The life

Hakuin Ekaku was born in 1686 in Hara, a post town at the foot of Mount Fuji, the youngest son of an innkeeper. At eight he heard a sermon about the Buddhist hells and was terrified. At fourteen he became a monk.

Zen in his time had grown comfortable. Under the Tokugawa government, temples kept official registers and many priests treated their posts as careers. Hakuin pushed himself hard, studied with a demanding teacher named Shoju Rojin, and practiced so intensely that he fell ill with what he called “Zen sickness.” He later wrote that a hermit taught him breathing and visualization methods that restored his health.

In his early thirties he became head priest of Shoin-ji, the run-down temple in his home town, and he stayed there most of his life. He taught monks, but also farmers, merchants and samurai, through public talks, letters and songs written in plain language.

He made thousands of ink paintings and calligraphies, many of them funny, to reach people who could not read. He is best known for the koan he gave his students: “What is the sound of one hand?”

Nearly every Rinzai Zen teacher in Japan today traces their teaching lineage back to him.

Questions to talk about

1. Hakuin taught through paintings as well as words. Why might pictures reach people that sermons do not?
2. What do you think the question “What is the sound of one hand?” is meant to do?
3. Hakuin took his tradition back to ordinary people. Can you think of other reformers who did something similar?

More lives

All the mystics →