the point. This is how you do zazen correctly.
And this state of mind is able to be seen and done and we're able
to see and receive and act properly in everything we do.
The Buddha himself taught that keeping our awareness in our
feet and holding it in our tanden makes us able to stay healthy
and get rid of sickness. Later we have more specific instructions
in this. There are many kinds of illnesses that can come from
our ki being busy externally, but if we keep our ki strong within
then all of this subsides and we are filled with the universe's
source ki, which is strong and clear, the source of all ki. If not
strong, then illness can come as the Buddha has also taught.
But the most important for this is the way of breathing taught
by the Buddha
There is a method the Agama sutras teach,
in which butter is used, that is unexcelled
for treating debilitation of the heart."
"T'ien-t'ai Chih-i's Great Cessation and Insight
contains an exhaustive discussion of the fundamental
causes of illness, and it also sets forth highly detailed
methods of treating them." Twelve breathing techniques
are given that are effective for curing a wide range of
ailments. Another technique is given that involves
visualizing the mind as a bean resting on the navel."
107
Hakuin next brings in this teaching from the founder of the
Tendai sect. When Hakuin was first awakened, he read these of
the brilliant founder who wrote them and saw their use. There
are twelve varieties taught in the text, but he is not telling us to
use all twelve of those, but is often emphasizing just the two-
-to count the breath and to follow the breath. Hakuin says that
the others will follow along if we do these two. In masterin
the breaths in this way, it will follow that this is also usefu~
for solving health problems. We are so used to perceiving
externally, turning our focus and our senses outward · To·lS lS ·
one more way of looking within, especially following how it is
with our abdomen and our tanden. And this actualization is
what is important. We cannot cure ourselves and do our sittin
with only concepts about these ways of breathing. We have t!
actually do them. Then we can use this way of looking at this
bean as if it's being held. This is an excellent way of keeping our
concentration strong.
Ultimately, the essence in all these methods is to
bring the heart-fire down and concentrate it in
the area from the tanden to the arches of the feet.
Not only is this effective for curing illness, it is
extremely beneficial for Zen meditation as well.
The Buddha taught to put the one mind focus into the soles of
the feet. There are perhaps none who have mastered the way to
breathe in the way that the Buddha did it. Starting with saying
that we should not hold our breath, which was a way which
people were doing when he was on the mountain practicing in
order to crush the ego. In his day he saw already that it brought
strong dangers of strong pressure to one's brain. And although
it was said to help raise consciousness, he taught that it was not
a productive way to use our breath.
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 The Buddha also practiced these many ways of breathing that
he encountered when he was practicing with the people on the
mountain. Realizing that almost exploding with not breathing
was not help helpful. And in one week he had mastered a corr_ect
breathing, and he tested everything that people were domg
himself. And then he taught what he realized to his disciples.
In the Anapanasati, a little known part of the sutra, that ':"as
not well circulated, because people probably did not thmk
something so very intimate as the breath was very useful. ~ut
Master Hakuin studied this sutra of Anapanasati of breathmg
out extensively and breathing in naturally. Master Hakuin
studied and used this. The Buddha's teaching in breathing
began with first saying not to hold the breath for meditation,
and taught the breath that would then best help the samadhi of
his students when he came down from the mountain and taught
the Eightfold Path, as he did his entire lifetime of teaching. First
to his training friends who had gathered and were still training
together. All the way to when he was dying at Kushinagara, he
taught the Eightfold Path the entire time.
The Buddha had always taught and kept the precepts, and
said that whenever precepts were being kept he was present
there. Five hundred years after the Buddha's death there was
a gathering of a counsel of monks where it was ex~ressed that
not just a few people receiving offerings from society=people
such as monks should be central--but all people ordained and
not ordained are being bodhisattvas, and should be included in
the consideration of those who are living in accordance with
the Buddha's teaching. And as Master Hakuin said in his work
the Song of Zaren, "As for the Mahayana practice of zazen there
are no words to praise it fully. The Six Paramitas such as giving,
maintaining the precepts, and various other good deeds like
invoking the Buddha's name, repentance, and spiritual training
109
all finally return to the practice of zazen."
In this way we can see how people of all walks f 1 · c c
prac t.icmg
· sama dh i and zazen as is written th kire, ror
O
.
'bl . . ere, ma es this
possi e. This 1s the true practice for all people b t .
b , u 1t cannot
e a conceptual zazen. It has to be a deep and actu 1 F
h' a zazen or
t is we need to know how to breathe correctly, the breath b.ein
what connects the formless mind with the body f c If g
b h' . . o rorm, our
reat m? is not aligned we are distracted by so much thinking,
and that is not zazen. To not bring forth imaginings and dingin
thoughts, but to be clear and empty. And that comes from our
correct zazen.
The Buddha's first breath to master was that of inhaling, and
t~e abdomen would swell, and exhaling, and then the abdomen
will become flat. When we inhale air, our diaphragm moves up
and down. This is what moves our lungs, which of themselves
cannot move. That puts out our carbon dioxide, which then
makes room in the lungs for more fresh oxygen which goes
even to our smallest capillaries. When our diaphragm lowers,
our lungs can expand. Then the diaphragm is raised and the
lungs contract. In this breathing the exhalation is main and i
emphasized, and the inhalation is natural. s
Most people rarely breathe to the very end of the exhalation
their whole life. And therefore, all of the carbon dioxide which
needs to be let go of and sent out remains in a small amount.
Usually some is left. Usually we are only exhaling part way. Even ,
th~ugh this is the case, we barely feel the lack of oxygen that we
mig~t have f~om not exhaling the carbon dioxide completely.
But if we contmue without intaking that full oxygen our smaller
capillaries, especially around the heart, have to work very hard.
And the amount of the oxygen to our brain and heart may
710
 decrease significantly.
from 1 to 10. We practice this and we become able to d th·
.kl Th O ~
This makes heart attacks and cerebral hemorrhages more qu_1c y. . en this_ breath goe_s from that point on naturally from
possible for us and also supports the growth of cancer cells, bemg this abdominal breathmg, which is being described h
h ~
because it is full oxygen that helps decrease the oxygenation w ere we exhale completely and then inhale naturally, that goes
from an abdominal breath to a tanden breath.
to the cancer cells which helps them not increase. So saying
this, we see today the three main illnesses in society of a heart
attack, a cerebral hemorrhage, and cancer are all supported in Where is the difference between the two: the abdominal breath
the possibility of becoming any of these if we lack in oxygen. and the tanden breath? The answer is that in the abdominal
breath our belly moves very definitely. The abdominal breath
Our brain takes in one third of our oxygen. Our brain cells we c~n see and experience the breath in the belly--the belly
swelling, the belly flattening. But with a tanden breath wh
are not fully oxygenated if we don't exhale completely, and ··1cn , m
1t 1s own how to do it, it is no longer a breath in which our
therefore inhale completely and bring in sufficient refreshed
abdomen has so much movement to it.
oxygen. And if we don't exhale completely our carbon dioxide
always increases.
Tanden breath has a clear effect in its being from the tanden
and affecting our kidaku, our meridians where the ki travels
If our brain is not oxygenated well, we can't focus on our
and that also takes our oxygen supply to our smaller capillaries'.
breathing so well, nor to the breathing to the end. And if we
The return of the blood and ki from the small capillaries is more
practice with a rhythm of exhaling completely and inhaling
strong in the tanden breathing. We can feel its regenerative
naturally we can learn to do this quickly. If we emphasize
effects on our head clearing and becoming easily focused. This
an inhalation without emphasizing the exhalation, only the
is what is different about the tanden breathing. But we have
inhalation, our breaths are liable to become confused and
to do these practices in that order. First we learn how to do
complex feeling.
the abdominal breathing, focusing on that abdominal breath
way of being. And from there almost naturally it will go into
The exhalation must lead a little bit. The exhalation leads in
becoming a tanden breath.45:08 It is written in this way in
our concentration. This is what the Buddha taught. And this
the Tendai teaching about breathing where they divide it into
is how he taught his disciples to breathe along with adding
many kinds of breathing, at least six or more. If we first learn
to that longer exhalation and natural inhalation, he taught
the abdominal breath, then we can know that we will naturally
to add counting the breaths with that way of breathing. With
come to the tanden breathing.
each breath we exhale to the very end of the breath, and the
inhalation comes in spontaneously of itself which we exhale
In the Anapanasan the Buddha taught this breath, but actually
completely and totally. We again exhale and doing it so it doesn't
he used two kinds of breathing. This breath was used for
become mechanical or automatic, but with our intention and
sitting as Master Hakuin says, "Zazen in action is worth ten
our awareness we count to 10. Then we go back and count again
thousand times that of zazen in sitting." This zazen in action is

