In Its Own Place

In short, the Soto way is to use everything in its right purpose and to put everything in its own place. What should be put in a high place should be put in a high place, and what should be put on the floor should be on the floor. In America you put scriptures on the floor where you walk [laughs]. We don’t, you know. But I don’t know how to treat those scriptures in your way of life. So, until I find out, I won’t say, “Don’t put scriptures on the floor.” But this is not supposed to be treated as rubbish. This is not rubbish. Scriptures should be put on a table, or altar, or in your hands. Those small things are very important.

Image generated by Microsoft Copilot

—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.