“An ant circling the hand mill—a hint for the world.”¹

 

Hakuin painted this subject, an illustration of a koan, several times, using the same inscription. This work conveys the restricted worldview of an ant. Though the insect walks endlessly around the stone mill, expending great effort, he does not actually move forward; all his work is but an illusion, imperceptible to him but clearly visible to the viewer, who stands outside the scene. In addition, Hakuin’s use of a humble, quotidian object, such as a mill to grind tea, makes his teaching even more comprehensible to everyday people.

 

Hakuin expands on this inscription in his nine-volume Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn (Keisō dokuzui), in which he explains that the circular rotations of the mill are a metaphor for the endless suffering (samsara) of our earthly existence:

 

Plodding ants on the rim of an iron mill

Moving idly on and on, never stopping,

Like sentient beings revolving endlessly

Through the six paths of transmigration,

Being born here, then dying over there,

Becoming a hungry ghost or an animal.

If you want to escape this endless suffering

You must hear the sound of the single hand.²

 

His repeated use of this koan in both painting and text proves how meaningful, and perhaps how effective, it was for Hakuin’s teachings.

 

—Bradley Bailey