Hakuin Zenji (1686–1769) was one of Japan’s great Zen masters.  His final awakening was when he was around forty-one.  It is said in his biography that one night as he was reading the chapter on parables from the Lotus Sutra upon hearing a sequence of churrs from a cricket that was in the foundation stones of the temple, Hakuin had a profound awakening.  

 

So what is such a realization like?  Well, first of all we have to realize what is obstructing our perfect view. According to Hakuin it is the discriminating mind.  This mind is always comparing things with itself using as its baseline the body.  When it hears of “the great boundless light” it compares this idea with what it already knows through the bodily senses.  It imagines a boundless light based on the lights it is already familiar with and so on.  This same mind is engaged in picture thinking.  But according to Hakuin: 

 

“When the discriminating mind is suddenly shattered and the enlightened essence suddenly appears, the filling of the universe with its boundless light is called “the great perfect mirror knowledge, the pure body of reality.”

 

 

Without the habitual presence of the discriminating mind interfering with us—instantly—we catch a glimpse of the perfect mirror which is called the Alaya, this being the passive side of pure Mind. According to the Buddha the Alaya is not dynamic; it simply reflects like a mirror; it is like a smooth waveless ocean, and so on.  In a word, it is like aether which stores all impressions or the same, informational torsion waves.  

 

In seeing this enlightened essence we saw the real Buddha (buddhadhatu), but the vision came too quickly and then seemed to leave (owing to our old corporeal habits). So we still have to cultivate this great and wonderful experience.  This takes many, many years.  In Zen we say, sudden awakening is followed by gradual cultivation.  In other words, the immediacy of awaking (the Bodhi seed) has to be mediated (grown into the Bodhi-tree).

 

According to Hakuin, this seeing is not perfect since it is unmediated—not fully worked out.  Hakuin says, “Your power of shining insight is not yet fully mature.  Therefore, if you don’t cultivate practice, you will be like a merchant who keeps his capital and doesn’t invest it.”  And so begins the hard work of the Bodhisattva saving sentient beings (sattvadhatu). 

 

Having seen the Alaya we are still unsure how this insight came about.  This is why Hakuin calls this stage the “the gate of inspiration”.  He says our shining insight is not strong enough.  We’re still subject to all kinds of weaknesses and afflictions.  It is only when we peel away layers and layers of our predispositions for corporeal attachment that we eventually discover also our straightforward Mind which is eternally shining forth.  This is the dynamic side we missed when we saw the passive mirror-like Alaya.  

 

Generally, I don’t discuss this insight because it is too subtle and likely to confuse many people.  Yet, we have to uncover the dynamic side of Mind—not just the passive Alaya side.  Hakuin speaks of it as shining through our senses.  For example, he says, “When you see something, shine through it.  Shine through the Five Aggregates that make up your body.”  All that confronts us we much shine through according to Hakuin.  This is a very esoteric teaching.  But I can say that the dynamic power of the shining through is very real when you discover it.  It needs underscoring that this is not a mental exercise as one might imagine shining through something.  It is a real ability.  

 

One day, when the pure shining meets the pure passive mirror, having passed through all things, you can only guess what will happen.  It is utterly profound.  Mind now perfectly interpenetrates itself in which Mind sees itself as independent (before it was dependent).  This event radiates and branches out invisibly (the Bodhi-tree).  We have to keep in mind that the Buddha did not aim to enlighten a few old baldies—this is a lower teaching.  The Buddha found a direct means to increase the light in the world—to help mankind evolve to a higher form of being.