If we listen even once with open heart to this truth, then praise it 
and gladly embrace it, how much more so then, if on reflecting within 
ourselves we directly realize Self-nature, giving proof to the truth 
that Self-nature is no nature. We will have gone far beyond idle 
speculation.


          Hakuin is famous for setting the modern Rinzi Zen training curriculum which consists of a series of Koans that the monk in training must pass.  This was in the 18th Century, not so long ago.  Before this time koans were inconsistently used even in the Rinzi schools. 
           Koans on first glance seem to stress cognitive understanding over quietistic meditation.  Many people seem to think that any issue that they struggle with is a koan, and koans  can become an excuse for lots of thinking.   
          A koan is very specifically a question  ( Koans are not usually presented as questions but as stories, but the question  in this case is always how do you understand the story.)
which is designed to open one to Zen experience and or Zen insight.  Koans cannot be answered through thought alone but can be answered from experience in zazen.  Here Hakuin is pointing to one and maybe the most important insight to be gained from Zen experience, and this insight is the subject of many Koans, 
          Though I might seem to be contradicting what I wrote earlier in this commentary there is one insight that seems to be the demarcation between one who is good at zazen and one who is enlightened.   In Zen terms this is the difference between samadhi and kensho.  But is there really a difference?  The Sixth Patriarch thought there was no difference, they work together as the natural out growth of each other.  But practically speaking sometimes someone needs a kick in the pants for insight to arise from zazen and this is the function of koans. This insight which is so important is the insight into our true self nature.  There are many koans which point to our self nature.  One of the most famous is, "Thinking neither good nor bad what is your true nature?" Even the Koan "MU!" points to our true nature.   Most people think they are what they think and feel but what are you when you stop thought and emotion?  What are you when you are in truly deep zazen?  You might be asking, How can I have any insight if I have stopped thought?  Well, actually thought does not begin with our inner or outer verbal dialogue nor our emotions.  How could it?  Any psychologist will tell you that there is a subconscious element to thought,  and experience in zazen will tell you this.  Some people call it intuition but if zazen is truly deep and clear then it is just seeing clearly with that inner sense of understanding.  It is seeing clearly that the person in front of you is suffering or happy.  It is seeing clearly that someone needs or doesn't need help.  And if one is playing tennis it is knowing that a down the line shot is better or worse then a cross court shot.  There is no need to verbalize.  Now, clearly see who you are.
          The Buddha, 2500 years ago, after his enlightenment talked mostly about happiness, why we are unhappy and how we can become happy, but somewhere in there he verbalized the Non-Atman Doctrine.  Usually non-atman is translated as no soul, and so the Non Atman Doctrine states that we as individuals have no permanent or indestructible essence like a soul, that we are in effect an ever changing and temporary like everything else in the Universe.  Wow, this is unusual to come out of the mouth of a religious leader.  It makes perfect sense but our attachment to our own specialness also makes it difficult to believe.  Only a deep experience like the experience of deep zazen can, like Hakuin states, "giving proof to the truth that Self-nature is no nature." 
          I had been practicing meditation for ten or eleven days in retreat.  Early in the morning I was sitting practicing listening, hearing the morning sounds with an unusual intensity.  My mind was quiet and as sounds arose in my internal soundscape I would hear them appear and disappear like flashes of light adding no extra thoughts to the experience such as identifying the sources of the sounds.  Then with one very large explosion of sound I disappeared.  Even that small bit of self-awareness that functioned in the meditation was gone.  This only lasted a few moments but when awareness returned I clearly understood  that if through the practice of meditation all the aspects of self definition, the inner voice, emotions and consciousness could be turned off then there was nothing left which could be called "I".  With this simple insight an understanding of Buddhism and Zen opened.  The reverberations of this insight have completely changed my way of thinking and my relationship with the rest of the world.  
          Many people who practice Zen and other forms of Buddhism think that there is no real need to stop verbal thought and emotions, that the insight we call enlightenment will just appear after many years of practice.  But there is a logic to this insight.  It will not just appear with out, as the Shakyamuni Buddha would say, the proper causes and conditions.  To truly give proof to this understanding the personal experience must be deep, and this can only happen if everything that attaches us to our normal way of thinking is turned off.  This is sometimes called the Great Death.  It need only last a few seconds and it needs to be reflected upon shortly after the experience for it's transformative power to be truly great.
This is why we have koans.

