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　　Some people asked Ryōkan, “Do you have—do you have—in—do you have Daihannya-kyō—Great Wisdom Scripture

　　[3] We have 600 volume of scriptures about the wisdom. Do you have Great Wisdom—Scripture of Great Wisdom—600 volumes in your temple

　　” someone asked. And he asked him to write [laughs] Daihannya-kyō in Chinese character on his back. “You—please write down Daihannya-kyō—Lo-pya-kan[4]—here on his back. Thank you very much.” [Laughs, laughter.] “Here we have Great Wisdom Scripture—Scripture of Great Wisdom, and today I—I want to dry those 600 volumes of scriptures in the sun so that no worm can eat it. So he write down in the sunshine. Now today we have mushiboshi.[5] Mushiboshi means, in Japan, once a year we spread all the scriptures in the sunshine when it is—when it is fine and dry. “So tonight we will have party, so please join us,” he said [laughing]. It means if you cannot acknowledge, you know, my practice, may be better to write down big Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra. “I am the big Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra,” you know. “If you don”t acknowledge me, please write down on your back so that you can acknowledge it.”

　　People who has no understanding of true practice cannot acknowledge who is good or who is bad. That is true. He himself—even for he himself [it] may be difficult to know how much progress he made. But for him this is obvious [

　　]. For him each day is—is good day, and each day is day of enlightenment. Enlightenment is on each day, on each practice you do, as long as you have clear understanding of buddha-nature.

　　Dōgen-zenji looks like giving his work for us [in a] rather philosophical way. But it is not so. It is not philosophy at all. That is why it is difficult to understand in philosophical way or to translate it in English. In English you have—you haven”t enough vocabulary to express it. Chinese or—for him Chinese or Japanese was not perfect. So he made many words for himself to express his idea. That is why it is difficult to translate it.

　　But here what we are discussing about is not philosophy at all. What I am saying is not philosophy. So if you understand what I say, it is possible to know what I mean by buddha-nature, I think. It is possible because although my English is not good but I think I can express myself about buddha-nature in my poor English [laughs]. That is why I repeat same thing over and over again. When I think you don”t understand, I will repeat it [laughs] until you understand it. If my words is not good enough, I will hit you [laughs, laughter]. Then you will understand what I mean. As long as I understand it, you will understand what I mean—someday [laughs]. If you—if you don”t understand me just now, some day you will understand. Someday someone will understand. This is great patience. I think I will wait for a island to go to Seattle from Los Angeles [laughs]. They say it—it is moving from Los Angeles to Seattle like a boat in millions of millions of years. By the time it will reach to Seattle [laughs], someone will understand it.

　　So if you don”t understand it, I don”t mind at all [laughs, laughter]. Buddha said whether you take my medicine or not is not my responsibility. Just to talk about it—just to try to help people is my way. Whether or not you take it, that is not—it can”t be helped if you don”t take it. That is true. But he said:

　　I left—I prepare—I—I prepared everything [for those] who will understand me. And I saved people—all the people which is possible to save. And I prepared to save all people when the time come. So I saved all the human being in my eighty years of age.

　　That is true. So I don”t think—he wouldn”t mind—if one of his disciple understand him, it”s good enough. There is possibility to save all human being if one of the—his disciple understand him. In this way, Buddhism was spread, one by one, little by little.

　　When we become lazy, Buddhism looks like no more. But when we have to be sincere, Buddhism will come out. Buddhism will be understood. You may say there is no more Buddhism in India or China or even in Japan, but Buddhism is eternal teaching.

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　　[1] Ryōkan Daigu (1758

　　–1831): Sōtō priest and renowned poet.

　　[2] shinsatsu: “to prick with a needle.” Suzuki-rōshi may be alluding to Dōgen-zenji”s Sanbyakusoku (Three Hundred Cases) kōans, No. 232.

　　[3] Daihannya-kyō: Mahāprajñā-pāramitā-sūtra in 600 fascicles, translated from Sanskrit to Chinese by Xuanzang (WG Hsuan-Tsang; Jap. Genjō) in 659.

　　[4] Phonetic only. Spelling not checked. Sounds like a Chinese phrase.

　　[5] mushiboshi (lit. “drying bugs”): the annual custom of airing books, clothing, linen, works of art, etc. during the seventh lunar month (after the Japanese rainy season) to prevent mildew and, traditionally, to remove insects. It is observed in households as well as temples and shrines.

《Sesshin Lecture: 9 AM - July 29 1965》全文閱讀結束。