Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

If you visit the Suzuki Roshi Archive, talks are presented in reverse chronological order, starting with the recording of his funeral on December 12th, 1971. Next there is a short recording from a couple of months previously, of a conversation in his room with various students. Below that is the last public talk he gave, at City Center, from August 21st. He had spent the month before that at Tassajara, giving many talks – I have read that he probably knew how sick he was, and wanted to express himself as fully as he could (unfortunately the quality of those recordings is somewhat worse than many of the ones we have in the archive).

This final talk is very clear to listen to. He begins by apologising for feeling “rather stiff”. The above audio is the closing of the talk; he has been discussing Soen Nakagawa (the “he” in this audio) and concludes by sharing thoughts about practice.