Student: What does it mean to say, “Everything is mind?”
SR:
“Everything is mind.” Mind includes everything. We take
this viewpoint. We are concerned about each individual's attainment or
nirvana or happiness. So happiness should be for each one of us. We do not just talk
about mind in scientific way. When we say “mind,” that mind is
someone's mind: my mind, or your mind, or someone's mind who is concerned about
his own life. If so, mind includes various problems he will see or feel he is involved in. So for him, mind is his hand, mind is his room, mind
is his family, mind is his country. Because his mind is concerned with
people, with family, with his body. So in this sense mind and body is one -- in a religious sense. But
for science, you know, mind is some function, some object of
study. But for us it is the point we're most concerned about, and each one's
problem is mind. Do you understand the difference? So we are talking about each
one's mind. I am talking about my mind, and you are listening to your mind
[laughs]. If so, that mind includes all the
problems you have. Without mind, there is no [laughs] problem. Without you, there is no problem [laughs]. Because there is you, you have problem. Because
you have mind, small or big, I don't know [laughs]. Anyway, because you have
your mind, there is a problem. So whatever it is, the problem you have is your
mind.
Student
I: Isn't it also true from the other side, that if -- I don't know -- how to
say it-- when you just know mind, it's --
Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com - Edited by DC