I’ll tell you another story. One day Yakusan Igen, the disciple of Sekito, was asked to give a lecture. He took the Abbot’s seat, sat for a while, and then went back to his room.
The director of the temple went to his room and said to him, “You hadn’t given us a lecture for a long time, so I asked you to give us one. But as soon as you appeared on the altar, you went back to your room. Why is that?”
Yakusan said, “There are many teachers. Some of them are teaching Buddhist precepts, and some are giving lectures on sutras, and I am a Zen master.” That was his answer. What do you think that is?
Ceremonial chair Rick Morton restored for the SFZC.
—cuke.com/ig
for links to the source of the photo.
Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-10-12-A as found on
shunryusuzuki.com,
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.