Scott Thornton, Hakuin’s Song of Zazen, March 16, 2023

Scott Thornton’s dharma-talk explores Hakuin and Hakuin’s famous Song of Zazen. This inspiring and joyful chant opens with All Beings are Buddha - Freedom is here with us, right now. Freedom from separateness. If we see clearly, our self is no self.
Compared to ancient Zen masters, Hakuin is fairly contemporary (1680-1769) He was from a pious family and from a young age wanted to become a monk to avoid rebirth into hell. At 15 he joined the local monastery and had a breakthrough at age 21 which wasn’t confirmed by the monastery master so he left and went on to study poetry, and calligraphy then learned about Buddhist masters from the Ming dynasty. Inspired, Hakuin rededicated himself to practice, and at age 42 he had a tremendous opening with this insight: the awakening he’d been seeking all these years, was nothing more than compassion and giving to others. He returned home and became a priest at the local temple for the remainder of his life.
Scott is an assistant Sanbo Zen Teacher and is the director of Mountain Cloud's Residency program. He is also a psychotherapist and musician,
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