Pursuit for truth: that is science, pure science. Pursuit for good: that is ethics. Pursuit for beauty: that is aesthetics. There is no other culture for human beings. But then what is religious tradition? What is the religious function of our mind? The religious function is supposed to be the combination of the three. When those three functions get together and work on something, that is the religious function of our mind. If one particular function of mind works, that is science or ethics or aesthetics. If the three functions work together that is the holy function of our mind. That is a Western interpretation of human culture, and that there are no other functions of our mind. But [laughs] for Buddhism that is not enough.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-B 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.