           For the next few blogs I am going to give a commentary on Hakuin Zenji's Song of Zazen.  This is a popular text in Rinzi Zen and is chanted in Rinzi Temples throughout Japan.  In the two sitting groups that I lead we chant the Song of Zazen regularly.  The translation I will use is from the One Drop Sanga.

Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen 
All sentient beings are essentially Buddhas.  As with water and ice, 
there is no ice without water; apart from sentient beings, there are no 
Buddhas.  Not knowing how close the truth is we seek it far away – what a pity! 
We are like one who in the midst of water cries out desperately in 
thirst. We are like the son of a rich man who wandered away among the 
poor. 
The reason we transmigrate through the Six Realms is because 
we are lost in the darkness of ignorance. 
Going further and further astray in the darkness, how can we ever be 
free from birth-and-death? 
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. Even those who have sat zazen 
only once will see all karma erased. Nowhere will they find evil 
paths, and the Pure Land will not be far away. 
If we listen even once with open heart to this truth, then praise it 
and gladly embrace it, how much more so then, if on reflecting within 
ourselves we directly realize Self-nature, giving proof to the truth 
that Self-nature is no nature. We will have gone far beyond idle 
speculation. 
The gate of the oneness of cause and effect is thereby opened, and 
not-two, not-three, straight ahead runs the Way. 
Realizing the form of no-form as form, whether going or returning 
we cannot be any place else.
 Realizing the thought of no-thought as thought, whether 
singing or dancing, we are the voice of the Dharma. 
How vast and wide the unobstructed sky of samadhi! 
How bright and clear the perfect moonlight of the Four-fold 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. 



          I like the Song Of Zazen because it makes sense.  So much in Zen - Koans, the Heart Sutra, etc. - seem obscure to the beginner and even people who have been practicing for years.  But here is a text we can understand.  The language is clear and direct even if we are not exactly sure what he is talking about. 
          Right from the beginning we learn that we are essentially all Buddhas.  What is a Buddha?  This in itself is a very difficult question.  Most of us imagine what a Buddha is and our imagination is invariably wrong.  We might believe the propaganda and think that Buddhas are magical beings with magical powers and a magical wisdom.  What ever we think about being a Buddha is probably wrong until we actually experience being Buddha.  One of my early teachers, Sazaki Roshi asked a lot about Buddha.  As Koans he would ask questions like "How old is the Buddha?" and "How do you experience Buddha while cooking?"  The very first step in practicing with him was to clarify this word Buddha and learn how to experience our selves as Buddha and  then manifest our selves as Buddha in daily life.  Most Zen teachers don't use the word Buddha so much but instead may use other phrases such as "Original Nature" or "True Self which can be interchanged with the word Buddha in this context.
          True practice starts with a faith in being essentially a Buddha, that being a Buddha is our Original Nature, our True Self.  We may not know exactly what being a Buddha is accept that it is a worthy goal.  Keeping the openness of not knowing is important but also this faith in our potential is important
          In the Lotus Sutra Shakyamuni one after another predicts that each member of his audience will become a Buddha.  This goes on for many pages.  He even gives a specific name for the Buddha that each person will become.  Why?  Because the faith in our potential is deeply important.  It is why we practice.  Many of us think that we are fixed beings.  We identify our likes and dislikes, our personality our talents and where we lack talent and think, "This is who I am."  But that is not who you are.  That is just ignorant thinking.  Spiritual practice begins with the faith that we can be better.  In Buddhism we not only have a faith that we can be better but that we are each endowed with a deep potential to be better.  Hakuin says,  "We are like the son of a rich man who wandered away among the poor."  This is a reference again to a story in the Lotus Sutra.  It is not really about material wealth but spiritual wealth and that this spiritual wealth is our natural endowment  We Mahayana practitioners say that when the Buddha had his Enlightenment he said,  "All beings without exception have this same wisdom which I have just awoken to."