Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘So to appreciate things and people, we should be– our minds should be calm and pure or clear. So to have this kind of mind, we practice zazen. So when we practice zazen, we just– that is what do we mean by “just sit,” “just sit,” without not much gaining idea– to be you yourself– or to “settle oneself on oneself.” That is, you know, our practice.

“Freedom,” you say, but maybe freedom you mean and freedom we Zen Buddhists mean may not be exactly the same. Maybe same, but not exactly. For an instance, you know, to attain freedom [laughs] we cross our legs [laughs] and we keep our posture straight, and we keep our eyes in some certain way and we open our ears, you know, to everything, even without trying to open. Let our eyes open to everything. But there is some way to have this readiness, to have this openness, because or else by nature we are liable to be, you know, go extreme and to stick to something, losing, you know, our calmness of mind or mirror-like mind. So there must be some way, you know, to obtain this kind of calmness of your mind, of clearness of your mind. That is zazen practice.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi Archive)

I posted the edited version of this quote a few years ago, if you want to compare.