You may say if you get a lot of money, you will be happy, but it is not true. Or, if I try hard, I will attain enlightenment; that is not true [laughs]. In its true sense enlightenment is quite a different quality from ignorance. It is a pair of opposites. Because opposites, it has value. If it were possible to join enlightenment and ignorance, you could strive to attain enlightenment in a materialistic way, with money or by sitting many, many years [laughs, laughter]. You could try. But I don’t think it is possible because they are two completely different qualities.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-17N as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