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112
 accompanied best by the kind of breath you just saw the Roshi
giving to show what the best zazen in action breath is. Sitting
zazen is referring to the breath just taught, the tanden breath.
But moving zazen is when we are living our daily activities, and
if we don't make use of our sitting zazen in daily life it is not
being given its greatest usefulness.
It was said at that time that green bamboo has a very, very hard
joint. The Buddha taught that we had to breathe with a strength
that would break through that green joint of a bamboo--as the
Roshi was just showing us how to do that breath in wa_lking and
working as well. He used this strong way of breathing, but that
is a breath that comes from knowing how to use a tanden breath
and then breathing in that way.
We can feel the effect of that strong breath in the way our blood
and our ki returns to our heart through the veins. We have
to master this way of breathing in action as well. We ca~ a_lso
use it for when we have pain in our legs when we are sitting
or strong clinging emotions. We can use this well with a voice
also, except that we can't use the voice in the zendo. To be able
to master both of these is very important and useful. We need
the tanden breath, however, for the strong breath to be able to
actualize it and use it in a way that it is effective. It also brings
a very tired body back to good strong energy. To make use of
breathing to the very end of the breath for all different aspects
of our daily life. To breathe sharply and briefly also is good to
master. Although it is not a breath that is taught very well, it is
a very useful one. In this way our breath is not something we
need to practice to be alive. We think we only have one heart,
but in fact our diaphragm is also the various connective tissue,
the tendons connecting to our bones are another sort of heart.
When we are working and moving we are able to make use of
these breaths and though they are hard to do at the beginning,
113
once we are used to them it is simple to go back and forth
between them.
The quieter breath is best mastered by a practice which is similar
to, but not exactly like, the full prostration used by Tibetans,
but a prostration where you put both knees, both elbows, and
our forehead on the ground repetitively. And without hurrying,
to do this slowly, matched with our breathing. And if we want
to master the breathing this is an excellent way to do it. People
who are beginning are often given the koans of hearing the
sound of the single hand or that of Ioshus Mu. These are koans
for beginners, and these definitely require the use of both of
these ways of breathing. When we do the sitting zazen, we do
the longer, quieter breath always to the very, very end of the
exhalation. But doing the Mu in action, or any koan in activity,
we use that sharper breath as well.
People who chant the Buddha's name also bring a rhythm to it.
And that is a very important way of keeping our concentration
strong in our breathing. Of course, it has to be done so that we
can experience this breath with our entire body and being.
In this way we hold zazen important and it becomes second
nature. Not only in sitting zazen, but also in the ancient ways,
the way of tea ceremony, the way of flower arranging, the ways
of the martial arts, they also use these kinds of breathing. For
those who use this, using it with their entire mind and body,
all of it, is what is most important. In kyudo especially, it has to
be used when the bow is fully pulled. For zazen, for these arts,
and these paths, as Master Hakuin is saying, "Even those who
have sat zazen only once, they will see all karma erased." This is
the way that we have to practice being sure that it is being done
with every single bit of our body and being.
Zazen 's preparatory exercises, one of which is the series
114
 called the Makko Ho. The person who invented them saw
the prostrations he mentioned earlier with the forehead, and
the elbows, and the knees. And seeing that, he invented these
stretches which are so very helpful for getting ready for doing
sitting zazen in the correct posture. But even though those
postures and those stretches are excellent, they must be done
with these kinds of breathing.
"I believe the Great Cessation and Insight also speaks
of two kinds of' cessations': cessation in relation to true
emptiness and cessation in relation to phenomena. The
former is a full and perfect meditation on the true aspect
of things; in the latter, primary importance is placed on
focusing the ki in your mind or heart in the tanden or
ocean of ki located in the area below the navel. 83 Students
can derive great benefit from practicing these meditations.
It is helpful to think of our breathing as the blowing up of a
balloon. Over, and over with no gaps in between. Continually
filling up the balloon, exhaling completely, more and more we
will become full and taut. It is important that we don't open
spaces in between and we don't pause. Like a balloon which has
been blown up full and taut-with one pinprick it would burst.
When our whole being is like this, then the whole zendo
becomes full and taut. The whole universe becomes full and
taut. Directly experience this.
Please do not see these teachings as just words. They must be
done, and mastered, and practiced. Then, even though we have
this wisdom left for us so carefully, it would truly be a great
waste to just hear it. To be able to realize how this is teaching
us how to correctly use our body, our breathing, and our mind.
115
Cultivating the Mind-Energy
"Long ago, Dagen, founding patriarch of Eihei-ji temple,
traveled to China and studied with Zen Master Ju-ching at
T'ien t'ung monastery. One day when he went to receive
instruction in Ju-ching's chambers, Ju-ching said, 'When
you practice zazen, you should place your mind above
the palm of your left hand.' 84 This generally corresponds
to Chih-i's cessation in relation to phenomena.
"In the Smaller Cessation and Insight Chih-i relates how
he first came to teach this cessation of thought-the secret
technique ofNaikan meditation-and how by using it he
saved his elder brother, gravely ill, from the brink of death. 85
Every one could say that this is the same as the words of the
founder of the Tendai sect in his own writings. We put all the ki
gathered into our tanden near our navel. If we experience this
and ripen it, then of itself that great death can be experienced.
This whole universe, and everything in it, is experienced in its
oneness. And this immeasurable universe settles in our own life
energy. The truth of the Buddha's awakening is clarified.
The founder of Tendai used this Naikan method to save his
older brother when he was on the brink of death. If we live this
way everyday, all day long, this is what is written about in detail
in The Small Cessation written by the founder of the Tendai
sect.
Hakuun Shutan Zenji's words are written next.
"The priest Po-yun said, 'I always keep my mind down
filling my lower belly. I'm always using it-when I'm
guiding the assembly, dealing with visiting monks,
116
 r

encountering students in my chambers, or engaged in talks

and lectures of various kinds-and I never use it up. Since
reaching old age I've found its benefits to be especially great.'
Hakuun Shutan Zenji's words are given here. Engo Kokugon
Zenji's teacher was Gosa Hoen Zenji. Gosa Hoen Zenji's teacher
was Hakuun Shutan Zenji. Gosa Hoen Zenji was one who bad
deep influence in his era on the flourishing of zen. Engo Kokug~~
Zenji then transmitted the dharma to Kukyu Shoryu Zenji,
ki within, there is no place for illness to enter.'
Su-wen wrote of this in the ancient days when he was posin
questions to the emperor in a koan style. When young we ar!
, always questioning this or that, wanting to try this and that.
But, he says, that does not continue as we get older. We let go
of all of these desires to know things, to know so many things.
To not be caught on anything, becoming more and more quiet.
Cultivating our k.i becomes more and more important. Always
being full of k.i protects our health.

Hakuun Shutan Zenji, who would teach a thousand to twelve

Today, medicine is well developed and there are many cures
hundred monks, and give them sanzen every day, gave these
available, but the best is of course is to prevent the sickness in
words: He always made use of this, therefore, his full taut
the first place. Always working to prevent this sickness, we use
energy was always plentiful. Along with Hakuun Shut~n, t_his
food as one of our ways of preventing our sickness, but it is also
is the way that Master Hakuin used for his deep cultivation
our state of mind, being filled full of k.i and always experiencing
and teaching: "Without this strong energy, we cannot cultivate
a huge and abundant state of mind, which is most important.
others. It is absolutely required. Since reaching old age, I've
found its benefits to be especially great. That energy of youth,
"Moreover, the way to nourishing life by refining ki
when I could simply chew on a wisteria vine, I still feel in these
is to keep it filling the entire body, extending to all
older years;' is what he says.
the three hundred and sixty joints and each of the
eighty-four thousand pores of the skin. You must know
Hakuin Zenji never wore tabi in his later years, he always so
that this is the ultimate secret of sustaining life.
full of strong warm energy, he didn't need them. He had sanzen
every day, and went to huge gatherings of a thousand to two
Oriental medicine poses that the basis of our life energy is that
thousand monks, which would last two to three months. He
which is alive and full and taut, but if conditions twist that
would teach them all with this great life energy. We hear this
healthy ki energy, then we get sick. Master Murnan Ekai, in the
and see this from his ki cultivation, which continued into his
first koan in the collection of koans called the Mumonkan or
elderly years.
Gateless Gate, says that if we want to know that Mu of Joshu,
we have to do it with 360 bones and 84,000 hair pores.
How praiseworthy are Po-yun's words! Do they not
agree with what the Su-wen tells us?: 'If you remain
How many people have been liberated by this koan of Joshu,
tranquil and free of afflicting thoughts, the true
discovering that our true nature is the dharma body? Not
primal ki will conform. As long as you preserve that
from doctrinally understanding it, but from the true direct

