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11
HAKUIN EKAKU
What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?
Edward Ross
Prior to the Tokugawa period, Buddhism was an elitist religion in Japan. It
was practiced by government ofcials and was part of the state cult. After
the Tokugawa shogunate took power, Buddhism was separated from the state
cult and forced to fend for itself. As a way to prevent the spread of Christianity,
the Tokugawa shogunate forced the populace to register within the Buddhist tem-
ple system, bringing the working class into the Rinzai Zen temples. Zen master
Hakuin Ekaku developed a form of teaching using koan and calligraphy in order
to bring Rinzai Zen to the everyday people. He turned Rinzai Zen Buddhism into
a more universal practice that would accept anyone who was willing to devote
themselves to Zen, regardless of social class. This essay will follow a chrono-
logical structure, discussing the political movement of Rinzai Buddhism from its
entrance into Japan during the Kamakura Period to the Ashikaga Period and then
the Tokugawa shogunate. Once entering the Tokugawa Period, it will be possible
to discuss the role of Zen master Hakuin and his contributions to the practice
of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. Before the history of Rinzai Buddhism in Japan can be
discussed, the basic concepts of Rinzai Zen practice must be outlined.
Rinzai Zen Buddhism was heavily based in the practice of zazen, seated silent
meditation on a koan, a phrase or word that is said to aid in realizing enlighten-
ment. The koan is meant to be so confusing that it can tear away all forms of
discrimination and open the way to enlightenment, the realization of an imme-
diate and sudden awakening with “no-mind” (Hori 281; Watts 100). The act of
reaching this breakthrough is called kensho (Hori 280). Lin-chi, the originator of
this sect, taught in a very informal manner, physically hitting and verbally assault-
ing his students (Watts 101). The form of practice that Rinzai evokes seems to be
very natural and connected directly to the experiences of an individual. Lin-chi
even found that one must “be ordinary and nothing special” to practice Rinzai
12
Zen (Lin-chi Lu 13). Now seeing the concepts of Rinzai Zen, the context of
Japanese religious patronage must be understood.
Religious sects in Medieval and Pre-Modern Japan relied heavily on the sup-
port of the government. As the favoured sect of any one government, a school
would hold positions in state affairs, would be able to construct new headquar-
ters and temples, and would be followed by the warrior and imperial classes.
Buddhism, for example, was dependent on the giving of alms, and the support
of the government meant an illustrious amount of donations and supporters.
Under this patronage, the sect could establish itself within Japan and easily at-
tract followers. However, if the sect lost its patronage, it would need to rely on
the common people in order to survive. Understanding this concept, the begin-
ning of Rinzai Zen Buddhism in Japan can be discussed.
The Kamakura period began in 1192 when Emperor Go-Shirakawa died and
was replaced by a feudal military regime in the city of Kamakura (Kitagawa
86). This moved the capital of Japan from Kyoto to Kamakura, representing
the movement of power from the imperial class to the military class (86). The
government leadership, which once consisted of courtiers and imperial aristo-
crats, now consisted of military generals and samurai (86). These military leaders,
the bakufu, rejected the culture that was developed by the imperial class, which
was built upon elegance and compared to a dainty, articial lotus (88). Instead,
they preferred a more natural form of culture and society. This affected the art,
literature, and religious patronage of the period. Seeking a more simplied and
instant way to enlightenment, the bakufu favoured Zen Buddhism and allowed it
to develop into a sect of its own in Japan (Earhart 99).
Rinzai Zen Buddhism had attempted to percolate into Japan several times,
but the patronage of the Kamakura government and the samurai class allowed it
to nally make its own place. Myōan Eisai (1141-1215) is credited with bringing
the lineage of Rinzai into Japan in 1191 after travelling to China and studying
under Xuan Huaichang, a Ch’an master of the Rinzai lineage (Foulk 139).1 It
was difcult to install any sort of Zen temples in Kyoto because the city was
deeply entrenched with the older sects of Buddhism, such as Tendai, but Eisai
had the support of the samurai class and bakufu (Earhart 98). The Kamakura
bakufu greatly preferred the Zen notions of attaining enlightenment through
insight gained through personal experience rather than the older schools’ stress
on learning sutras and devotion to bodhisatvas (99). Eisai, with the help of the
Kamakura bakufu, was able to build the rst Zen temples in Kyushu, Kamakura,
and Kyoto (Foulk 139). These temples were the beginnings of the Gozan temple
system, which was built during the Kamakura period and consisted of ve large
temples that practiced Chinese Ch’an arts, such as calligraphy and painting, and
taught them to the people of medieval Japan (Bodiford 311). Rinzai Zen Bud-
dhism nally gained a foothold in Japan and was able to develop into a sect of
its own because of the patronage of the Kamakura government.
