The second principle is ordinary common sense. Or the teaching which is for patients is the second principle. But people know this is just for some particular patients. So, there must be some absolute teaching which is for everyone. Buddhists look for some teaching which is permanent. And what is that permanent teaching? That was a problem for them. And we need general teachings that whatever is told by someone is not the First Principle. Then what is the First Principle? The First Principle is something which you cannot understand, to which there’s no approach. That is the First Principle.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-07-23 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.
