Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘When I was at Eiheiji, everyone is just doing what they should — what he should do. That’s all. It is same thing as you have breakfast in the morning. That’s all what we do in Eiheiji monastery. When we have to sit, we sit. That’s all. When we should bow to Buddha, we bow to Buddha. That’s all. And when we are practicing there, we do not feel anything special. We do not feel even that we are practicing monastic — we are having monastic life. For us monastic life is usual life, and people who come from city is unusual people [laughs]. We think — we felt in that way “Oh, some unusual people came” [laughs]. We thought we are quite usual. But once you go out from Eiheiji and come back to Eiheiji, and hear the various sounds of practice, or hear them reciting sutra, you will feel deep feeling. Some tears flowing out of your mouth and eyes and nose [laughter]. It is the people, you know, who is outside of the monastery [laughs] who feels something about it. Those who are practicing actually do not feel anything [laughs].’ (from the Suzuki Roshi Archive)

We came to this chapter of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind in the Monday group this week, and since it is one of the talks that we found the original recording for, I played it for the group and we listened along (you can also hear it at the link above). Beyond the main theme, drawn from the Genjo Koan, Suzuki Roshi weighs up the ordinary and the special, and encourages his listeners not to be caught in the distinctions.