Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Student D: I don’t understand how there can be more than one buddha– how there can be–

SR: More than–

Student D: Bodhidharma was one personality, and– and Dogen was another personality?

SR: Yeah.

Student D: How can this be?

SR: It can be more, but we picked up [out], you know, just three. It can be numerous– innumerable, but we pick up Shakyamuni Buddha from India, from China Bodhidharma, from Japan Dogen Zenji. We should call Keizan Zenji’s name, but when, you know, because we pick only one [laughing] from China, so in America we picked up only one from Japan, who is the First Patriarch in Japan. Do you understand?

Student D: Um, no–

SR: It is– it is a kind of representative.

Student D: Do they– do these men differ– did they differ in personality?

SR: Yes.

Student D: And how can that be if they are all buddhas?

SR: [Laughs.] A good question. It must be so, you know. We should not be all, you know, we should not be like all– all of us shouldn’t– should not be like Shakyamuni Buddha, who was born in India more than two thousand years ago. We cannot be the same. We must– we– the– the– we say, you know, we are like a candle: big and small candle, red and white candle, you know. And there is big and small candle, but fire is the same, you know. Or the stream is same– shallow and deep, and flowing fast. And some in– in mountain– in the mountain– in the mountain it will flow fast, in the field it will go slower and maybe deeper, but it is same water.

Unless you don’t understand this point, you don’t understand Buddhism. Spirit is the same, but how, you know, someone express it– the spirit is different. It cannot be same. Okay? So should be different, but there is no contradiction.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi Archive)