Inori no Mori祈りの杜working title

Read, reflect, pray

Hakuin’s Song in Praise of Zazen

白隠禅師坐禅和讃はくいんぜんじざぜんわさん

A Japanese hymn praising zazen, familiar in Rinzai practice. Its wording and reading follow the cited edition; melodies and readings can differ.

English meaning and source text

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English meaning

About this English rendering

This site’s English rendering of the Japanese meaning guide, aligned with this edition. It is separate from the source words for recitation and is not an official liturgy. Sacred sounds are explained where possible, not given speculative literal translations. Historical beliefs, royal authority, illness and protection claims belong to the text; they are not present-day judgments, medical advice or guarantees of results.

Living beings are originally Buddhas. It is like water and ice:

apart from water there is no ice; apart from living beings there is no Buddha.

Not knowing how near the Buddha is, beings search far away. How fleeting and futile!

It is like crying out with thirst while standing in water.

It is no different from a wealthy family’s child wandering lost in a poor village.

The cause of wandering through painful realms is the dark path of one’s own ignorance.

Following darkness upon darkness, when could one leave the realm of birth and death?

The meditation of the great vehicle cannot be praised enough, however much one praises it.

Giving, keeping precepts, and the other perfections; nembutsu, repentance, and practice—

the many kinds of good deeds all return to this.

Even one who sits once and cultivates meditation dissolves immeasurable accumulated offences, the hymn declares.

Where then are the painful realms? The Pure Land itself is not far away.

When one is fortunate enough to hear this Dharma even once,

one who praises it and joyfully accepts it receives boundless blessing.

How much more so if one turns inward and directly awakens to one’s own nature.

That nature itself has no fixed essence and is already beyond empty argument.

The gateway where cause and effect are one opens; the single way, neither two nor three, runs straight through.

Taking the formless form as one’s own, going and returning are nowhere else.

Taking thought without thought as one’s thought, singing and dancing are the voice of the Dharma.

The unobstructed sky of samadhi is vast; the moon of the four Buddha wisdoms shines round and clear.

At this time, what is there to seek? The stillness in which afflictions cease appears before us.

This very place is the lotus land; this very body is the Buddha.

Source text and reading aid

Roman letters are provided for 21 of 22 lines. Readings not fully supplied in the source are left without Roman letters.

How to use the Roman letters

Roman letters follow the kana displayed in this site’s Japanese reader; some readings are editorial additions documented on the Japanese page. These are a reading aid, not restored Sanskrit or a recording of a temple’s chanting. Historical spellings (such as wo, wi, we and ha used as a particle) are kept. Double vowels and repeated vowels mark the written kana; rhythm and pronunciation can differ by tradition.

You can simply read the meaning or sit quietly. No recitation is required. For a temple or shrine’s own recitation, follow that tradition’s published guidance.

衆生(しゅじょう)本来(ほんらい)仏(ほとけ)なり 水(みず)と氷(こおり)の如(ごと)くにて

shujou honrai hotokenari mizuto koorino gotokunite

水(みず)を離(はな)れて氷(こおり)なく 衆生(しゅじょう)の外(ほか)に仏(ほとけ)なし

mizuwo hanarete koorinaku shujouno hokani hotokenashi

衆生(しゅじょう)近(ちか)きを知(しら)ずして 遠(とお)く求(もと)むるはかなさよ、

shujou chikakiwo shirazushite tooku motomuruhakanasayo,

譬(たと)へば水(みず)の中(なか)に居(い)て 渇(かつ)を叫(さけ)ぶか如(ごと)くなり

tatoheba mizuno nakani ite katsuwo sakebuka gotokunari

長者(ちょうじゃ)の家(いえ)の子(こ)となりて 貧里(ひんり)に迷(まよ)ふに異(こと)ならず

choujano ieno kotonarite hinrini mayofuni kotonarazu

悪趣(あくしゅ)輪廻(りんね)の因縁(いんねん)は 己(おのれ)が愚痴(ぐち)の闇路(やみじ)なり

akushu rinneno innenha onorega guchino yamijinari

闇路(やみじ)に闇路(やみじ)を蹈(ふみ)そへて いつか生死(しょうじ)を離(はな)るべき

yamijini yamijiwo fumisohete itsuka shoujiwo hanarubeki

夫(そ)れ摩訶衍(まかえん)の禅定(ぜんじょう)は 称歎(しょうたん)するに余(あまり)あり

sore makaenno zenjouha shoutansuruni amariari

布施(ふせ)や持戒(じかい)の諸波羅蜜(しょはらみつ) 念仏(ねんぶつ)懺悔(さんげ)修行(しゅぎょう)等(とう)

fuseya jikaino shoharamitsu nenbutsu sange shugyou tou

其(そ)の品(しな)多(おお)き諸善行(しょぜんぎょう) 皆(みな)この中(なか)に帰(き)するなり

sono shina ooki shozengyou minakono nakani kisurunari

一座(いちざ)の功(こう)をなす人(ひと)も 積(つみ)し無量(むりょう)の罪(つみ)ほろぶ

ichizano kouwonasu hitomo tsumishi muryouno tsumihorobu

悪趣(あくしゅ)何処(いずく)にありぬべき 浄土(じょうど)即(すなわ)ち遠(とお)からず

akushu izukuniarinubeki joudo sunawachi tookarazu

辱(かたじけな)くも此(こ)の法(のり)を 一(ひと)たび耳(みみ)にふるゝ時(とき)

讃歎(さんだん)随喜(ずいき)する人(ひと)は 福(ふく)を得(う)ること限(かぎり)なし

sandan zuikisuru hitoha fukuwo urukoto kagirinashi

況(いわん)や自(みずか)ら回向(えこう)して 直(じき)に自性(じしょう)を証(しょう)すれば

iwan'ya mizukara ekoushite jikini jishouwo shousureba

自性(じしょう)即(すなわ)ち無性(むしょう)にて 既(すで)に戯論(けろん)を離(はな)れなり

jishou sunawachi mushounite sudeni keronwo hanarenari

因果(いんが)一如(いちにょ)の門(もん)ひらけ 無二無三(むにむさん)の道(みち)直(なお)し

inga ichinyono monhirake munimusanno michi naoshi

無相(むそう)の相(そう)を相(そう)として 行(ゆく)も帰(かえ)るも余所(よそ)ならず

musouno souwo soutoshite yukumo kaerumo yosonarazu

無念(むねん)の念(ねん)を念(ねん)として 謡(うた)ふも舞(ま)ふも法(のり)の声(こえ)

munenno nenwo nentoshite utafumo mafumo norino koe

三昧(さんまい)無碍(むげ)の空(そら)ひろく 四智(しち)円明(えんみょう)の月(つき)さえん

sanmai mugeno sorahiroku shichi enmyouno tsukisaen

此(こ)の時(とき)何(なに)をか求(もと)むべき 寂滅(じゃくめつ)現前(げんぜん)するゆゑに

kono toki naniwoka motomubeki jakumetsu genzensuruyuweni

当所(とうしょ)即(すなわ)ち蓮華(れんげ)国(こく) 此(こ)の身(み)即(すなわ)ち仏(ほとけ)なり

tousho sunawachi renge koku kono mi sunawachi hotokenari

Sources and edition (1)

English explanations on this page were prepared by Inori no Mori from the cited text and its Japanese explanations. They are not an official translation or a prescribed liturgy.

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