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Thursday, October 26, 2017

Koans

To live in the world of time and space is like pushing a big snake into a small can. The snake will suffer in the small can. It does not know what is going on outside of the can. Because it is in the can, it is so dark he cannot see anything, but he will struggle in the small can. That is what we are doing. The more we struggle, the greater the suffering will be. That kind of practice will not work. Putting yourself in a small can and sitting day after day in a cross-legged position is worse than a waste of time. Do you understand? Sometimes our practice is something like this. We don't know how much our understanding is limited. That is why you have to study koans. Koans will open up your mind.  ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-A as found on shunryusuzuki.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, not just the super cool ones.