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118
 experiencing of it. Murnan Ekai writes it in his words to the
single on; . of the 360 smallest bones and our 84,000 hair
case of Master Joshu. We have to bring every single bit of our
pores, a~ 1t has to be with that or it doesn't reach it. and
body and being, expressing in every single one of our 360 bones, 360
84,000 simply mean to do it with everything we are d' ·
our 84,000 hair pores, from morning until night, from night . . . h , 1vmg
mt~ 1t wit out leaving a bit of ourselves out and without any
until morning, to be giving this Mu everything we have. To not
hesitation or distracting thoughts and ideas. Because, in that
add on any of our preconceived notion, our attachments, our
way, when we become the Mu totally, then we are able to realize
various conditionings, but in every single minute of the day to
that place. ~o matter who it is, if they do it in this way, there is
drop everything but just this Mu.
not a question whether or not they will realize their true nat
M ure.
aster Ha k uin says if that happens you can cut off his h d
When we do this, we become as if we are holding a red-hot ea.
iron ball in our mouth. We cannot spit it out, and we cannot
"P' eng Tsu said, 'To promote life and cultivate ki, close
drink it down. And yet we continue. We continue until there
yourself up in a room where you won't be disturbed. Prepare
is no longer any way for us to be able to know where is the
a mat with bedding that has been warmed and a pillow
difference between inside and outside. We can't even perceive
about three inches high. Lie face upward with your bod
that any longer. And yet we continue. Letting go of everything.
completely straight. Close your eyes and confine all the y
We become this state of mind where we are like a person who
ki in your mind within your breast. Place a goose feather
cannot speak, a mute person, who has had a dream, but has no
on your nose. When your breathing does not disturb the
way to express it.
feather, count three hundred breaths. When you reach a
state in which your ears do not hear and your eyes do not
The way of zen is always begun with great faith, to have no doubt
see, cold and heat will no longer be able to discomfort you;
that we are endowed with a true nature. Then from that comes
the poisonous stings of bees and scorpions will be unable
forth the great doubt, an investigation within. And throughout
to harm you. Upon attaining the age of three hundred and
this whole universe, this is not what is called a false doubt about
sixty, you will be very close to becoming a True Person.'
"What is this? What is that?" and doubting how things are in
the phenomenal world only, but a question of what the universe
First we rest. And then, when we take away our tiredness,
actually is. And so we give rise to great energy because we have
heating our covers, and with a pillow three inches high--and
to know this. This is our great doubt. And from that great faith
this height of pillow is important--we lay on our back with our
and great doubt come the great activity.
feet apart. And feeling as if we are in the arms of mother nature,
we put our awareness in our tanden. As people of old did, we
So we have all of these and cultivating this great doubt, this
breathe with a goose feather on our nose. And when it is no
great activity, this great faith. These are what we are aligning
longer moving, then we breathe 300 times. No matter what
and cultivating always as our practice. And this is why, this is
kind of smell or sound comes by, we continue, we are no longer
the reason that Murnan Ekai says that for doing this, it cannot
acknowledging it. Nor do we feel any heat or cold. If we sit, we
be done unless we use our entire body and being with every
know how cold and hot we get if our zazen is fuzzy and murky

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120
 and we're not being attentive and deepening. We will be able to
disorders you have experienced from the b · · l
enter that hermit's state of mind. . . egmnmg ess
begmnmg, have vanished of themselves. You will be like
a bl_ind man suddenly regaining his sight and no longer
"Su Nei-han gave the following advice: 'If you are
havmg any need to ask others for guidance on his
hungry, eat some food, but stop eating before you are way.
full. Take a long leisurely stroll. When you feel your
These words of Sotoba, who lived in the Song D ty
appetite return, enter a quiet room and seat yourself in an ynas , an
era that was so full of turbulence it was never know h" h
upright posture. Begin exhaling and inhaling, counting . . n W IC
your breaths from ten to a hundred, from a hundred to d~rect10n the politics would fall in next. He eventually separated
himself from the political scene to deepen his state of mind and
a thousand. By the time you have counted a thousand
wrote the famous poem often quoted by people of training with
breaths, your body should be as firm and steady as a rock,
deep experience when he was at the mountain temple. While
your heart as tranquil and motionless as the empty sky.
he was still in his personal retreat, all night long he heard the
sound of the river babbling in the deep valley stream. And he
These words of Sotoba, who lived in the Song Dynasty, an era
felt that it was the Buddha's blessed teaching, and he woke up,
that was so full of turbulence it was never known which direction
saw the mountains, mountain upon mountain, the Buddha's
the politics would fall in next. He eventually separated himself
blessed form all night long. The Buddha was teaching 84,000
from the political scene to deepen his state of mind and wrote
gata. If he w~s told that he must describe it, he could only say he
the famous poem often quoted by people of training with deep
could not bnng any words that could describe what this had felt
experience when he was at the mountain temple. While he was
like to him. Truly experiencing the great depth in this retreat.
still in his personal retreat, all night long he heard the sound
of the river babbling in the deep valley stream. And he felt that
When he returned to become once again reborn, he wrote this
it was the Buddha's blessed teaching, and he woke up, saw the
poem as h~ returned to his clear functioning. Many people in
mountains, mountain upon mountain, the Buddha's blessed
zen have since quoted this. As he said in those words which
form all night long. The Buddha was teaching 84,000 gatha. If
wer~ just read, you cannot sit well if you are already completely
he was told that he must describe it, he could only say he could
full m your stomach. Eighty percent full is the best. And it is
not bring any words that could describe what this had felt like
always said that if we eat in great amounts we become sleepy. So
to him. Truly experiencing the great depth in this retreat.
then, after we eat, to take a walk in our unhurried leisurely way.
An_d when you are just a little bit hungry again, no more feeling
"Tf you continue to sit like this for a long period, in time
as if you ~ave just eaten, then having walked comfortably, to
your breath will hang suspended. You will no longer
enter a quiet room and sit silently. Continuing your exhalation
inhale or exhale. Your breath will exude in clouds and
and inhalation from 10 times to 100 times to 1,000 times until
rise up like mist from the eighty-four thousand pores of
leisurely state of mind. To count and to become the state of
your skin. You will realize with perfect clarity that all the
mind of being a mountain. Nothing more to be thinking about
illnesses you have suffered from, each of the countless
whatsoever. We cannot even tell if we are breathing or we are

121
122
 not breathing. And then we come to know this place where our
breath will suit in clouds and rise up like a mist from the 84,000
pores of our skin. When you enter this state of mind, all of your
various diseases and discomforts will be gone of themselves.
And no more sense that you are even breathing.
"What you must do is to cut back on words and devote
yourself solely to sustaining your primal ki. Hence
it is said, "Those who wish to strengthen their sight
keep their eyes closed. Those who wish to strengthen
their hearing avoid sounds. Those who wish to sustain
the ki in their mind maintain their silence."'"
In this way we have it described in the poem of Master Nansen
when he says, "Seeing, hearing, understanding, knowing, each
of these is not separate. For him, mountains and rivers do not
appear as if in a mirror. We sit and bring everything:'
We sit and bring everything into this state of mind. Not as if I
am doing the seeing, but that everything is right inside of me
and I am only reflecting it. My zazen has to be thoroughly full
and taut to be able to experience this state of mind. And then
we can know that place where we will be like a blind person
suddenly regaining his sight and no longer having any need to
ask others for guidance on the way. Like this, we have no need
to ask anyone. We know well.
like the blind man regaining his sight no lo h .
. , nger avmg any
need to ask others for guidance on the way.
As hermit Hakuyu had said to Master Hakuin what d d
, oyounee
to be careful about? To not speak unnecessarily and t It·
. , , o cu 1vate
your ki. If you don t do those things then you'll be g· ·
. ' 1vmg away
Y~~r ki to external things. And you'll be crushing yourself by
g1vmg everything, letting it leak out. To strengthen y
. . .d d , our eyes,
1t 1s sai , on t look at extra unnecessary things If y
. • ou want to
cultivate your hearing better, don't listen to unnecessary things.
If y~u want_ to_ cultivate your deepest mind, don't over-speak.
Cul~1vate within. The Buddha said that most important is we
don t overuse our five windows of the senses And ·f d
. • 1 we o, we
Just become vapid within.
In this way we learn about how to use our mind. Zen is not
something which is being done to stop and be still in a stagnant
way. We have to be able to learn how to be in our mind in such
a way that, whether we are sitting, or whether we are in action,
we are always holding our path and our state of mind as most
precious.

It is like that old grandmother on the path to Mount Godai, in

the tea shop. All the monks who would come to this tea shop
looking to go up Mount Godai would ask her for directions, to
which she would always answer, "Go straight:' And when those
monks would do just as she told them, going straight, she would
laugh at their backs, and say "Foolish monk. Here he goes doing
just what he's told:' This is what is being said here. We will be

123
124
 The Soft Butter Method
become sick and we lose energy. Then from th h
b . . . ere we ave to
nng our determmat10n to reviving our weak .
"You mentioned a method in which butter is enmg energy In
used," I said. "May I ask you about that?"
those days, such things as butter and cheese and ·u ·
. . varn a essence
were rare and special thmgs, using them imag1·ne . II
I • especia y
arge sized egg. We do this contemplation which the h •
Master Hakuyu replied, "When a student is training and Ha kuyu_.1s teac h ing. errnit
meditating and finds that he has become exhausted in
body and mind because the four constituent elements
Slowly it begins to melt, imparting an exquisite sensation
of his body are in disharmony, he should gird up his
as your head becomes moistened and saturated both within
spirit and perform the following visualization.'"
and without. It continues oozing down, moistening your
s~oulders, elbows, and chest, permeating your lungs,
When we have people in training getting up in the morning
diaphragm, ~iver, stomach, and bowels, then continuing
at 3:00 or 3:30, going to bed after yaza at 10:30 at night, eating
down the spine through the hips, pelvis, and buttocks.
meals every single day at the decided times, living with no gaps,
the same choreography all day long, every day, they are often
All the way down to the soles of your feet. Throughout all of
without sufficient sleep and may be confused and frustrated
our o:gans, permeating them, and continuing down further,
about their practice, which they don't feel is going well. They
soothmg our body. Nothing as hard as concentration is needed
can become very disappointed, downhearted, and discouraged.
for this. Only imagining again and again this melting all the
way down to the soles of our feet.
"Imagine that a lump of soft butter, pure in color
and fragrance and the size and shape of a duck egg,
Always in zazen, we work in a very similar process. Just as we
is suddenly placed on the top of your head.
do zazen in the way that Dharma Daishi has taught, letting
go of all of ou~ external connections completely, we internally
While today we say that we have 94 chemical elements, in those
h~ld onto_nothmg at all. As we simply continue with this clarity,
days there were only the four elements of earth, air, fire, and
this practice, when we can do that, we can live to a ripe age; a
water. While they said the earth planet is made out of earth.
natural age of 125 years old with no sickness.
First there is the material of earth. Then there is that of the wind
(earth, wind, fire, and water) that blows around that earth. The
"At that point, all the congestions that have accumulated
water which is in our bodies, represented by the blood and the
within the five organs and six viscera, all the aches and
lymph system. And the fire of our body--its heated temperature.
pains in the abdomen and other affected parts, will follow
It was seen as these four elements of which we were composed.
the mind as it sinks down into the lower body. You will
hear this distinctly-like water trickling from a higher
In this way he was teaching him about how to use the Naikan
to a lower place. It will continue to flow down through
method. If we break the balance of these form elements, we
the body, suffusing the legs with beneficial warmth,

125
126
 until it reaches the arches of the feet, where it stops.
continue to practice this contemplation unfalteringly,
there is no illness that cannot be cured no · h
W hen w e use this N aikan w e recover our dissipated life energy , virtue t at
cannot be acquired, no level of sagehood that cannot be
to that full, taut energy w hic h one sees depicted behind a statue
reached, no religious practice that cannot be mastered.
of the Buddha. W e see a big, ro und halo, a big ci rcl e behind the
Whether such results appear swiftly or appear slowly
statute, like a bright light. Th is halo is that w e return to having
depends only upon how scrupulously you apply yourself.
thro ughout our body. A fter this, our skin becom es soft and
shining. O ur organs are repaired to being tru ly healthy, and w e
"I was a very sickly youth. I experienced ten times the
are able to return to our intern al balance. M ore and m ore w e
suffering you have endured. The doctors finally gave up on
im pro ve and fe el as if w e are again being able to live in a healthy
me. I explored hundreds of cures on my own, but none of
w ay, having been treated by a high-quality physician. A nd _e ven
the~ brought me any relief. I turned to the gods for help,
if w e are all the tim e, up until then, w eak in our pow er, 1f w e
praymg to t~e ~eities of ~oth heaven and earth, begging
do this, even if w e concentra te poorly, if w e continue it fo r a
them for their 1mpercept1ble assistance. I was marvelously
long tim e, then w e are able to bring back our life energy to its
blessed, because they extended me their support and
vigoro us norm al state.
protection. I came upon this wonderful soft butter method
of contemplation. My joy knew no bounds. I immediately
"The student should then repeat the contemplation.
set about practicing it with total and singleminded
As the flow continues downward, it will slowly fill the
determination. Before even a month was out, my troubles
lower region of the body and suffuse it with penetrating
had almost totally vanished. Since that time I've never been
warmth, making him feel as if he is sitting immersed
bothered the least bit by any complaint, physical or mental.
to his navel in a hot bath filled with a decoction of
rare and fragrant medicinal herbs that have been
"I became like an ignoramus, mindless and utterly free
gathered and infused by a skilled physician.
of care. I was oblivious to the passage of time. I never
knew what day or month it was or whether it was a
"Inasmuch as all things are created by the mind, when
leap year or not. I gradually lost interest in things the
you engage in this contemplation your nose will actually
world holds dear, forgot completely about the hopes
smell the marvelous scent of pure soft butter, your body
and desires and customs of ordinary men and women.
will feel the exquisite sensation of its melting touch.
In my middle years I was compelled by circumstance to
Body and mind will be in perfect peace and harmony.
leave Kyoto and take refuge in the mountains ofWakasa
You will feel better and enjoy greater health than you
province. I lived there nearly thirty years, unknown to
did as a youth of twenty or thirty. All the undesirable
my fellow men. Looking back on that period of my
accumulations in your vital organs and viscera will melt
life, it seems as fleeting and unreal as the dream-life
away. Stomach and bowels will function perfectly. Before
that flashed through Lu-sheng's slumbering brain.I?
you know it, your skin will glow with health. If you

127
128
 Here he refers to an old Chinese story about a traveler who
went into a tea shop for lunch and ordered flavored rice gruel.
A Taoist in the tea shop offered him a pillow: take a nap. As
he took a nap on that Taoist's pillow, he had a dream that he
went to the capital city and became the assistant to the prime
minister. In his dream he was overjoyed because of his success.
And then he woke up and realized that it was just a dream, and
the rice gruel wasn't yet ready. He saw clearly how this whole
world was only a dream, even having such great success was no
more than a dream.
"Now I live here in this solitary spot in the hills of
Shirakawa, far from all human habitation. I have a layer
or two of clothing to wrap around my withered old
carcass. But even in mid-winter, on nights when the
cold bites through the thin cotton robe, I don't freeze.
Even during the months when there are no mountain
fruits or nuts for me to gather and I have no grain to eat,
I don't starve. It is all thanks to this contemplation.
"Young man, you have just learned a secret
that you could not use up in a whole lifetime.
What more could I teach you?"
Master Hakuin describes specifically the melting butter egg
method. We put it on the top of our head, and in our imagination
it is melting down our whole body. This sweet-smelling butter
egg melts down our whole body from the top of our head going
down along the back of our neck, along our shoulders, alon_g
our torso, along to our hips down our legs to our arches. In this
way we wrap our whole body in this melting butter.
It's important to use our concentration until our whole body is
covered with the butter egg. Again and again, we take it from
129
the top of our head to the bottoms of our feet naturall .
it to go down our whole body again and th~n ya 11_owmg
. O nee agam. We
are lying down so we might wonder how it goes all the way to
the bot~oms of our feet. But that is too cerebral and complex
We. don t need to think that much for this. Because we do this
again and again, it works only if we keep our awareness from
wandering away from the process of doing it again and again.
The exact location of our feet is that they are two fist
. s~~
lined up parallel as we lay down. And we have a way of finding
where our tanden is by locating the two outer points of our
pelvic bones. Aligned between them is our tanden. This is
~her~ in thi_s triangle we find that tanden. And simultaneously
m doing this we close the anal sphincter muscles to hold in
the ki that is circulating. When doing it while standing we ut
our _fe~t a shoulders' width apart. This is the best way for fhe
~endians, the circulating circuits of the ki in our body, and the
ki energy to be balanced.
To receive the ki of the heavens from the top of our head, in the
area known as the fontenelle, we can put our hand above our
head and we feel already a pressure right there without even
touching it, it's so sensitive. For receiving the ki there, we poke
our head straight into the sky, into the air. If we don't do it this
way, then our concentration will not be workable to liberate us.
We have to open that area of our head to bring in the ki of the
heavens.
We can feel how heavy it makes us if we place our hand on our
head at that same fontenelle point. Our bodies are held to the
earth by gravity at the point where our feet touch the ground.
This is the place where we receive the ki from the earth. If we
are in bed for a week, for example, not receiving the ki of the
earth or the ki of the sky through our fontenelles, it takes us,
130
 after being in bed for one whole week, it takes us at least the
which is very similar to how wh
same amount of time, another whole week, to recover from not . ' en we are maki
spmning potter's wheel we center th 1 . ng pottery on a
being balanced by that. In the same way the tanden is wh e c ay m the middle of it.
h ave to feel that ki. And when w ere cwe . are ce n t ermg.
·
But we
We are in any way separated from the earth or the heavens. e can ree 1 that ki and kn
tanden, this is the entrance to zazen It k ow that
When our feet are smack on the earth we can feel then how centering spontaneously. like we fe.el :a es u~ able to feel the
gravity is always there. If our back is not bent and we sit straight, pulling our feet to it. When we are 1 . edgrav1ty of the earth
we can feel that in our sitting. We know this also from kudo. Na1·kan, we are naturally looking up ying
s.
own and d ·
omg t e
h
Kudo is a way of shooting a bow and arrow which is different d mce we are lyin d
an we feel that we are lying parallel to the earth. g own,
from the western archery. We shoot the arrow in kudo without
aiming, without putting self-conscious intention into it. A
natural release coming from the bottom of our thumb joint.
That lower joint, in archery is used to give the arrow flight. It is
not a strong physical push,

