The other day someone whom I met in New York
came yesterday he came to San Francisco and I saw him and he is working with U
Thant for eighteen years and he is from the same country with U Thant. And he
practiced various ways and he told me what kind of experience he had and he
asked me, “Which is your practice?”
He had many experiences of practice. And when I said, “This is our practice”, he was very glad to hear that. He said. “I thought this was the best practice.” And we talked about when we have conflict in our world. The cause of the conflict is some fixed idea or one-sided idea. So when everyone knows the value of pure practice we will have no conflict in our world and he was so glad. And he agreed with me and I thought this is my secret of practice and Dogen Zenji’s way. He repeats in his Shobogenzo this point. If you have this point you can practice various ways and you can find out the meaning of the various practices without being caught by it. If you do not realize this point you will be easily caught by some particular practice and you will say, ‘This is enlightenment. This is perfect practice. This is our way. The rest of the ways are not perfect. This is the best way.’ This is big, big mistake. There is no particular way in our true practice. This -- in this understanding you should find out your -- and you should know what is your practice you have now. Then you will now, knowing the advantage and disadvantage of the practice, some special practice, you can practice it. If you do not know this practice you will ignore the disadvantage of the practice, and you will emphasize good part of it but eventually you will find out the worst side of the practice and you will be discouraged when it is too late. This is very silly. This is -- we are very grateful for the ancient teachers to point out strictly this point. [When Suzuki says "this is our practice" he might be referring to the point he made just before this which is yesterday's post. But it also stands on its own. - dc] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-13 found onshunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.
He had many experiences of practice. And when I said, “This is our practice”, he was very glad to hear that. He said. “I thought this was the best practice.” And we talked about when we have conflict in our world. The cause of the conflict is some fixed idea or one-sided idea. So when everyone knows the value of pure practice we will have no conflict in our world and he was so glad. And he agreed with me and I thought this is my secret of practice and Dogen Zenji’s way. He repeats in his Shobogenzo this point. If you have this point you can practice various ways and you can find out the meaning of the various practices without being caught by it. If you do not realize this point you will be easily caught by some particular practice and you will say, ‘This is enlightenment. This is perfect practice. This is our way. The rest of the ways are not perfect. This is the best way.’ This is big, big mistake. There is no particular way in our true practice. This -- in this understanding you should find out your -- and you should know what is your practice you have now. Then you will now, knowing the advantage and disadvantage of the practice, some special practice, you can practice it. If you do not know this practice you will ignore the disadvantage of the practice, and you will emphasize good part of it but eventually you will find out the worst side of the practice and you will be discouraged when it is too late. This is very silly. This is -- we are very grateful for the ancient teachers to point out strictly this point. [When Suzuki says "this is our practice" he might be referring to the point he made just before this which is yesterday's post. But it also stands on its own. - dc] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-13 found onshunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.
