Hakuin Ekaku (白隠慧鶴)
1686–1769 · East Asian Buddhism · Prominent
Hakuin revived Japanese Rinzai Zen and rebuilt its training around koans, the questions a student sits with; his arrangement of them is still the backbone of Rinzai practice. What is the sound of the single hand? That one is his. A mass of Great Doubt has to ripen until it breaks open into seeing your own nature, and practice carries on without end after that. He attacked the do-nothing Zen of sitting quiet, and wrote that this very place is the Lotus Land.
Signature
The position Hakuin is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence
- Paradox
- Koan
Positions on the 1 axes the sources answer
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence (15 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
19 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Hakuin refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Perception
- Non-Dual Awareness
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Intuition
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Paradox
- Koan
What is the status of paradox? - Human Nature
- Innate Good
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- All Beings
What is your primary bond and loyalty?