Master Hakujo has taught about this in how to do zazen in the

Zazengi. We have to know how to do this sitting in the correct
way. At the beginning of the sitting period, we lean slowly to the
right and left and front and back so that we can feel the tanden
smack in the middle of our body. As we align our nose and our
navel and our ears and our shoulders, then we can begin to feel
our tanden. We feel our fontenelles opening, and we can feel
the ki start flowing as the stagnancy starts melting away. We
don't have so many thoughts, but we cannot do zazen without
knowing our body very well. We need to be able to feel our
tanden. Our tanden is located three to five centimeters behind
our navel, and it is, as was said earlier, in between, on a line
drawn between the two outer points of our pelvis bone, right
in between them. We need to know our body well to be able to
locate these things, then we will be able to feel the area where
the tanden is.

It is not by thinking but by feeling it when we're sitting that

we are able to understand that centering sense of the tanden,

131
732
 Taking Leave of Master Hakuya
of envy as well. I also felt a pang of regret because I
knew that never in this lifetime would I agam . b ea bl e
Master Hakuyu sat silently with his eyes closed. I thanked
to encounter and learn from a man such as t h·1s.
him profusely, my own eyes glistening with tears, and
then bade him farewell. The last vestiges of light were
lingering in the topmost branches of the trees when I left
the cave and made my way slowly down the mountain.
Suddenly I was stopped in my tracks by the sound of
wooden clogs striking the stony ground and echoing
up from the sides of the valley. Half in wonder, half in
disbelief, I peered apprehensively around to see the figure
of Master Hakuyu coming toward me in the distance.

When he was near enough to speak, he said, "No one uses

these mountain trails. It's easy to lose your way. You might
have trouble getting back, so I'll take you partway down." A
skinny wooden staff grasped in his hand, high wooden clogs
on his feet, he walked on ahead of me, talking and laughing.
He moved nimbly and effortlessly over rugged cliffs and
steep mountainside, covering the difficult terrain with the
ease of someone strolling through a well-kept garden. After
a league or so we came to the mountain stream. He said if
I followed it I would have no trouble finding my way back
to the village of Shirakawa. With what seemed a look of
sadness, he then turned and began to retrace his steps.

I stood there motionless, watching as Master Hakuyu

made his way up the mountain trail, marveling at the
strength and vigor of his step. He moved with such
light, unfettered freedom, as if he was one who had
transcended this world, had sprouted wings, and was
flying up to join the ranks of Immortal Sages. Gazing at
him, my heart was filled with respect and with a touch

133
134
 The benefits of Naikan
master's mallet. But if dull plodd] f l
of people who will suffer from ill~:!soa ~~~;me-the kind
I went directly back to Shoin-ji and set about practicing this book, read it and contemplat . as i_ -set eyes on
Naikan meditation over and over on my own. In less than e Its mean1ng th h l
surely be able to obtain a little h l fi . ' ey s ou d
three years, without recourse to medicine, acupuncture, . e p rorn lt.9s I'm onl
afraid that when other people read it th ·11 l y
or moxabustion, the illnesses that had been plaguing h d ' ey WI c ap th ·
an s and break into loud peals of laught 99 Wh . err
me for years cleared up of themselves. What is more, er. y 1s that?
during the same period I experienced the immense
A horse chomping dried bean hulls disturb
joy of great satori six or seven times, boring through
a man at his noonday nap. 100 s
and penetrating to the root of all the hard-to-believe,
hard-to-penetrate, hard-to-grasp koans that I had never
before been able to get my teeth into at all. I attained
countless small satoris as well, which sent me waltzing
about waving my hands in the air in mindless dance. I
then knew for the first time that Zen Master Ta-hui had
not been deceiving me when he wrote about experiencing
eighteen great satoris and countless small ones. 95

In the past, I used to wear two and even three layers of

tabi, but the arches of my feet still always felt as though
they were soaking in tubs of ice. Now, even during the
three coldest months of the year, I don't need even a single
pair. I no longer require a brazier to keep warm. 96 I am
more than seventy years old this year, but even now I never
suffer from the slightest indisposition. Surely this is all
due to the lingering benefits I enjoy from having practiced
the wonderful secret technique of Naikan meditation.97

Don't be saying that old Hakuin, half-dead and gasping

out his final breaths, has recklessly scribbled out a long
tissue of groundless nonsense hoping to hoodwink superior
students. What I've put down here is not intended for those
who possess spiritual powers of the first order, the kind of
superior seeker who is awakened at a single blow from his

135
136
 Notes

Please note that a number offootnotes have been droppedfrom this printing, but
the original numbering is retained.

2. Conflicting theories have been advanced by twentieth-

century writers as to what this malady was. Both physical
(tuberculosis) and psychological (a neurotic disorder) causes
have been proposed, with perhaps the latter being favored
owing to the difficulty a person with a disease as debilitating as
tuberculosis would have engaging in the type of itinerant life
Hakuin led at this time.

3. Ki-energy translates the term ki (Chinese ch'i), a key concept

in traditional Chinese thought and medical theory. It has been
rendered in English in various ways (e.g., vital energy, primal
energy, vital breath, vital spirit). Ki, circulating through the
body, is central to the preservation of health and sustenance
of life.

This version is revised from my translation published in 2002

in the Eastern Buddhist vol. XXXIV, no. i. A lightly annotated
translation of the Wild Ivy version appeared in Wild Ivy: The
Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin, Shambhala,
1999. In the present translation all significant variations
between the three texts are given in the notes, with the
exception of two lengthy passages Hakuin added at the end of
Wild Ivy, which are appended as supplements to this chapter.

7. R. D. M. Shaw published a translation of Idle Talk on a

Night Boat in The Embossed Tea Kettle (George Allen &
Unwin, 1963); a revised version, done in collaboration with
Wilhelm Schiffer, appeared in Monumenta Nipponica 13:1-2,
1957. Trevor Leggett also translated the work in A Second Zen
Reader (Tuttle, 1988).

