Student: Our inmost request, then, is a request for perfection?
SR: Perfection [laughs] is not so good a word—but to improve ourselves, knowing that our effort is not strong enough or we are not sincere enough. That is why we want some good examples. A good example will encourage our practice, and it will help whether our practice is good or bad.
Image modified by Google Gemini
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.
