And our true nature is very primitive, of course. And at the same time, it could be very, very refined and deep, a lofty desire. In this primitive, fundamental desire there are true strengths and various possibilities. But if you start from a fancy idea of religion, you will be more confused. So, to realize why we study religion is to find out the meaning of our fundamental desire—how important it is, and how miraculous it is, and how much possibility it has.
Drawing by Stan White
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-26-A 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.
