Hakuin Ekaku: “Song of Meditation”

Glossary

• Buddha: a person who has attained full prajna, or enlightenment
• fourfold Wisdom: the four prajnas (or cognitions or cardinal principles) of Buddhahood
• karma: the effects of a person’s actions, which determine his destiny in his next incarnation
• Lotus: in Buddhism, an important symbol of the purification of the mind and body; Lotus Land, or Pure Land, is the celestial realm or pure abode of a Buddha or bodhisattva
• Mahayana: a branch or school of Buddhism whose goal was bodhisattva (“enlightened existence”), the process of becoming a compassionate, heroic person dedicated to saving all beings
• Samadhi: the highest level of concentrated, complete meditation
• six worlds: the realms, or kinds of existence, to which sentient beings are subject