July 26 1965

　　Originally offered: July 26th, 1965 | Modified October 27th, 2009 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

　　Shunryū Shunryū Suzuki-rōshi

　　1 PM SESSHIN LECTURE[1]

　　Monday, July 26, 1965

　　Lecture A

　　Soko-ji Temple, San Francisco

　　Listen to this talk: Suzuki-roshi 65-07-26

　　A talk is always—the conclusion of my talk is always why we should practice zazen. This is not—my talk is not just casual talk. And basically, my talk is based on Shōbōgenzō. And fortunately we have a system of—we have a complete system [of] how to understand true religion.

　　The true religion cannot be understood by philosophical way or scientific way. The only way to understand or to realize our true nature is just through practice. Without true practice it is impossible to realize our true nature. Of course, what we do, whether we are aware of it or not, what we do in our everyday life is based on true—our true nature. True nature drive us to do something, but if you do not understand, or if you do not realize your true—what is true nature, and if you have no system to know the actual meaning of your true nature, you will get into confusion.

　　There are many and many scientists who become interested in religion, it is true. Some of them [are] perhaps interested in true religion, but some of them will not have the true understanding of religion. As long as there are just—their understanding is just limited in scientific realm, it is impossible to know what is true religion because religion should be understood by religious way. Religion shou- [partial word]—is not understood by philosophy or science.

　　And some philosophers, of course, may [be] interested in true religion, but it is impossible for philosophers—it is impossible to reach the complete understanding of religion through philosophical study, because in philosophical study the conclusion of philosophy will be different. The authority of Greek philosophy is still powerful in this age. So it is very difficult to understand—to reach the true understanding of religion which everyone will agree with it.

　　So—but Sōtō school has pretty deep philosophy, but as I said last night, the Shōbōgenzō, or the philosophy of Zen, is just a lid, just a cover of a pan, because people may interested in Zen, but it may be rather difficult for them to know what is true Zen. Without some intellectual understanding, it is difficult to figure out what is Zen. So that is why we have philosophy of Zen. But by philosophy you cannot have true understanding of Zen. Zen should be understood by Zen, by practice of Zen, not by philosophy—even by Shōbōgenzō, even reading—even by reading Shōbōgenzō, you cannot [laughs] understand what—you cannot realize what it—actually realize what is Zen.

　　So only way is just practice Zen with right understanding. If you do not have right understanding, the—your practice will be mixed up with some other practice. And that is why, I think, in America there are so many misunderstanding of Zen.

　　So by Shōbōgenzō we have to polish our practice, and we have to keep various misunderstanding—keeps our practice [of] Zen from various misunderstanding. That is why we have Shōbōgenzō. That is why in sesshin I should talk. This kind of talk is not, you know—the purpose of my talk is not to give you some knowledge, but to—by my talk I want you to—I want to encourage your practice without being interested in philosophical depth of our system. In this point, if you make misunderstanding, result will be pretty serious.

　　And fortunately our system of encouraging people is the same—is the same as other schools—philosophy of other schools. So if you understand Shōbōgenzō, you will understand some other schools and why there are so many schools in Buddhism. If we do not have this system of various school…

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