What is practice? When we were young, we used to
discuss about what is bodhisattva's way to save others before we saved [laughs]
ourselves. What does it mean? Is it possible to save others before we save
ourselves? That kind of thing. And what is the goal of practice, and what is idea and what is the reality, reality in its ordinary sense?
And reality cannot be, you know, the ideas. The practice will be the bridge from the reality to idea. This kind of discussion we had. But according to Dogen Zenji, practice is practice-- practice buddha,
reality is the reality buddha, idea is idea buddha [laughs]. There is no
problem [laughs, laughter]. When you practice, there is no Buddha or no human
being. That which exists is just practice. When you say: “I am a human being,” it means human-being-buddha, another name
of buddha. We understand in that way. -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC
