‘The practice of zen is exactly like pickling a radish. Let’s say that the taste is the radish’s satori and that zazen is the pickling brine. The taste is the result of good brine. So, you ask, “What does the radish get out of being pickled?” Well, they’re pickled radishes.’ (Commentary on The Song Of Awakening)
Not having ever pickled a radish myself, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of this analogy. Of course Japanese monasteries are fiends about pickling, so I suspect he knows what he is talking about, and, to be fair, the analogy continues for more than a page…
Shundo David Haye 