The Publisher is grateful for the support provided by Rolex Japan Ltd to underwrite this edition. And our thanks to Bruce R. Bailey, a great friend to this project. Copyright © 2017 by Norman Waddell All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. ISBN: 978-1-61902-931-6 THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Names: Hakuin, 1686–1769, author. Title: Complete poison blossoms from a thicket of thorn : the zen records of Hakuin Ekaku / Hakuin Zenji ; translated by Norman Waddell. Other titles: Keisåo dokuzui. English Description: Berkeley, CA : Counterpoint Press, [2017] Identifiers: LCCN 2017007544 | ISBN 9781619029316 (hardcover) Subjects: LCSH: Zen Buddhism—Early works to 1800. Classification: LCC BQ9399.E594 K4513 2017 | DDC 294.3/927—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007544 Jacket designed by Kelly Winton Book composition by VJB/Scribe COUNTERPOINT 2560 Ninth Street, Suite 318 Berkeley, CA 94710 www.counterpointpress.com Printed in the United States of America Distributed by Publishers Group West 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To the Memory of R. H. Blyth CONTENTS Chronology of Hakuin’s Life Introduction BOOK ONE Instructions to the Assembly (Jishū) BOOK TWO Instructions to the Assembly (Jishū) (continued) General Discourses (Fusetsu) Verse Comments on Old Koans (Juko) Examining Old Koans (Koko) BOOK THREE Oral Secrets of the Sōtō School’s Five Ranks Dharma Words (Hōgo) Words at Minor Buddhist Observances (Shōbutsuji) BOOK FOUR Explications (Ben) BOOK FIVE Accounts and Records (Ki) Explanations of Dharma Names (Setsu) BOOK SIX Letters (Sho) BOOK SEVEN Prefaces (Jo) Postscripts (Batsu) Inscriptions (Mei) BOOK EIGHT Inscriptions for Paintings (San) BOOK NINE Religious Verses (Geju) BOOK TEN: SUPPLEMENT ONE Heart Sutra — Capping Words for the Heart Sutra Instructions to the Assembly (Jishū) Miscellaneous Writings (Zatsubun) Inscriptions for Paintings (San) Religious Verses (Geju) BOOK ELEVEN: SUPPLEMENT TWO Gudō’s Lingering Radiance (Hōkan Ishō) Select Glossary List of Terms Select Bibliography COMPLETE POISON BLOSSOMS FROM A THICKET OF THORN CHRONOLOGY OF HAKUIN’S LIFE 1685 Born to the Nagasawa family of Hara, a village in Suruga province that served as a post station on the Tokaido road linking Edo and Kyoto 1695–98 Performs austerities and sutra recitations to allay fears of hell 1699 Ordained by Tanrei Soden at the Rinzai temple Shoin-ji next to the family home, receiving the name “Ekaku,” “Wise Crane.” Becomes student of Sokudo Fueki at Daisho-ji in Numazu 1703–17 Extended Zen pilgrimage around the central and western Japanese provinces 1704 Studies literature with Bao Rojin in Mino province 1705 Resumes pilgrimage; visits temples in western Japan and Shikoku 1707 Returns to Mino to nurse Priest Bao, devoting nights to zazen. At Shoin-ji during catastrophic eruption of nearby Mount Fuji 1708–10 Enlightenment at Eigan-ji in Echigo province. Deepens attainment with eight months of study under Shoju Rojin in Shinano province. Resumes pilgrimage; feels “lack of freedom” in everyday life. “Zen sickness” appears; he overcomes it using a therapeutic meditation learned from the hermit Hakuyu 1712 Nurses Sokudo, devotes spare moments to zazen and study of Zen records 1713–14 Visits Obaku priest Egoku; enters training hall of Inryo-ji, Soto temple in Izumi province 1715–16 Solitary practice at Mount Iwataki (Mino); returns at ailing father’s request to reside at Shoin-ji 1717 Installed as priest of Shoin-ji; continues post-satori training 1718 Adopts name “Hakuin.” Begins to lecture on Zen texts 1726 Experiences decisive enlightenment while reading Lotus Sutra 1727–47 Instructs students at Shoin-ji 1740 First large lecture meeting — on the Record of Hsu-t’ang — attended by four hundred people; recognized as a leading Zen teacher 1743 First book, Sokko-roku kaien-fusetsu, is published 1747–ca. While teaching at Shoin-ji travels 1760 extensively to teach at other temples; publishes many works in Japanese and Chinese 1751 Lectures on Blue Cliff Record at Yogen-in subtemple of Myoshin-ji headquarters temple in Kyoto 1758 Publishes Gudo’s (Precious Mirror’s) Lingering Radiance. Purchases Ryutaku-ji site in Mishima 1759 Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn and Supplement published this year or next 1760 Appoints Torei abbot of newly built Ryutaku-ji 1763 Physical debility increases 1764 Suio Genro installed as successor at Shoin-ji 1766 Announces will no longer receive students. Autobiographical Wild Ivy published 1767 Lectures on Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn at Ryutaku-ji 1768 Lectures on Supplement to Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn. Condition deteriorates; entrusts Suio with personal affairs; dies on eleventh day of the twelfth month INTRODUCTION THIS BOOK IS a complete annotated translation of Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn (Japanese