The Kamakura period was riddled with internal war and rebellion as the rem-
nants of imperial rule attempted to regain control of Japan. The bakufu was
able to fend off these rebellions with ease, but the Mongol invasions of 1274
13
and 1281 left the bakufu in a critical state (Kitagawa 92). The samurai were able
to fend off the Mongols but at a great economic and political expense (94).
Emperor Go-Daigo took advantage of the political turmoil and in 1333 was
able to collapse the Kamakura bakufu and reinstitute imperial rule (95). This was
short-lived because Ashikaga Takauji, the new military shogun, brought together
a force of the samurai class to revolt against the new imperial rule in 1336 (96).
He was able to oust the emperor and create a new military rule known as the
Ashikaga shogunate, thus starting the Muromachi period. Keeping the capital in
Kyoto, the Ashikaga shogunate attempted to stabilize war-torn Japan and aided
in the development of the household system (98). The feudal manorial system
had fallen apart and individual households became solitary units focused on in-
dividual lineage rather than ef structure (98). The social structure of Japan had
greatly changed, and the Ashikaga shogunate needed a way to organize the people.
The Ashikaga shogunate, much like the Kamakura bakufu, were patrons of
Rinzai Zen Buddhism, and they made it their state cult. Rinzai Monks were
employed by the shogunate to deal with state affairs. The ve Gozan temples
had been completed, and they were used to create a symbiotic relationship be-
tween the government and the Rinzai Zen Buddhists (Borup 16). The govern-
ment warriors were considered lay monks, and the Buddhist monks would wear
military arms to show balance (16). From this system, the shogunate called for the
construction of more Zen temples as part of the Gozan system in all sixty-six
localities of Japan as a way to disperse control over the localities in a top-down
format (Dumoulin 178). Any temples that did not belong to the Gozan system
were known as ringe, meaning “below the grove,” giving the Rinzai Zen temples a
certain kind of elite connotation (Borup 16). This explains the use of the slogan
“Rinzai for the Shogun, Soto for the peasants,” and why Rinzai was only really
practiced by the warrior class and elite members of society during this period
(Collcutt 29). In this period, Rinzai Zen Buddhism not only gained enough sup-
port to build temples throughout Japan, but it also became the state cult of the
Ashikaga shogunate and was practiced by the elite members of society.
After the Ashikaga shogunate fell in 1567, Japan underwent a power struggle
that ended with unication under Tokugawa Leyasu, who defeated the combined
opposition at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 (Bellah 11). His victory signalled
the beginning of the supreme rule of the Tokugawa shogunate over Japan, which
would be a dark time for Rinzai Zen Buddhism (Borup 17). This was considered
Japan’s movement from the Medieval Period into the Early Modern Period (Bel-
lah 7). The Tokugawa shogunate favoured the concepts and ideals of Neo-Con-
fucianism and instituted it as the state cult (91). Having conquered all of Japan,
the Tokugawa shogunate also had to reinforce the notion that they were its central
power, not the emperor. This was completed through complex regulations that
were instituted throughout Japan in order to bureaucratize and redene the so-
cial norms of society (Kitagawa 135). One of these changes was the reformation
of the system of Buddhist temples within Japan. Christianity was starting to
spread into Japan during this period, and the Tokugawa shogunate, since it viewed
Christianity as an evil force that would destroy political stability and social har-
14
mony, organized a registration system as a way to battle it (Hur 47). Every Japa-
nese person had to register as a parishioner in a Buddhist temple every year to
prove they were not Christian (Bellah 51). This generated a huge inux of mem-
bers to various sects of Buddhism, but these new members would only come to
the temple during special holidays and whenever they were registering (52). The
Tokugawa shogunate also instituted a strict code of rules over the Buddhist sects
so that they would not come into any conict, thus controlling all sects from the
top (Earhart 136). Rinzai Zen Buddhism had taken a hard hit during this period
as it was no longer the state sect, and they were forced to downsize from several
main temples to a hierarchal system which allowed for only one main temple
and several smaller temples linked to it (Borup 18). This left Rinzai Zen Bud-
dhism in a difcult situation. Not only had they lost their patronage and several
of their large temples, but they had also lost their large elite following. If Rinzai
was going to survive the Tokugawa Period, it needed to nd a way to attract the
common Japanese people.
Enter Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768), one of the most inuential Zen Buddhist
masters of the last 500 years. He grew up as a commoner and at an early age
devoted himself to the study of Buddhism (Yampolsky 12). He was greatly un-
settled by a description of the eight hot hells and eight cold hells and began to
study various types of Buddhism as a way to avoid them (Hyers 22). He eventu-
ally was confronted by the mu koan, and it struck him with a sort of awakening
and made him study it unwaveringly (24). He travelled extensively during the
next period of his life, and when he was twenty-four he attained a moment of
awakening that sent him to travel from temple to temple attempting to learn
more (Yampolsky 12). When he reached the age of thirty-two, he returned to the
temple in his hometown to begin teaching (13).
