What is this 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 EkakuRead
At this moment, is there anything lacking? Nirvana is right here now before our eyes. This place is the lotus land. This body now is the Buddha.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the idea that enlightenment and fulfillment are found in the present moment, not in some distant future.
Hakuin Ekaku's quote encourages us to recognize that everything we need for enlightenment and contentment is already available to us in the present moment. It suggests that nirvana, or a state of ultimate peace and understanding, is not a distant goal but is already present in our everyday experiences, where we can find beauty and connection in the 'lotus land' of our current existence. By acknowledging that our current body and experiences are already manifestations of the divine, we are urged to shift our perspective and appreciate the here and now.
Themes
NirvanaEnlightenmentPresentMindfulnessBuddhism
In practice
Example use cases
During a meditation session, a teacher may use this quote to encourage students to focus on their current experience.
More from Hakuin Ekaku
All quotes βMeditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.
Hakuin EkakuRead
What is the sound of one hand?
Hakuin EkakuRead
All beings are by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas.
Hakuin EkakuRead
Similar quotes
I see anarchism as the theoretical ideal to which we are all gradually evolving to a point where everybody can tell the truth to everybody else and nobody can get punished for it. That can only happen without hierarchy and without people having the authority to punish other people.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
The title of hero is bestowed by the survivors upon the fallen, who themselves know nothing of heroism.
Johan HuizingaRead
Things themselves cannot touch the soul, not in the least degree, nor have they admission to the soul nor can they turn or move the soul: it turns and moves itself alone and whatever judgment it may think proper to make, such it makes by remaking for itself the things that present themselves to it
Marcus AureliusRead
In quitting this strange world he has once again preceded me by a little. That doesn't mean anything. For those of us who believe in physics, this separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however tenacious.
Albert EinsteinRead
The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.
Mark TwainRead
What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you a disproof of the love of, or the existence of, God?
Antony FlewRead