This Very Body The Buddha

Pacific Zen Institute Summer Retreat, Occidental, CA June 11, 2009

China ink on xuan paper: 33.9 cm X 45.8 cm
Scroll: 45.5 cm X 140.1 cm

Listening to the last two phrases of Hakuin’s Song of Praise to Meditation, I picked up the “Tiger Claw” brush and made the downward stroke to “This very body the Buddha!” Each cell of my body felt at one with this statement. Then with the soft horizontal stroke to “This very place the lotus paradise!” a deep sense of peace filled my being.

If we can truly say this couplet, it may be that no other spiritual statement would be necessary.