QuoteProject
What is this true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan.
Hakuin Ekaku
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True meditation encompasses all aspects of life, turning every action and thought into a unified experience.

Hakuin Ekaku's quote on true meditation emphasizes the importance of integrating every facet of existence into a single, harmonious experience. Instead of viewing meditation as a detached practice, he suggests that it involves embracing all actions and dualities—like good and evil, gain and loss—as part of a unified whole. This perspective encourages a deeper understanding of life, where mundane activities and profound insights coexist and contribute to one's meditative state.

Themes

MeditationMindfulnessUnityLifeAction

In practice

Example use cases

During a yoga class, the instructor can use this quote to inspire participants to find mindfulness in all their movements.

More from Hakuin Ekaku

Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.
Hakuin EkakuRead
What is the sound of one hand?
Hakuin EkakuRead
At this moment, is there anything lacking? Nirvana is right here now before our eyes. This place is the lotus land. This body now is the Buddha.
Hakuin EkakuRead
All beings are by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas.
Hakuin EkakuRead

Similar quotes

Sometimes I am asked if I know 'the response to Auschwitz; I answer that not only do I not know it, but that I don't even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response.
Elie WieselRead
Hell is not fire and brimstone, not a place where you are punished for lying or cheating or stealing. Hell is wanting to be something and somewhere different from where you are.
Stephen LevineRead
I regard it (the Constitution) as the work of the purest patriots and wisest statesman that ever existed, aided by the smiles of a benign Providence; it almost appears a "Divine interposition in our behalf... the hand that destroys our Constitution rends our Union asunder forever.
Daniel WebsterRead
Lies 1: There is only the present and nothing to remember. Lies 2: Time is a straight line. Lies 3: The difference between the past and the futures is that one has happened while the other has not. Lies 4: We can only be in one place at a time. Lies 5: Any proposition that contains the word 'finite' (the world, the universe, experience, ourselves...) Lies 6: Reality as something which can be agreed upon. Lies 7: Reality is truth.
Jeanette WintersonRead
I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
I watch one news channel until my soul can't take it anymore. It's the background of my life.
John OliverRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.