Zen became more and more impure. After Zen school established in China, it is a development of Zen, but at the same time it became impure. But I don’t want to talk about Chinese Zen or history of Zen this morning, but I want to talk about why it is difficult. You came here this morning. Getting up early is very valuable experience for you. Just you wanted to come here is very valuable. We say “shoshin.” Shoshin means beginner’s mind. If we can keep beginner’s mind always, that is the goal of our practice. --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 65-11-11 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed lecture tapes. Edited by DC - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo
DC - This is the famous Beginner's Mind lecture. Since the audio tape was recently discovered, there is some material that differs from the transcripts that we had. What is excerpted from the new verbatim transcript will not include all of the verbatim lecture. For that and access to light edit and other transcribed versions and audio, go here.