Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Our practice is not matter of one hour or two hours; or one day or one year. Even for a moment you practice zazen with your whole body and mind. That is zazen. So moment after moment you should devote yourself to your practice. You should not have any remains after you do something; but it does not mean to forget all about it. If you understand this point all the dualistic thinking or all the problems in you life will be vanished because you have no idea of duality. When you practice Zen you become one with Zen. There’s no ‘you’ or no ‘zazen’. When you bow there is no Buddha or no you. One complete bow — bowing takes place, that’s all. That is Nirvana, or attainment, perfect attainment.

When Buddha transmitted our practice to Maha Kyashapa he picked up a flower. He just picked up a flower with smiling — with a smile. And all the — only Maha Kyashapa understood what he meant but the rest of the people didn’t understand. We don’t know if this is historical event or not but it means something. It means our traditional way. Some activity which covers everything is true activity and that activity, that secret of this activity, is transmitted from Buddha to us. That is Zen school not some teaching taught by him but not rules of life which was set up by Buddha. This teaching, or the rules, should be changed according to the country or according to the place or according to the people who observe it, but this secret of the practice cannot be changed. It is always so and we should live in this way always because in Buddhism we have no idea of the world which is completely different from this world. The old world is the extension of this world. The future world should be extension of our present world and our past life should result in this present life. That is how we believe in truth. Truth is not something which is beyond our reach. Truth should be always here.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi archive)