Instead of emphasizing time and space, Dogen emphasized actual relationships which exist just now. That is why he is very strict with what we do—how we treat everything. We may abuse something because we think there is some permanent existence [laughs]. But actually, we cannot abuse anything. It would create a problem because there is no such thing which can be abused. Everything is living existence which does not have an alternative way of expression. When I say something and you are listening, there is no alternative [laughs] expression of yourself or of me.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-26-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.
