Fire and Brimstone

"When he was 8 years old, Hakuin heard a fire-and-brimstone sermon on the torments of the Hell Realm. The terrified boy became obsessed with hell and how he might avoid it. At the age of 13 he decided to become a Buddhist priest. He received monk's ordination from a Rinzai priest at the age of 15. As a young man, Hakuin traveled from one temple to another, studying for a time with several teachers. In 1707, at the age of 23, he returned to Shoinji, the temple near Mount Fuji where he had first been ordained.

That winter, Mount Fuji erupted with force, and earthquakes rocked Shoinji. The other monks fled the temple, but Hakuin remained in the zendo, sitting in zazen. He told himself that if he realized enlightenment the buddhas would protect him. Hakuin sat for hours, absorbed in zazen, as the zendo trembled around him. The following year, he traveled north to another temple, Eiganji, in Echigo Province. For two week he sat zazen through the nights.

Then one morning, at the break of dawn, he heard a temple bell in the distance. The faint sound rang through him like a thunderclap, and Hakuin experienced realization. According to Hakuin's own account, the realization filled him with pride. No one in three hundred years had experienced such a realization, he was certain. He sought out a highly regarded Rinzai teacher, Shoju Rojin, to tell him the great news.

But Shoju saw Hakuin's pride and would not confirm the realization. Instead, he subjected Hakuin to the harshest possible training, all the while calling him a "cave-dwelling devil." Eventually, Hakuin's understanding matured into deeper realization."

~ Barbara O'Brien

Art ~ A painting by zen master Hakuin, from the "The Sound of One Hand: Paintings & Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin" exhibit at LACMA.