People say Soto Zen is “sleepy zazen” [laughs]. Even though their posture is good, Soto priests are sleepy. That is true [laughs, laughter]. We become easily sleepy, especially when we are completely involved in physically heavy work or when we are in want of sleep. And if you count your breathing, you will easily notice that you are not taking care of your everyday life. So, if you find out some physical reason, or some reason why you cannot do that, you will notice the reason why, and you can organize your everyday life more.
Brush and ink drawing by Stanley White
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-05-18 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.