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Wednesday, December 10, 2025

A Practice of Big Mind

There is a big misunderstanding in our practice, I think. Most people have a misunderstanding that practice is some way we try to get out of evil. That if we train, eventually we will attain enlightenment, and we will be completely free from evil. This is the usual understanding. But that practice is small practice, not big practice, not pure practice. There is no big mind in that practice. So, to know what is true buddha-nature—what is true nature—being aware of it, and practicing as a practice of big mind is our true practice.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A 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.