How to organize this dualistic or paradoxical teaching into our actual life is the purpose of zazen practice. In zazen as I explained rather symbolically what does it mean to put this leg here and the other leg here. The right leg symbolizes our activity. The left is more or less the opposite, calmness of mind. If the left is wisdom, the right is practice, and when we cross our legs, it means we don’t know which is which [laughs]. So here we have already oneness, symbolically. Our posture is vertical without tipping left or right, back or forward. This is an expression of the perfect understanding of teaching which is beyond duality.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-06-29 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig
for links to the full Shunryu Suzuki lecture and the source of the photo.
Bill Kwong at Sokoji Temple 1965