8. Hakuin uses this same attribution-"Compiled by Hunger

and Cold, the Master of Poverty Hermitage" (kyubo-anju

138
 kito-sen) in several other works, including Poison Words for
the Heart. A few paragraphs below, a student of Hakuin's is
mentioned as author of the preface.
9. In the Taoist tradition, "external" alchemy involved the
search for a "pill" or "elixir" of immortality, the most i~portant
element of which was a mercury compound, tan, or cinnabar,
Once obtained and taken into the body, it was supposed to
assure immortality and ascent to heaven, commonly on the
back of a crane. The meditations taught in Idle Talk on a
Night Boat are concerned with the internal ramifications of
this tradition; the "elixir" is cultivated in the "cinnabar field"
(tanden), or "ocean of ki" (kikai tanden), which is the center ?f
breathing or strength located slightly belo"". t~e navel. ~akum
often uses tanden in the combined form kikai tanden. There
are tanden located at three places in the body. The one to which
I refer is the lower tanden. The kikai and the tanden, which are
virtually identical, are both located below the navel, th~ t~nde?
is two inches below it, the kikai an inch and a half It is m this
area that the true ki always accumulates" (Oradegama).
1 O. This describes the dual function of blood and ki in
preserving health and sustaining life. One theory describes
"defensive ki" circulating in the subcutaneous layer of the body
and functioning as the first line of defense aga!nst exter?al
pathogens, with "nutritive blood" accompanying it, su~plymg
nutrition obtained from food. There are other explanations of
these difficult terms.
11. This refers to a tenbyo, a gourd the gods were said to use
when ladling beneficial rain down to earth.
12. The text uses the metaphor "tigers" for the attendant
monks, based on a well-known anecdote in the Records of the
Transmission of the Lamp, ch. 8. Instead of the usual monk
attendants Chan Master Hua-lin was served by two tigers that
he called Ta-k'ung (Big Emptiness) and Shao-k'ung (Little
Emptiness). Unaware of this, Prefect Pei Hsiu visited the mast~r
and asked why he saw no attendants. Hua-lin called out their
139
names and the two tigers emerged from b h. d .
badly frightening P'ei. Hua-lin then dism:semd ththe h~rYmitage,
c
g
o now, " h e sai·d . "I h ave a guest." Excusin them
em, ou can .
loud roars, they tamely withdrew. g selves with
13. "Bowl pouch," a bag in which the begging bowl . . d
d · ·1 · H . . is carne
unng pi gnma~e. angmg it up would signify that he was
there_ to stay, his days of seeking instruction over and h·
practice complete. is
14. Among the gravestones in the Shoin-ji cemetery are a
great numbe_r erected for roung monks (unsui) and darin
from the period of Hakuins residency presumabl · · gf
· kn ess or famine.
sic • '
The famine that struck the HY victims •0
1747 f ara area m
' or example, was said to have been so severe it forced th
brotherhood at Shoin-ji to disperse. e
15. Sung Yu and Ho Yen were celebrated for their masculine
beauty. The ca~eers of Tang poets Tu Fu and Chia Tao were
m~r~ed by ~enods of extre~e priv~tion. The poet and loyal
~mi~ter Chu Yuan commmed suicide after being unjust!
di~mis~ed from his position and sent into exile. In the Shih~
chi ~e is described as "wandering along the river embankment
l~st m thought, his hair unbound, his face haggard with care,
?is ~gure lean an~ emaci_ated ... [finally] he grasped a stone
m his arms, cast himself into the Mi-lo river, and drowned."
Burton Watso~, Records of Grand Historian of China (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1962),1:504.
16. "Lowering his cloud." See Chapter One, note lo.
17. In the Taoist tradition, the term Naikan is used to refer to
methods of inward-focused contemplation designed to cur off
thought. It was also used to describe types of meditation from
early Chinese Buddhism (e.g., Tien-tai founder Chih-i's Grear
Cessation and Insight, ch. 5, which Hakuin mentions in his
text). In Hakuin's writings, it refers to meditations designed to
concentra_re ki in the tanden, below the navel, performed for
therapeutic benefit (e.g., the "burrer method"; see note 9o),
140
 but he also uses the term for meditation practices, such as those
set forth in the Preface, using koan-like themes. In Oradegama, of ki below the navel how could .
beautiful adornments' (shogo ) d rt ~~sse~s the "splendors" or
Hakuin states that Shaky amuni and Chih-i both taught the
Presumably, the objecr of n ll c escn ed in Pure Land sutras~
essentials of the Naikan method and stressed the importance h h" h a rour contem 1 . .
ere, w ic are designed to ' p anons outlined
of keeping ki focu sed in the tanden. "O . . 1 return ones es . 1 b
ngina Face") to its "native 1 ,, . senna eing (i.e.
ki d d c P ace, 1s to bring h '
18. Th e five organs-heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys-that
own an rocus it in the rand I t e practicer's
adds one more contemplation ten. h n Oradegama, Hakuin
generate and store ki vital to life.
located in the ocean of ki-rh 1 o t b ese four: "The tanden
of the feet-it is all Chao-cho~' o(w] erh :c)k and legs, the arches
19. Pien Ch'ueh, Tsang Kung, and Hua T' o are legendary . M s os us Mu Wh .
can this u possibly have?" . at pnnciple
physicians of ancient China. An innkeeper, Pien Ch'ueh one
day received a mysterious drug from a stranger that gave him
the power to discern the true nature of things and perform
24. Any congestion of ki in the five or a .
bladder, stomach small and 1 . g ~s and six viscera (gall
miraculous cures. It was said he could see into the vital organs and the san chia'o o " . 1 arhge intestines, urinary bladder
of his patients, and a kn owledge of the pulse is still inseparably ' r tnp e eater." d .b d '
below) that restricts its flow will , escri e in note 53
associated with his name ( Giles, Biographical Dictionary, #396 ). I create an imbal b
th e organs that will result in d. d ance erween
Hua T' o is said to have mastered life-nurturing techniques that to Yasenkanna hyoshaku (p 411)sorher and illness. According
enabled him to live past the age of one hundred. " k . ' t e term transl t d h
wea ening the body" refers t " kn . a e ere as
spleen, a condition we call todaoytuwbeea less_ I~ the lungs and
20. "Returning the elixir" (gentan) refers to the Taoist rcu osis.
alchemists' secret method for refining cinnabar to obtain pure
elixir. The alchemist Ko Hung's Pao p' u tzu ("The Master Who 25. The Tang Zen master Chao-chou s "d . .
investigate the Dharma-principle b d a~ to a disciple, "Just
Embraces Purity") states, "If you consume elixir turned nine
three years. If after that time you ar: st~;ng z~~en for ~o or
times, you will in three days become an immortal.' Way, you can come and cut off m u~,a e to attain the
21. "Pure Land of the mind" Whereas the Pure Land sutras
Akizuki Ryomin ( Chikuma-shobo, I ~7~)~!·.
1 l~~hu-roku, ed.
state that Amida Buddha resides to the West, a hundred billion
26. In the Surra of Forty-rwo S . .
Buddha-lands distant from here," Zen teachers assert that "you c d" ecnons, section 26 th B ddh
re1ers isparagingly to his body as "th. b f . ' e u a
yourself are Amida Buddha," that "Amida's Pure Land exists kind of filth!" is ag O skin, full of every
within your own mind." Words to this effect are found in the
Ching-t'u huo-wen of the Yuan dynasty Zen master T'ien- ju
Wei-tse; in Japanese Zen, they appear in such works as lkkyu ~i~~:~~~l~a:,o Hakuyushi), the teacher who appears in the
Sojun's Amida hadaka monogatari, Shido Munan's Sokushin-ki,
Suzuki Shosan's Moan-jo, and, in secular literature, Noh plays 28- P'eng Tsu is the Chi M h
such as Sanemori and Kashiwazaki.
Lieh-hsien chuan (Lives o~e:~e s:~e~se~;~:c;rditg to the
eight hundred years, ate nothing but the ling-sgh1·hsufi ived ovedr
22. The point in each of these rhetorical questions is that the was adept · h • ungus an
Pure Land and Amida Buddha must not be sought outside in t e yog1c practice of controlling ki." ,
the self. For example, if the Pure Land is located in the ocean

