Dogen Zenji says, “Try not to attain enlightenment. Just [laughs, laughter] practice it.” Even though you have some idea of enlightenment— like a beautiful picture, to attain, to realize, to actualize that idea, you practice zazen. What you get is a quite different thing. It will not be the paintings, you know. What you will get is something quite different. That is true.
Art by Michael Sawyer
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-10 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.