July 8 1965

　　Originally offered: July 8th, 1965 | Modified October 27th, 2009 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

　　SR0186

　　JULY 8, 1965

　　Rev. S. Suzuki”s talk on Great Prajna Paramita Sutra

　　I want to still continue to speak about topsy-turvy views. When your understanding of life is based on some concrete concept of material or spiritual, this view is called topsy-turvy idea. When your understanding is based on your true nature or your true inmost request, this aspect is the right aspect. Dogen Zenji, founder of our sect (this is Dogen”s picture he did himself), he says, “Practice should be established in our topsy-turvy idea. Practice should be established in our defilement or delusion. We should attain enlightenment before, we should attain identity before we attain enlightenment.” This is very subtle understanding of Zen. Usually we say enlightenment and your practice is quite different thing. After you practice zazen you will attain enlightenment, but Dogen Zenji said, “You should study your practice in your defilement.” If your understanding of your life which is always dualistic, which is always based on the idea of right or wrong, good or bad, this is our usual ‑‑ how we live in this world. Wherever you go there is a problem, good or bad, right or wrong, but this problem itself is, if your understanding of the problem is right, it is the practice itself. Because of your poor understanding of the problem, you cannot establish your practice in defilement. You have problem now. You have many problems I think, and some of the problems is pretty hard to control. Why it is difficult to control your problem is your orientation of the practice is wrong. If the – your orientation of the practice is right, your problem itself is a kind of practice.

　　If you try to control yourself, and, by controlling yourself to attain enlightenment is, this kind of practice, orientation of the practice, is wrong. Why you have, if you think why you have problem you will understand the problem itself is … why you have problem is because your inmost request is working on your difficulty you have.

　　Because you want to live, you have problem. If you give up to live in this world, there is no problem. Because you want to remain, because you want to develop your life, there is problem. So problem itself is well orientated, and so, if you should have problem this understanding is right. If you think I… we should get out of the problem… this understanding is wrong. This is topsy-turvy view.

　　You may say it is impossible for me to accept this problem, but even though you think you cannot accept this problem right now you are accepting… you have accepted the problem, because you have accepted the problem you suffer. It is not matter accept problem or not accent problem. Problem is right there, and already well orientated, and your effort is always right. If you have this kind of… this understanding of the problem, to have problem is to have right practice. The right practice is nothing more than to accept problem. That you have problem is that you have right practice too. This is right view or right understanding of practice. So he says the right practice should be where you have problem, where you have problem there is right practice. And right enlightenment is where you have problem… to have problem is already enlightenment. There is no enlightenment without problem. There is no awareness of the problem… enlightenment without problem. The perfect enlightenment is something unintelligible, but the awareness of the enlightenment is… should be or is, actually is where you have problem. So he says, “Right practice should be in the problem, and. right enlightenment should be before you attain enlightenment.” It means on everyday life there is right practice and …

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