..續本文上一頁to a river or a ditch.”

　　Student K: But everyone helps me every day, and not everyone is enlightened.

　　Suzuki-rōshi: Uh-huh. Yeah. It is so. If you are enlightened, everyone will help you. If you are not enlightened [laughs, laughter], even though everyone [helps

　　], you will not be helped. This is—this point is very important. If you are enlightened, actually everyone, whether or not they are enlightened, will help you.

　　Student L: You mentioned crazy people a minute ago. What happens to the true nature of somebody who goes crazy

　　 Where is it

　　Suzuki-rōshi: Where is it

　　 [Laughs, laughter.] [4 words unclear.] They have it, but if I ask you—ask them, “Where is it

　　”—they will find it. “Oh!” [Laughs, laughter.] It is obvious that they have a true nature. There is no wonder, no doubt in it.

　　Student L: What—could somebody who had had mental suffering like that practice zazen

　　 Could they improve that way or happen to be brought to know that they possess a true nature

　　Suzuki-rōshi: Practice just to sit is maybe enough, you know. When they can sit they are pretty good already, you know. When they think, “I am right,” you know, “I—there is no need for me to practice religious way”—if they say so, that”s the worst. When you think it is necessary for you to practice zazen, that is big improvement. Just to try to sit is good enough.

　　But most people are attached to some result of the practice. That is why they do not attain enlightenment. Enlightenment is right here in your practice. And—but they think by practice something will result, you know. But actually enlightenment is right here. That is already a great improvement, and you have at least one eye to see yourself. And you—one eye will tell you you are not so good [laughs, laughter]. That is a big enlightenment. When you think that you are not so good, you are always—you are already trying to—the—your true nature start to work.

　　Student M: How do you distinguish between feelings of “I”m not so good”—that I mean [laughs]—[it”s] not necessarily a good thing to think that because it can be also—generally it”s a fantasy too. You know, “I”m no good.”

　　Suzuki-rōshi: Oh. Fantasy—I don”t mean fantasy. It should follow the practice. “I”m not so good, so I should improve myself.” That is not fantasy.

　　Student M: But I mean—

　　Suzuki-rōshi: You know, fantasy: “I”m not so good. Ohh.” This is fantasy. “I”m not so good.” This is our practice [laughs].[2]

　　So in Japan we had a clinic for—clinic for the people—insane, and in that clinic the patient work all day long. Even though they have nothing to do, they should pick up dust, or [laughs, laughter] clean floor, or repair shōji. They must find out something to do as long as they stay in the clinic. That way helps patient very much. When you are lying [in] bed in this way, “What it is

　　” or “What I should do

　　” “Why I am so bleak

　　” In this way, there is no time. There is no hope to be—to recover. You should, you know, set your true nature in activity—in, you know, set your machine in motion. That is only way.

　　There were famous novelist, Tōson Shimazaki.[3] He is quite famous. And he said—in the opening page he said, “If you want to raise yourself—raise your mind, you should raise your body,” he said. I was very much interested, very much encouraged by his words when I was quite young. At that time, I couldn”t go to college because I had to help my master, you know. I couldn”t go to college. And I didn”t know what to do. I wanted to go, but [laughs] I had to help him. So sometime I, you know, did not know what to do. And when I read that, you know, two lines, “If you want to raise your mind, you should raise your body.” That is why he went abroad. But I thought that is very good, so I must do something. If I think, “What shall I do

　　”—I must suffer more. So I must work hard: cooking, or cleaning, or sweeping garden. So I stopped to think about myself, and I worked, and worked, and worked. And that helped me very much.

　　This is very important point: to fight it out with body [laughs], not by mind, not by thinking, not by wandering about. To find something which we should do at that moment is the best way to raise our mind. To raise our mind means to realize big mind, not small mind. Small mind [is] wandering about. But big mind—for big mind there is no place or no time to wander about. It is too big [laughs] to wandering about [laughs]. Too big. If you want to realize that, you know, unperturbability of your spirit, you have [to] raise your body. There is enlightenment.

　　_________________________________________________________________________

　　[1] In June of 1963, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc immolated himself as Buddhist opposition to the Ngo Dinh Diem government gained momentum. His death was discussed widely in the United States.

　　[2] In the first quote, Suzuki-rōshi uses a despairing tone of voice. In the second, he speaks affirmatively.

　　[3] Shimazaki Tōson (1872-1943): born in the countryside, he spent his formative years in Tōkyō from the age of eight. In his semi-autobiographical first-person novels, he evoked lost links to his early childhood. The novel Suzuki-rōshi referred to may be Before the Dawn, The Broken Commandment, The Family, or Shinsei.

《Summer 7-Day Sesshin Lecture: 6PM》全文閱讀結束。