When you sit I say, “Don’t think,” you know. “Don’t think” means don’t treat things in terms of good or bad, heavy or light. And just accept things as it is. So, even though you do nothing, usually the moment you hear, your reaction is, “What could it be? Yeah, that is a motor car, or that’s very noisy. That may be a motorcycle.” But in zazen you should not react in that way. You should just hear the big noise or small noise, and you should not be bothered by it. It looks nearly impossible, especially for a beginner because the moment you hear, some reaction follows. But if you practice zazen—if you continuously try not to do so, just accept “things as it is,” you can do it eventually.
—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.