Gosh, this paragraph is so hard to edit so that it makes sense to someone not used to Suzuki's thinking. Here it is verbatim:
So, whether you kill fly or insect or not is up to the situation [laughs]. No one wants to kill anything, but to save other, you know, to fulfill your duty sometime you must. When you're at Tassajara, when—when you are taking care of your garden, you know, if you come back, when [laughs] when you see many insects [laughs] to zendo and practice zazen [laughs] we can know, we cannot save anything at Tassajara [laughs].
[Thinking about it.]
So, whether you kill fly or insect or not is up to the situation [laughs]. No one wants to kill anything [of course that's not true. He means none of you or us or ideally - it's a figure of speech, not a fact], but to save other, you know, [To save other? Maybe in order to save other beings like the plants in the garden that help to save us from starvation so to save us too] to fulfill your duty sometime you must. [I think of Krishna telling Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita that it's his duty to kill his cousins in battle] When you're at Tassajara, when—when you are taking care of your garden, you know, if you come back [this phrase is just in the way], when [laughs] when you see many insects [laughs] [you go] to zendo and practice zazen [laughs] we can know, we cannot save anything at Tassajara [laughs]. [Ends with humor, contradiction, not a statement of fact. The "at Tassajara" at the end could mean we learn this there and also seems to stand for everywhere.]
OK. How about
So, whether you kill flies or any insects or not is up to the situation [laughs]. We don't want to kill anything, but to save other beings or to fulfill our duty, sometimes we must. When we're at Tassajara taking care of the garden, we see many insects [laughs]. Then we go to the zendo and practice zazen [laughs] and we know we cannot save anything [laughs].
Feel free to see it all in another light. - dc
--------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed lecture tapes. Edited by DC - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo
