Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘This kind of practice is true practice. Or else there will not be no need to practice seven days in Tassajara. It may be much better to take LSD [laughter] That is much easier [laughs], and maybe less expensive [long laughter]. It is true. Here we – Maezumi Sensei, Chino Sensei, and many students spending seven days in hot weather. This is ridiculous [long laughter]. You are laughing but I am [laughter drowns a few words]. It is so, you see.

I am not comparing Zen to LSD, but Zen is something different from — what I mean is from just training to acquire some state of mind. State of mind is maybe important, but if you do not (one word unclear), if you cannot live in it, it means nothing. What we should strive for, or if you want to know what you should do without any teaching, is, you know, just sit. And when you act, you should see your surroundings, and what kind of — what will be the best way to (one word unclear). That is how you should find your way. Especially you have responsibility to leave our teaching for your descendants, or to leave your cultural heritage for your descendants. How to hand down, how to leave your cultural heritage to your descendants is why you practice zazen.

Through zazen, without saying anything, you can hand down your cultural heritage. What you have strived for, what you have attained, will be your descendant. But without this kind of effort, in other words, when you have no cultural heritage in its true sense, you have nothing to transmit actually [laughs]. When you have it, actually, then, without saying anything, someone will receive it, someone will understand it. If no-one — even though no-one understands it directly, some day someone will understand it.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi Archive)

One of my plans during these days off at the end of the year is to gather material for my class on the Genjo Koan which starts on the 13th. This quote is from one of the talks Suzuki Roshi gave during the first sesshin at Tassajara, where he discussed the fascicle several times.