Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Because you have inner, strong — some desire, you don’t know how to appease it. It is just as you take food when you are hungry. Even though you take food, that is not enough. In America you have — in California you have various fruits which is very delicious and beautiful. So we Japanese think, “If I go to California I will take as much fruits as I can, best fruits” but we find out that even though we eat the best fruits in California, that is not enough and we are rather disappointed with myself or with fruits. I don’t know which. The fruit is not good enough to appease my hunger — not hunger maybe — I don’t know what it is but we have some inmost request. So actually something which appease your inmost request is not something which you eat, which you see, which you feel; or is not something which is called your desire or instinct. We don’t know what it is, but we have some deep request, and this request is very, very deep and everyone has this kind of request. This is called our inmost nature- nature which will take various forms, which is the origin of all our activity — mental and physical.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi Archive)