When you experience enlightenment, or when you are enlightened, you will understand things more freely. You don’t mind what people call you. “Ordinary man.” “Okay, I am an ordinary man.” “You are buddha?” “Yes, I am buddha.” “How can you be a buddha and an ordinary man?” “Oh, I don’t know why, but actually I am buddha and an ordinary man.” It doesn’t matter. Whatever they say [laughs], that is all right.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-30 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.