The difference between Baso and we ordinary people is for Baso whatever happens to him, he can accept things as it is, as it happens. But we cannot accept everything. Something which you think is good, you may accept it. But something which you do not like you don’t accept it. And you compare one to the other. You may say, “this is the truth; that is not true.” And “he is a good Zen student; but I am not.” That is a quite usual way of understanding. With this kind of understanding you cannot figure out what kind of idea we can sit with every day.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-09 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.