Best 20 quotes of Hakuin Ekaku on MyQuotes

All beings are by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas.

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

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

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

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

How bright and transparent the moonlight of wisdom.

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

In singing and dancing is the voice of the Law.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand?

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

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

A soldier came to Hakuin and asked "Is there really a paradise and a hell?" "Who are you?" inquired Hakuin. "I am a samurai," the warrior replied. "You, a samurai!" exclaimed Hakuin. "What kind of ruler would have you as his guard? Your face looks like that of a beggar!" The soldier became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued. "So you have a sword! Your weapon is probably as dull as your head!" As the soldier drew his sword Hakuin remarked "Here open the gates of hell!" At these words, the samurai, perceiving the discipline of the master, sheathed his sword and bowed. "Here open the gates of paradise," said Hakuin