This is maybe a pretty difficult question to answer, not to kill. Fundamentally, “not to kill” means not to be dualistic [laughs]. If I say so it may not be the right answer to your question. When we become dualistic, we have the precept not to kill. It means don’t kill. But actually, there is nothing to kill [laughs]. If everyone has buddha-nature, it is impossible to kill. You can kill someone’s body, but its true nature cannot be killed. So not to kill is not a matter of kill or not to kill. Even if you try to kill someone, it is impossible. If we know that it is impossible, no one will try to kill some other person. Because you think it is possible, you kill someone.
Image from Wikipedia
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-C 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.
