The problem is you are trying to do something, that is the trouble. Or if you do not understand what it is, you think nothing results or nothing exists. Or if you feel you can rely on something, teaching means nothing. But before you try to rely on it, teaching exists. Before you attain enlightenment, enlightenment is there [laughs]. That is true. It is not because you attained enlightenment that enlightenment appears. Because enlightenment is always there, so if you realize it, that is enlightenment.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 - 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.
