Sally Block: You have told us that we are not alike at all and also you tell us that we should develop consideration for each other. How can we develop a feeling for what goes on in other people’s minds, for how they think, how they react, why they react and how they live, so that we can develop consideration for them?
SR: To understand reality from various angles even though it is not possible to understand things from various angles we should reserve always some understanding for someone else and try to understand others’ feelings, others’ understanding. Their understanding may not always be right, sometimes wrong. But without being caught by the idea of right or wrong we should try to understand something which is wrong as well as something which is right. This is very difficult. But the only way is to practice zazen. Your everyday life will be good when your practice is good because your everyday life will be supported by your power of practice. So, the best way for us is to be concentrated on our zazen practice. This is anyway the most important point. Everyday practice will be taken care of if your everyday life is concentrated on your zazen practice.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-11-11 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.