Hakuin

Sentient beings are in essence buddhas.
It is like water and ice.
There is no ice without water,
there are no buddhas outside sentient beings.

What a shame, sentient beings seek afar,
not knowing what is at hand.
It is like wailing from thirst
in the midst of water
or wandering lost among the poor,
although born a rich man's child.

The cause of rebirth in the six realms
is the darkness of our delusion.
Treading dark path after dark path
when can we escape birth and death?

Mahayana Zen meditation
goes beyond all praise
Giving, keeping precepts, and the other perfections,
chanting Buddha's name, repentance, training and
many other kinds of wholesome deeds
all find their source in zazen.

When you sit even once,
the merit obliterates countless wrongdoings.
How can there be evil realms?
The Pure Land is not far.

If by good fortune you have the occasion
to hear this teaching.
admire it and rejoice in it.

You will attain boundless happiness-
how much more if you dedicate yourself
and realize your own nature directly.

This own-nature is no nature.
You are already apart from useless discussions.
The gate opens where cause and effect are inseparable,.
The road of not-two, not-three goes straight ahead.

Make the form formless form,
going and returning, not anywhere else.
Make the thought thoughtless thought,
singing and dancing, the dharma voice.

How vast the sky of unobstructed concentration!
How brilliant the full moon of fourfold wisdom!

At this very moment, what can be sought?
Nirvana is immediate.
This place is the lotus land.
This body is the buddha body.