July 29 1965

　　Originally offered: July 29th, 1965 | Modified October 27th, 2009 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

　　Shunryū Suzuki-rōshi

　　SESSHIN LECTURE: 9 AM

　　Thursday Morning, July 29, 1965

　　Lecture A

　　Soko-ji Temple, San Francisco

　　Listen to this talk: Suzuki-roshi 65-07-29

　　Tape operator: Nine o”clock instruction, Thursday morning.

　　Suzuki-rōshi: Purpose of practice is to have direct experience of buddha-nature. That is purpose of our practice. So whatever you do, it is—it should be the direct experience of buddha-nature.

　　We say—in fifth precept we say, “Don”t—don”t—don”t be attached”—not “attached,” but—”don”t be—don”t violate even the precepts which is not here.” [Laughs.] It is rather difficult to understand. In—in Japanese it is not so difficult, but in English it is rather difficult to understand. It means, anyway—we say when you sit, you say I have something—something occurred in your mind which is not so good. Some image come. Something covered your wisdom or buddha-nature. When you say so, you have the idea of clearness, you know, because you have—you think you have to clear up your mind from all images; you have to keep your mind clear from various images which will come to you, or which you have already—you have—which you have already should be cleared up. This—so far you understand it, but Dōgen-zenji says:

　　Don”t—don”t even try to clear up your mind, even though you have something here. Don”t want to be pure. If you want to be pure, it means you have attached in—to pureness—purity. That is also not so good. Don”t attach to purity or impurity.

　　Do you understand

　　 So when you [are] bothered by what you have done, it means you—you are attached to purity. This is not good.

　　Our buddha-nature should be beyond pure or impure. It means just to be aware—just to be aware of your true nature which is beyond pure or impure. Do you understand

　　 Purity is not—to attach to purity is good, but buddha-nature is not pure or impure. Do you understand this point

　　 If you understand this point, just to sit without thinking—without [being] bothered by something which will come, or even though you have something in your image, don”t try to escape from it. Just sit. It will go. And you are beyond it. Those come and—come in and come out of the images. This is so-called-it—you have—you are beyond intoxicating liquor.

　　This is fifth precept. And interpretation to the fifth precept. In fifth precept we say, “Don”t take, don”t sell, or don”t buy intoxicating liquor.” Don”t buy [laughs]—don”t buy some images, or don”t sell some images, some intoxicating liquor, some attachment. Don”t sell any attachment to anyone. Or don”t buy [laughs] any attachment from outside.

　　And to this precept he said, “Don”t be attached even to the purity, even to the evil which—which is not here. To attach to the evil which is not here means purity.” You know, if there is no evil here, you are pure. But don”t be attached to even the state of mind you—you have in purity. And even though you are not pure, don”t try to be—escape from it. If you try to escape from it, it means you are attached to the purity. A small ego is working [laughs] still. Your small ego is trying to push out the evil thought. So still you are occupied by small ego as long as you are trying to get out of it.

　　So the most important point is to acknowledge exactly what is buddha-nature. The buddha-nature is not small ego; it is big ego which is observing what you do and accepting what you do always. Whatever you do, he will say, “Ah, that”s good.” [Laughing.] “Nothing wrong with it,” he—he may say.

　　So if you have—if you are always aware of the true nature, that is enlightenment. There is big misunderstanding in our practice, I think. Most of people have this misund…

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