Monday, July 28, 2025

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.