Docho Roshi, there is nothing to attain, and yet every morning we chant, and we vow “to attain it.” [SR laughs.] And if enlightenment is within me, and yet I can’t tap its resources, I can’t make any use of it. When you speak, I think I understand, and I accept what you say, but when you’re through speaking, I reject everything you say. I don’t understand how unless somehow I can experience the truth myself, I know what to believe and what not to believe, and what to accept and what not to accept.
SR: Try—don’t try to accept things, but you should, you know. Don't think I am talking to you; instead, I am talking, that’s all. Because you think I am talking about something to you, you cannot accept it. So, what I am talking is how you feel. How you think is what I am talking, actually.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-04-23-B - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig
for links to the full Shunryu Suzuki lecture and the source of the photo.
