‘This morning, when we were sitting, perhaps you could hear many birds singing, you know, in the sunny side of the mountain. In your practice to hear it, what you feel or what you hear is not just bird. It is quite different bird when you hear, you know, in usual time. Instead of being disturbed by the bird, you will feel deeper feeling of your practice.Something which will come into your practice will deepen your feeling of practice.
But when you are involved in dualistic idea, you know: “What time we sit?” or “What bird we see?” [laughs], and more and more useless to sit in such a dark room instead of enjoying this beautiful sunshine at the foot of the mountain with bird [laughs]. The moment you hear the bird, usually, we will be involved in this kind of life. But when you hear the bird in your sitting, without trying to hear it, you know, then your practice will be encouraged by the bird.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi Archive)
The Monday study group looked at this talk this week; I was reminded of the famous clip from a couple of years later.
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