Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Student F: Dogen Zenji, I think, wiped himself with one hand and used the other hand to light incense– to put incense down. Isn’t that correct?
SR: Mm-hmm.
Student F: He said that. If there’s no– no space or time, why would he do that?
SR: “No space– ” [laughs]– oh, what did you say, please?
Student F: If there’s no space or time, as the Lankavatara Sutra says–
SR: Uh-huh.
Student F: — why would Dogen make a distinction between which hand he would use for which activities?
SR: Oh, I see. This is good problem– good question. You know, this is very good [laughs].
“No space or no time,” you know, means we thinks there is, you know– when we say “time” there is some– you have idea of continuity, you know: Time is something continuous, and space is something wide. You know, this is time and space– idea of time and space.
But time is not only continuity. Discontinuity is also time, you know. In the smallest particle of time, you– you– you can think in this way: You can form the continuity of time, adding smallest particle of time. This is continuity also. And actually this understanding is better. If so, time is continuous and discontinuous. Do you understand?
You say, “Flower grow– comes out in one week from birth.” You know, it is continuously they [are] growing. But when you see the flower, you– you cannot recognize the growing flower. The flower is stop growing when you see– just see. You can’t see– you can’t– you don’t see the movement of the flower. You cannot see even the movement of the hands of the clock. But it is moving. It is like a moving picture. It– moving picture is accumulation of small, you know, pictures. One after another those pictures come, [and] it will form some movement.
So that is what he meant: There is no time or no space. No time as you think, or no time– no space as you think. Actual time is continuous and discontinuous. And it is not even a time. It is actual growth in the flower– actual– the sun rising in east– from east and setting in west. This is the time, actually. So in this sense, he says there is no time or no space. What actually exist is our movement which moves in one whole existence. We are all moving, and there is some uniformity in our moving. That is actual time and space.
So when you do– when we do something, you know– when I say something, you are listening. And not only you, but also Buddha will listen [laughs] to me. So in this moment there is– even the– there is no need to say “time” or “space.” When I say something, there is you and there is two. So we must not neglect what I am doing just now, and relationship between you and I, and I and Buddha.
Instead of emphasizing time and space, he [Dogen] emphasize actual relationship which exist in this moment– just now. So that is why he is very strict with what we do– how we treat everything.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi Archive)