After Buddhism was introduced to Japan, people became more and more pessimistic! They had to think more [laughs], and they had to reflect on themselves more. Before they thought, “We are doing everything right,” [laughs] but it was not so. So, Prince Shotoku set up the constitution of Japan, and he said, “It is necessary to improve our character. If we want to improve our character, it is necessary to study Buddhism. Without respecting Buddha, Dharma, Sangha—the Triple Treasures—how is it possible to reform our character?”
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—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-12-11-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.
