Yakusan Zenji had not given lectures for a long time when monks asked him to give them a lecture. Yakusan Zenji mounted the altar, looked at every monk one by one, came down from the altar, and went back to his room. The monk who was responsible for the zendo asked him why he didn't give any lecture? Yakusan said, there are scripture masters and Buddhist philosophy masters, and I am a master of Zen. Don't wonder who I am.
Zen monks are Zen monks because they speak fluently without saying anything—just by everyday activity. That is how Zen students should be. And we should take care of our practice, not only zazen practice but whatever we do. I am very grateful that you observe our various ways without asking why we do this or why we should do that. Whatever you do, that is our practice. There you will find out yourself. Our practice is valuable because we can find ourselves by what we do in each moment.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
