Read, reflect, pray
Hakuin’s Song in Praise of Zazen
白隠禅師坐禅和讃
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
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.
衆生本来仏なり 水と氷の如くにて
shujou honrai hotokenari mizuto koorino gotokunite
水を離れて氷なく 衆生の外に仏なし
mizuwo hanarete koorinaku shujouno hokani hotokenashi
衆生近きを知ずして 遠く求むるはかなさよ、
shujou chikakiwo shirazushite tooku motomuruhakanasayo,
譬へば水の中に居て 渇を叫ぶか如くなり
tatoheba mizuno nakani ite katsuwo sakebuka gotokunari
長者の家の子となりて 貧里に迷ふに異ならず
choujano ieno kotonarite hinrini mayofuni kotonarazu
悪趣輪廻の因縁は 己が愚痴の闇路なり
akushu rinneno innenha onorega guchino yamijinari
闇路に闇路を蹈そへて いつか生死を離るべき
yamijini yamijiwo fumisohete itsuka shoujiwo hanarubeki
夫れ摩訶衍の禅定は 称歎するに余あり
sore makaenno zenjouha shoutansuruni amariari
布施や持戒の諸波羅蜜 念仏懺悔修行等
fuseya jikaino shoharamitsu nenbutsu sange shugyou tou
其の品多き諸善行 皆この中に帰するなり
sono shina ooki shozengyou minakono nakani kisurunari
一座の功をなす人も 積し無量の罪ほろぶ
ichizano kouwonasu hitomo tsumishi muryouno tsumihorobu
悪趣何処にありぬべき 浄土即ち遠からず
akushu izukuniarinubeki joudo sunawachi tookarazu
辱くも此の法を 一たび耳にふるゝ時
讃歎随喜する人は 福を得ること限なし
sandan zuikisuru hitoha fukuwo urukoto kagirinashi
況や自ら回向して 直に自性を証すれば
iwan'ya mizukara ekoushite jikini jishouwo shousureba
自性即ち無性にて 既に戯論を離れなり
jishou sunawachi mushounite sudeni keronwo hanarenari
因果一如の門ひらけ 無二無三の道直し
inga ichinyono monhirake munimusanno michi naoshi
無相の相を相として 行も帰るも余所ならず
musouno souwo soutoshite yukumo kaerumo yosonarazu
無念の念を念として 謡ふも舞ふも法の声
munenno nenwo nentoshite utafumo mafumo norino koe
三昧無碍の空ひろく 四智円明の月さえん
sanmai mugeno sorahiroku shichi enmyouno tsukisaen
此の時何をか求むべき 寂滅現前するゆゑに
kono toki naniwoka motomubeki jakumetsu genzensuruyuweni
当所即ち蓮華国 此の身即ち仏なり
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.