141
142
 29. "Corpse-guarding spirit" (shushiki) alludes to a death-in-
life type of existence in which the mind merely keeps wa~ch
over the body without making any exertion toward bettering
its existence.
30. Taoist figures noted for their extremely long lives: the
physician Ko Hung, 283-363; [Li ] T'ieh-kuai and Chang Kuo
(the text has Chang Hua), both of whom are numbered among
the Eight Taoist Immortals; and Pei Chang (Pei Chang-fang),
necromancer of the Latter Han.
31. Th e phrase "imposing comportment ,o f the _Bodhis~ttva"
(Bosatsu no igi) alludes to the Bodhisattvas pracuce dedicated
to fulfilling the Four Universal Vows.
32. True elixir (shintan) is obtained by means of the Naikan
meditation. When one's ki is always replete in the tanden,
"body and mind remain in constant equanimit~; even at the
age of one hundred the hair does not turn white, the tee~h
remain sound, the eyes see more keenly than ever, and the_ skin
acquires a fine luster-the result of nurturing the primal ki and
bringing the divine elixir to maturity" (Oradegama).
33. The formula for nurturing ki in this paragraph was a favorite
of Hakuin's, and he frequently inscribed it to give to people.
Hakuin attributes the passage to at least five different people
in his writings, making it likely that he wrote it himself or
cobbled it together from assorted texts. In the s~-ca~led external
alchemy of Taoism, the true elixir for longevity 1s _pro~uced
by "turning" or kneading the cin_naba_r substance ~m~ times.
"If you consume elixir turned rune times, you will m _three
days' time become an im~ortal" (Pao p~ tz~) .. In the mner
alchemy and from Hakuins Zen stan~pomt, it is a matter of
concentrating ki in its ultimate source m the tanden.
34. A line from a poem titled "Reply to Ya Tang" by t~e
Tang poet Keng Wei, found in the San-t'i shih (Poems m
Three Forms; Japanese, Santai-shi), a Sung anth_ology of Tang
poetry much read and studied in Japanese Zen circles. The full
143
couplet, which Hakuin uses as a "cap . ,, .
,v,
word s fjrom th e Land of Dreams is· "Th
ping verse Ill Dream
summit, · s h a d ows disappear
. from ' the· walle /moon
Th freaches
h the
h eavr·1y, w1·11 ow b ranch es are sparse." e rosr angs
35. Hakuin was ordained at fourteen and b h" Z
p1·1 gnmage
· . egan 1s en
at nmeteen. The enlightenment referred to here
is apparently the one he experienced in his twenty- h" d
while he was at Eigan-ji in Echigo province Cf Ch t !fl ~eaalr
B· h (A ) I · • rono ogIC
iograp y ge 2 3 ; a so The Tale of My Childhood, pp. 25-26.
37. It was a commonplace of Chinese medical lore that ·
· f , excessive
exercise o ones mental faculties would cause the "h fi "
" · d fi ,, eart- re
~r mm - re to overheat, and instead of being concentrated
m the lower ~ody, to mount upward, causing symptoms such
as those descnbe~ here. In the Chronological Biography (Age
2~), ~elve morbid symptoms are described that appeared at
this time.
40. 1710. Hakuin was twenty-five.
44. _Amon? five _contemplations (gojo shinkan) designed to
rectify vanous disorders of mind outlined in Chih. ., S _
h" · · b h IS SU
c iao-r 1s reat counting, practiced to rein in an unruly mind.
47. The ?ulses are taken at three points on the wrist, with each
place bemg read at three levels: shallow, medium, and deep.
49. In other words, the cause of the illness, and the cure,
are th~ same. The adage, originally from Ta chuang-yen lun
(Treatise on the Majestic Adornments), ch. 2, also appears in
the Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, ch. i, section on
Upagupta.
51. Traditional Chinese medical theory describes ki as moving
constantly ~mong the five internal organs (see note 24). If
a full and Vital supply of ki is not maintained in them or if
the ~- becomes stagnant, illness results. Defensive ener~ and
nutritive blood (or nourishing energy) are two forms of ki (see
144
 note io); the former protects the surface of the body against
external pathogenic factors; the latter, produced from food, 55. The seven "misfortunes" (sh·lC h·1- kyo _.
pleasure, love, hate and desir ) Joy, anger, grief.
flows inside the blood vessels, circulating through the body and ' e-are so 11 d b '
supplying it with nutrients. ~re the causes of illness. The four "evils" (ah _e. ecause they
influences to the body caused by wind c Id s 1-Ja) are h~rmful
' o 'heat, and moisture.
52. According to the traditional Chinese concept known
as wu-hsing (translated variously as five phases, stages, or 56. Left side and right side refer to d" .
~nd right wrists where the pulses are i;:;ost!c area~ on the left
elements), which was employed in astrology, medicine, military internal organs. en in reading the five
strategy, and many other areas of Chinese thought, phenomena
are classified into five categories-Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal,
and Water-as a means of describing their relationships and
57. The terms translated here as the fi
of sense: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, andv;~:nses (th~ five organs
interaction: e.g., Wood feeds Fire; Fire creates Earth (ash);
Earth bears Metal; Metal carries Water; Water nourishes
five senses plus the mind) are sub· d·k
and six roots (the
in the commentaries. I follow v Jh~ct to h1 erenr explanations
Wood. In traditional medical theory these concepts are used to ros 1zawa ere.
describe qualities of ki within the body in a process of mutual
production and overcoming. The five phases serve as the core for 58. See ChuangTzu, Burton Warson (Columbia, 1968), p. 78.
a system that, together with the yin and yang, operate in cycles
59. Hsu Chun has been identified a h K
of rising and falling and in a universal pattern, uniting Man Chun (n.d.). The "lower heate " c{
\e area~ physician Ho
and Nature. The five phases are tied to many corresponding
categories of five-such as the five internal organs (lungs, heart,
(josho) are two elements of th:
described in note 54 ab Th
sa:sc:! and '~~per heater"
'.ao or triple heater"
liver, spleen, and kidneys), which correspond to Metal, Fire, ave. e essential p · · 11 h
quotations is to concentrate ki . h l oinr m a t ese
Wood, Earth, and Water, respectively. Maintaining the correct in t e ewer body.
balance between them is essential for preserving health. The
internal organs are invested with seven marvelous powers: the 61. The twelve conduits or meridians C . .
reckoned as one for each of th fi juru no ke1myaku) are
liver with the ethereal aspect of the soul (hun) that leaves the an additional conduit for th e veporgans and six viscera and
body at the time of physical death and returns to heaven, lungs . e aorta. re-modern J f 11 d
th e Chrnese method of d" 'd• d . apan o owe
with the corporeal soul (p'o) that returns to earth, heart with rvi mg ays mto twelve hours. /

the spirit, spleen with thought and knowledge, kidneys with

the life essence and will. 67. In Oradegama, Hakuin quotes the f 11 . .
Hakuyu on the state of five "non-I k ~ owing teaching by
when afflicting passions d' ea iges (go-muro), attained
54. Hakuin uses the terms go-i and roku-zoku to refer to often learn only that th d1~appearl ram the mind: "People
the five internal organs and the six viscera (rokufu)-the e ivme e ixir is refin d b b . .
rogerh er the five phases vvz p· e y nngmg
E arth -without knowing - water, ire Wood M l d
large intestine, small intestine, gall bladder, stomach, urinary
bladder, and the san chiao or "triple heater." The "triple heater"
the are al h '
eta ' an
eyes, ears, nose, tongue andybod so t e _five sense organs-
is described as a network of energy conduits that participate together and refine the divine el' ~- To ~mg the five ~rgans
in the metabolic functions located in three parts of the body
cavity, one below the heart and above the stomach, another in
the five non-leakages: when the ;:m, we ave the teaching of
when the ears do not h ye ldoes not see erroneously,
the stomach area, a third above the urinary bladder. ear erroneous y wh h
not taste erroneously, when the b d d' en t e tongue does
0
Y oes nor feel erroneously,

145
746
 when the consciousness does not think erroneously, then the
78. "Diverse meditat· ,,
diffuse primal ki accumulates right before your eyes."
unfocused meditation O ionk (t~kan) presumably refers to
b ecomes the object of disn .oans
. in. wh'Jch th e meditation topic
69. A student would "overturn" the elixir furnace (originally,
t e 1 ower b o dy. No-meditac' ,, nan d ki d oes not gather in
h " criminat10
the crucible or stove Taoist alchemists used for refining the
meditative state similar to ion (m~~an) refers to an advanced
cinnabar elixir) when he succeeded in refining the elixir within ("no-mm . d") , Ill
. which discr·
munen
. . ( no - th ough t") or mushin
1minat1on
himself Th e phrase appears in a verse in the W ind and M~o~
cease d . s an d d'1ch otomies have
Collection of Zen Poetry: "If you are able co operate the elixir
furnace, your ki is like a rainbow. / If you overturn the elixir
79. Although no source has b f
furnace, you arrive at a state of perfect freedom." Crossing
attributed to the Buddha, Yasen~n o~d for the words here
chis threshold (described here as a kind of satori) the student a similar teaching in Chih-i's Gr an~ yo~haku (p. 109) cites
grasps chat the Great Way and the elixir are one, and realizes
the mind is always kept concen;::t de~sau~n and Insight: "If
the futility of seeking it externally. can be cured." e in t e feet, any illness

70. In Preaching at the Crossroads, Hakuin explains that

80. Agama sutras: a generic term for .
"churning the Long River into the finest butter" refers to the 8
source in the Agama sucras has been f, idnaybana sucras. No
Bodhisattva's activity of assisting others to enlightenment. below. oun ' ur see note 90
"Transforming the earth into purest gold" would have a
similar connotation. Hakuin contrasts these activities with
81. In the eighth volume of Chih-i's G C .
the "superficial feats of magic" attributed to Taoist sages I nsig. h d rear essat10n and
t, evoted to the therapeutic uses ofBuddh· d' .
enumerated in the previous sentence. . d 'b ist me ttanon
a met h o d is escn ed for concentrating the . d h'
ffi. d f h
a icre area o t e body. Eight types of breachi'n
mm on t e
f, h
73. After Completion and Before Completion are the two fi~al . f, . . g are set ore
an d th err use or specific ailments explained.
hexagrams in the Book of Changes. In the After Completion
configuration, descending Fire and ascending Water
82. "Concentrate the mind above the navel Imag· · h
intermingle; in the Before Completion configuration, they are · f · me It t e
separated, Water above and Fire below, not intermingling. s1_ze o_ a. bean. Loosen your robe and give yourself to this
v1sual1zat_10~ .... By concentrating the mind above the navel, the
breath will JSSue from the navel and enter through the I
76. The division of the Fire principle into "princely fire" and
"ministerial fire" appears in chapter 71 of the Su-wen (Plain Exhalin~ and inhaling in this way through the navel, i~a;~i
not be_ d1fficulc to realize the [truth of] impermanence" (Great
Questions), the first part of Yellow Emperor's Manual of Cessation and Insight, ch. 8).
Corporeal Medicine, the basic medical text in Tokugawa Japan.
83. The ce~sations in relation to phenomena (ke'en-shi) and
77. According to Yasenkanna hyoshaku (p. 102), this paragraph
is based on Chu Tan-hsi's Hsiang-huo lun (Treatise on to :he ultiman- truth of emptiness (taishin-shi), achieved
dunng samadhi and leading to clear discernment, are two
Ministerial Fire). Sea, marsh, and bog are apparently allusions
of three kinds of "cessations" or concentrations set forth in
co the area in and around the tanden in the lower body.
Great Cessation and Insight. In the first, the mind remains
unaffected by changes in external or internal conditions; in
the second, one grasps that illusion is, as such, true reality.

