You know, when your practice is not good, you are a poor buddha [laughs]. If your practice is good, you are good buddha. And poor and good are also independent buddha. Poor is buddha, and you are buddha; and good is buddha, and you are buddha too. For every word, or whatever you think, whatever you say, every word becomes buddha. Then there is no trouble [laughs]. I am buddha. If I say “I am buddha,” “I” is buddha, “am” is buddha, “b” is buddha, and “buddha” is of course buddha. Buddha, buddha, buddha [laughter]. That is how you say buddha, buddha, buddha, buddha [laughter]. There is no need to translate it into English [laughter]. There is no need to be bothered by a fancy explanation of Buddhism [laughs]. If you say “buddha, buddha, buddha, buddha” [laughs], that is the way. That is shikantaza, you know: everything is buddha. So, sitting is buddha, lying down is buddha, and whatever you say, each word is buddha. Dogen understood in this way, so he said, “When it is cold, you should be a cold buddha. When it is hot, you should be a hot buddha.”
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 - 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.
