When you become you [laughs]—when bamboo is bamboo, that is Zen. When a tree is a tree, that is Zen. We have to realize our inmost nature as a being, or our inmost request of ourselves. An inmost request works for every existence in the same way, but as each existence is unique, even though the inmost request is universal, the way of expression should be different.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.
