It is inevitable for us to have shadows. But to step on your shadow [laughs] is impossible. How can you catch your shadow? If you try to step on your shadow, the shadow will be ahead of you. If you go one step behind, the shadow will be behind you. It is impossible. It is foolish to think “future” or “past.” Why don’t you catch yourself in this moment? When you are doing something, you are there. You are too attached to visible things.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-B 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.