title: Keisō dokuzui), a work in nine volumes that contains oral and written teachings that Zen master Hakuin (1685–1768) delivered or otherwise presented to his students. It comprises material spanning a period of roughly fifty years, the earliest pieces from Hakuin’s mid-twenties, when he was still engaged in his Zen pilgrimage, and the latest from his early seventies, when Poison Blossoms was compiled. Two supplements are also translated, Supplement to Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn (Keisō-dokuzui shūi) and Gudō’s Lingering Radiance (Hōkan Ishō), both published at around the same time as the main collection. Iida Tōin (1863–1937), one of the most highly respected Japanese Zen masters of the modern period, with strong roots in both Sōtō and Rinzai traditions, has this to say about Poison Blossoms: Anyone who wants to understand Master Hakuin must read Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn. Half-baked Zen teachers who disparage Hakuin without having read it are like blind men groping at an elephant. Although as the title indicates it contains much material that is extremely difficult to grasp, how can anyone claiming to be a descendant of Hakuin really know him unless he has read this work? I have always kept my own copy close at hand. It gives me the feeling that I am living together with the old master (Zen’yū ni ataeru no sho, A Book for My Zen Friends, pp. 305–6). In addition to being the longest of Hakuin’s many publications, Poison Blossoms is arguably his most important as well. Statements Hakuin makes in his letters — “everyone is urging me to deliver lectures on my records in Kyoto [as soon as they are published]. It will help to make them more widely known” — are an indication of the high expectations he and his followers had for the work. The great effort he took to get it into print may also be seen to reflect an awareness of its significance as a literary legacy: a sense that this might be the work by which later generations would judge him. Like his contemporary Samuel Johnson, who opined that every man’s life can be best written by himself, Hakuin was apparently convinced that the surest way to guarantee that these important records of his teaching career were published in the right manner was to publish them himself. In contrast to most of Hakuin’s other writings, which were aimed primarily at his contemporaries, Poison Blossoms and the Chronological Biography of Zen Master Hakuin, both of which began being compiled in his seventies, can be said to have their sights on posterity. Despite its importance Poison Blossoms has remained largely unread to this day, even by priests of Hakuin’s own Rinzai school. In contrast to such staples of Hakuin Zen as Yasenkanna (Idle Talk on a Night Boat) and Oradegama, which have appeared over the years in copiously annotated editions and attracted a wide variety of readers, Poison Blossoms is still virtually unknown. The reason for this disregard is undoubtedly the difficulty of much of the text, and yet it was, ironically enough, that very obstacle that has provided modern readers with the keys to unlock its secrets. After Poison Blossoms was published in Hakuin’s mid-seventies, he was soon lecturing on it, giving his students Zen-type expositions of its contents. He was at the same time also explaining a great many of the difficult passages and allusions that fill the work. The Chronological Biography records lectures he made on Poison Blossoms in his eighty-third year, and on the Supplement the following year, and apparently there were other such occasions as well. Tōrei and other leading disciples brought their own copies of Poison Blossoms to these assemblies, and inscribed their teacher’s comments and explanations into them. The annotations and transcriptions they made, often quoting Hakuin’s words verbatim, even replicating sallies he delivered using the distinctive colloquialisms of his Suruga dialect, give the reader the feeling that he is sitting in on one of the sessions. These annotated copies of Poison Blossoms, especially those by Hakuin’s leading disciples, are of the greatest value, for in inscribing their teacher’s words for their own use, these young monks enabled future readers to grasp the true meaning of a great many passages that otherwise would remain perplexing, not to say incomprehensible, and keep the work from being read and understood as Hakuin meant it to be. Poison Blossoms belongs the goroku (Chinese, yu-lu; “recorded sayings”) genre of Zen literature that has been used for over a thousand years in China, Korea, and Japan to preserve the words and deeds of eminent teachers for posterity. Compilations of these records for prominent Zen teachers, published over the centuries, have accumulated into a repository of teachings, dialogues, anecdotes, and writings that constitute by far the largest body of material in the Zen school’s enormous literary canon.