Dogen Zenji says “intimate enlightenment.” The most intimate one to you is enlightenment. Enlightenment is something within you, but you cannot say “within you.” If I say, “within you,” it is not intimate enough. It is [laughs] hiding within yourself. If so, it is not intimate. Of course, if it is something beyond you, that is not intimate. And if it is something to attain, it is not intimate. He says, “intimate enlightenment.” This intimacy to enlightenment is our practice.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-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.
