Kitano Zenji was the head monk at Eiheiji Monastery. He told us how he gave up smoking. He told us he was a very bad smoker. But when he was traveling, he came across Hakone Pass in misty weather. So, sitting on the rock at the top of the pass, he took out a pipe and started to smoke. It is very good, as you know, to smoke in damp, misty weather. It was so nice that he was struck by the taste of it, and he determined to give up smoking [laughs, laughter]. That was his last smoke. Wherever he goes, even resting on top of a mountain after climbing up maybe eight miles, he didn’t lose the conviction of practicing zazen. “Oh!” [Laughs, laughter.] “I must give up!”
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-19 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
