So, when you practice zazen, you should not try to attain anything. You should just sit in complete calmness. You should not rely on anything. Your body should be straight. And your spine should be straight without leaning over or leaning against something. You should just keep your body straight. It means you do not rely on anything. When you rely on something, or when you try to do something in zazen, it is dualistic. So you just sit. In this way, physically and mentally, you will obtain complete calmness.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-26 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.