Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Joy

In zazen, our mind should not be in a state of contamination or in the state of sleepiness, you know. If we are sleeping, we cannot practice zazen. But on the other hand, if our mind is in a state of agitation or state of extreme joy, we cannot practice our way. And describing this extreme joy, Chinese people used two words-- two characters. One is culminating joy, you know. One is culmination of joy. And one character is regretfulness [laughs], you know. It describes to the point if the culmination of joy happens to us, next moment will be the regret [laughs].  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from thee links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.