147
148
 Hakuin refers to these terms in some instructions he wrote for
the layman Murabayashi Zesan titled Gambyo no myoyaku (A ~O. _Ito Kazuo has found several metho . .
similar to this in Buddh1· t ds of meditation vaguely
Miracle Medicine for Eye Disease): "Cessation in relation to H.istonc~ry
. . s sutras (New R .
of Hakuyu, pp. 65-66). A "butte ,,esearch rnro the
phenomena as set forth in the Great Cessation and Insight is a
appears Ill a work titled Ch"h h . r method (nanso)
matter of quieting the mind and ki by concentrating the mind 1 c anprng · c (
an E ssential Method for Curin M d. ~1-yao_1a Secrets of
entirely in the tanden- the area from the lower back down
333-42 [#62o]. g e Itation Sickness); TiS,
to the feet- and becoming like a dead man, completely mute
and quiescent at all times, oblivious of all external phenomena.
It is the ultimate key to nurturing life. Cessation in relation 92. A reference to the well-known tal "K '
a Tang work titled Chen-chung ch~ Aantans Dream," from
to ultimate truth is a matter of concentrating the mind at all
Lu-sheng, on his way to seek a career i~ t you~g man named
times directly on the ultimate ground of the one vehicle and
at a place called Han-tan (Japan K he capital, ~topped off
the basic principle of all Dharmas as aspects of essential truth."
for his lunch to cook, he took a n:se,anJ~tan). While waiting
(Complete Works of Priest Hakuin, vol. 6.)
throu_gh the ranks of officialdom a~d finalreame~ that he rose
of pnme minister. Awakening he s h. y attarned the post
84. T' ien-t'ungJu-ching (1 163-1228), the Sung dynasty Ts'ao-
cooking on the fire realized th' t 1·c a~ is yellow millet still
t'ung (Japanese Soto) Zen master best kn own as the teacher of ' a rre 1s an empry d
returned home instead of pro d· h ream, and
Dogen Ki gen (1 200-52), founder ofJ apanese Soto Zen and of cee rng to t e capital.
Eihei-ji in Echigo province. Th is particular teaching is found in
Dogen's practice diary Hoky o-ki, which he kept while he was
100. This is a line from a poem b th S
layman Huang T'ing-chien titl d ~S e ung poet and Zen
studying in China. Ju-ching told Dogen that placing the heart S.IXth MOnth : Noonday N "· "A e eventeenth D ay o f th e
(mind) above the palm of the left hand during zazen was "the
method rightly transmitted by the Buddha-patriarchs." For the
d
worldling, amid the world'? d st~a~hatt_ed, black-booted
of immortal spirits and its da:. usth· y mind on the island
full passage and context, see my "Dogen's Hoky o-ki," Part II,
my horse chomping dried bea~1i:~ ~te cranes / The so~nd of
Eastern Buddhist, vol. XI , no. 1, 1977, p. 81.
Became in my dream a tern es ! my noonday pillow I
river" (translation, Burton Jats~~h:~ ~~d great w_aves on the
85. The Hsiao chih-kuan (Smaller Cessation and Insight), Poetry [Harvard- v h" M ' ntroduct10n to Sung
epitomizing the teachings in the Great Cessation and Insight, is renc rng onograph 1967]) Th
alludes to a metaphor in the Len ' . . e poem
said to have been compiled by Chih-i for his sick brother Chen Surra) ch 4. "Wh·I l g-yen chrng (Shuramgama
Chen. Yasenkanna hyoshaku (p. 114) quotes the following ' · · I e a man s eeps s dl · h • b
in the house is using a rice pounde~un I y~? dis ed, someone
story from the biography of Chen Chen in the Fo-tsu t'ung- the sound as a drum-beat o th b .. ··. n is reams, he hears
chi: "At the age of forry Chen Chen, Chih-i's elder brother, reason for quoting the r . e oomrng of a b e 11 • " H a k ums
• ,
verse Is not totall 1 Yc h"
encountered a sage who examined his physiognomy and told
him that his vital yang energy was exhausted and he had only
suggests this explanation· "Oth
. ·
r· 11 y C ear. OS rzawa
ers 1.e. a exc t •
me dwere students] will fi d idl ' ep superior or
one month left to live. Chih-i thereupon taught Chen the
basics of his chih-kuan meditation. After Chen performed
a grating noise distractin; t{;Y Ifie woris. a n~isance, like
indicating that it is their somn:7 ro?1 t err midday nap,"
the meditation assiduously day and night for one year, he was that keeps people of limit d e_nt te., unawakened) state
cured and went on to live a long life" -and then points out the worth of Hakuin's words. e capaciry rorn understanding the
striking similarities between the illnesses and cures experienced
by Chen Chen and Hakuin, as well as the roles that Chih-i and
Hakuyii played in those cures.

149
150
 Index

A
Four Vows 35, 36
abdominal breathing 80
Amida Buddha 24 H
Anapanasati 21, 39, 50,
78, 79, 80, 81 heart 44, 47, 48, 56, 57, 59,
angry demons 40, 41 60, 61, 62, 63, 72, 73, 74, 75,
animals 40, 41, 42 76, 77, 79, 81, 82, 87, 97
hell 40, 41, 42
B hungry ghost 40, 41

balloon 70, 82 I
breath 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 57, Intermingling 73
59, 60, 61, 64, 65, 68, 72, 73, J
77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 88, 89
butter 71, 77, 91, 93, 94 Joshu 37, 38, 43, 46, 81, 86
C
K
cinnabar 71
Kaian Kokugo 37, 38
D karma 35, 82, 83
Daie Zenji 44 kidneys 56, 57, 63, 73, 74
Daito Kokushi 37, 38 L
diaphragm 20, 56, 57, 60,
61, 62, 73, 74, 79, 81, 92 liver 56, 57, 60, 63, 73, 74, 92
Dogen 76, 84 lungs 44, 56, 57, 60, 63,
Dokyo Etan 36, 43, 44 65, 71, 74, 75, 79, 92
dragon 74
M
E
Makko Ho 82
egg 91, 94 ministerial Fire 73, 74
Eightfold Path 50, 78 Mu 43, 81, 82, 86, 87
elixir 69, 71 Mumon Ekai 25, 29, 64, 86
exhalation 50, 51, 56, 57, 59, 60, N
61, 6~ 72, 73, 79, 80, 82, 89
F Naikan 17, 18, 21, 24, 25,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,
feather 87 33, 47, 54, 55, 72, 84, 91,
feet 40, 44, 52, 56, 64, 73, 74, 76, 92, 96, 98, 102, 103, 104
77, 87, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98 Nansen 36, 89
fire 6, 7, 18, 31, 36, 44, 56, 72, navel 70, 71, 77, 82, 84, 92, 95
73, 7~ 7~ 91,105, IO~ 109 0
five leakages 69
Five Wisdoms 69 One Person Who Lived

152
 During Five Hundred Years
Wh o Is Like This 36
original face 23, 24, 25

p
P'eng Tsu 87
Po-yun 84, 85
princely Fire 73
Pure Land 24

R
realms 40, 41, 42, 53
Rinzai 39, 43

s
senses 19, 20, 22, 23, 30, 34, 35,
58, 63, 69, 70, 77, 90, 106
six realms 40, 41, 42
Song of Zazen 58, 78
Sotoba 21, 87, 88
Su-wen 85

T
Ta-hui 98
tanden 4, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25,
33, 36, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71,
76, 77, 80, 81, 82, 84, 87, 94, 95,
96, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 108
The Embossed Iron Kettle 39
thunder 74

w
water 5, 6, 7, 22, 29, 40, 48,
55, 56, 70, 71, 74, 91, 92

153
 ~ .I i'c1- fiij ~t ff
NAMO AMITABHA
~~:3WTTTI'qTlf
~~~l~~
~-~a-J:·~~7~°'ll
Cl.Cl.

I vow that when my life approaches its end,

All obstructions will be swept away;
I will see Amitabha Buddha,
And be born in his Land of
Ultimate Bliss and Peace.
When reborn in the
Western Pure Land,
I will perfect and completely fulfill
without exception these Great Vows,
To delight and benefit all beings.
~ The Vows of Samantabhaclra Avatamsaka Sutra ~
May every living being, drowning and adrift,
Soon return to
The Western Pure Land of Limitless Light!
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