Jack Weller: Docho Roshi, I am troubled by your saying that you don’t trust us.
SR: [Laughs.] Yeah. I want to encourage you to stick to something, not in terms of good or bad, but anyway [laughs]. Like water sticks to a lower place. Without that kind of spirit, until we can see that kind of practice in some other person, we cannot trust anyone.
Jack: Then we can trust them, right?
SR: [Laughs.] Yeah.
Jack: So we can trust you.
SR: [Laughing.] Ho!
Jack: But you cannot trust us.
SR: Yeah, maybe. I am trying always to stick to something, not because it is good or bad—whether it is good or bad. When you stick to one thing only, it may be sometimes understood as something good. Sometimes it may be understood as something which is bad. But whether it is good or bad, is not the question. If it is helpful to me and for others, we should stick to one 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.
