July 22 1965

　　Originally offered: July 22nd, 1965 | Modified October 27th, 2009 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

　　SR0182

　　Rev. Suzuki”s talk

　　July 22, 1965

　　We are studying now the sutra of the sixth patriarch, in the evening lecture, and PRAJNA (this is of course Sanskrit word) we mean, wisdom, but this wisdom is not intellect, or knowledge. This wisdom is so-called our inmost nature, which is always in incessant activity. Zazen practice is to….wisdom seeking for wisdom is zazen practice, if I use technical term. Wisdom seeks wisdom is zazen practice, and our everyday life is wisdom. Realization of our precepts is our everyday life. When wisdom…When our everyday life is based on wisdom we call it percepts. When we sit, we do not do anything; we just sit. There”s no activity of our mind. We just sit and all what we do is taking inhaling and exhaling. Sometimes you will hear some birds singing, but that is not actually….you are not hearing. Your ears will hear it. You are not hearing it. Just, you know, sound come, and you will make some response to it, that is all. This kind of practice is called “wisdom seeks for wisdom”.

　　We have true nature. Whatever you do, even though you not do anything, your true nature is in incessant work – activity. Even though you are sleeping, it is quite active. Your thinking, your sensation are superficial activities of yourself, but your inmost nature is always working. Even though you die, it is working. I don”t mean some, you know, soul, but something….not soul, but something is always in incessant work. Whatever you call it, spirit or soul, I don”t mind. You can put many names to it, or you will give it various interpretations to it, but that interpretation belongs to….in your intellectuality. That is intellect. So whatever you call it….inmost nature itself, doesn”t mind. Someone may call it soul.

　　Someone may call it spirit. Someone may say, “Oh, no, no, that is just material. Some kind of function of material is soul.” Maybe. According to the people, they will put many names to it, but our inmost nature is our inmost nature. It is quite little to do with our inmost nature.

　　When we sit we call it inmost….let inmost nature in it”s self, or activity…This is…we call self-use of inmost nature…Let it work. You don”t do anything, but let our true nature work by itself. This is zen practice. Of course, even though you do not do anything, you have pain on your legs, or some difficulty to keep your mind calm. And sometimes you may think.. “Oh, my zazen practice is not so good.” What are you thinking for

　　 Stop thinking. O.K. This is zen, you know. When you do something, you know, it is a kind of morality is in it because you do something by your choice. But when you make decision to do something, your inmost nature will tell you, “That will not be so good. Why don”t you do it this way.” That is precepts.

　　When we have some choice in our activity… In zazen we have no choice. We just sit, and whatever inmost nature say, let it do it. I don”t mind. This is zazen. But when you have some….When you make some plan you are responsible for it too.

　　And at that time you would listen to what your inmost nature will say. That is morality or precepts. Our inmost nature will tell you what to do. So if you understand this way, this is morality, or this is precepts. So the precepts actually is not only two or two hundred or five hundred. For female we have five hundred precepts. For males, two hundred. That is not so fair, but anyway, five hundred, or three hundred…it doesn”t matter. Whatever we do is precepts, because we have some choice. We have to make some decision.

　　I am responsible for what I should do, and when we make some decision we listen to the Buddha Nature….”Shou…

《Rev· Suzukis talk》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…