Hakuin’s teachings centered on a new form of practice he developed. He
went back to the original intensive koan study of the Chinese Sung Period and
brought in new aspects, thereby creating a new living Zen that would be attrac-
tive to the common Japanese people (12). Hakuin brought this new form of
practice to the common Japanese people by going out into the elds. There,
he taught them by painting calligraphy and reciting his personal poetry so that
it would be easier to understand (Moate 94). He maintained a calm and joyful
persona while drawing pictures that would embody the ideas of Zen, such as the
“Long-armed Monkey,” teaching the common people about the ideas of an ac-
tive approach to koan practice (94). According to Hakuin, the important aspect
of Rinzai Zen was not zazen, but rather the meditation on the koan itself. If one
were to focus on a koan, it did not matter if they were sitting, standing, walking,
or working; they would still be performing good practice and bettering their
chances for awakening (Hyers 38). Since the common people were daily workers
and usually did not have the time to meditate on a koan in zazen for hours on
end, Hakuin’s new practices were very appealing to them.
On top of developing a way for the common Japanese people to be more
involved in Rinzai Zen, Hakuin developed ways for students in the temple to
attain enlightenment. In the temple, he took on the persona of a socially unset-
15
tling Zen master. He would take on a racy vocabulary and be angered very easily
(35). Torei, his disciple, described him as “a sheer cliff towering abruptly before
him. A menacing presence stalking the temple like a great ox, glaring around with
the eyes of an angry tiger” (Torei, Biography of Hakuin; Waddell, Mirror Cave
204). Hakuin would use verbal abuse, physical abuse, rejection, and frustration to
bring the student to a point at which they could hopefully attain enlightenment
(Hyers 36). He developed a form of practice in which the master would give the
student a koan to meditate on, and the student would be given a chance to give
an answer to the master, acting as a guide, in any form they wanted (Borup 165).
This practice was based on the several levels of enlightenment he obtained while
meditating on different individual koans. By following this regimen, it is hoped
that the student will pass one, achieving a sort of awakening, and then move
on to another koan (Hyers 30). Hakuin rst used the mu koan when attempting
to start a student off on the process of koan meditation, but later in his life he
created a koan of his own: “What is the sound of one hand clapping” (30)? His
training regimen was brash and bold, but he believed it worked, and it attracted
hundreds of students (Waddell, Essential Teachings xix).
Hakuin taught for several years of his life, accepting any student that would
promise to have three things: an overriding faith, a great doubt when facing the
koans, and a strong aspiration and perseverance (Yampolsky 13). His concept of
an active approach to koan practice could have been applied to all walks of life,
be it working in a eld, painting calligraphy, ghting in battle, pouring tea, or go-
ing to bed. His teachings stretched over social class, bringing people from both
the common Japanese populace and the elite classes (Waddell, Essential Teach-
ings xx). He did not care where his students were from, so long as they were
dedicated to their own inner development through his form of koan meditation.
“What is 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” (Hakuin, Orategama I).
Through the examination of the history of the Rinzai Zen Buddhist tradi-
tion, it can be seen that it started from a position of political grace and gained
a huge foothold in the Japanese shogunate governments of the Medieval Period.
It was able to build up its inuence through the patronage of the military class,
who favoured a more natural approach to enlightenment. The Tokugawa Period
saw the decline of Rinzai Zen because it lost the position of state cult to Neo-
Confucianism. Having been left with few followers within the elite class and
even fewer of the common people, Rinzai Zen Buddhism needed to attract the
common Japanese populace in order to survive as a Buddhist sect. Zen master
Hakuin came during the middle of the Tokugawa Period and developed a form
of active koan meditation drawing on old and new sources, which did not conne
the practitioner to zazen. This was attractive to the common populace. Hakuin
also developed a new form of koan testing that was able to develop the practice
16
of koan meditation so that it would be possible for students to attain several
levels of awakening, and this was attractive to the elite class. During its time of
need, Zen master Hakuin was able to revitalize interest in the Rinzai Zen Bud-
dhist sect and train hundreds more students with his use of koans, calligraphy
and poetry. With the sole goal of bringing his students to a point in which they
could achieve an awakening, Hakuin would use whatever tools he had in order to
create the ideal grounds for his students’ enlightenment.
Notes
1. Eisai is also suggested to have begun the tradition of tea in Japan
after he brought several seeds back from China.
BiBliography
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Torei. The Chronological Biography of Zen Master Hakuin.
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