ZEN STORIES WITH SHUNRYU SUZUKI

A student asked Shunryu Suzuki:
“How much ‘I’ do we need?”
“As much as it takes to not get run over by a bus.”

A student asked Shunryu Suzuki about the rule of silence during meals.
“Because you can’t eat and talk at the same time.”

A student said: “I compare myself with other students and feel inadequate. I haven’t read enough about Buddhism.”
“Yes! That’s the best way to do zazen,” replied Shunryu Suzuki.

One day a student complained to Shunryu Suzuki that his mind would not stay steady and kept talking to him when he was doing zazen.
“When the back is straightened, then the mind also becomes quiet.”

A clinical psychiatrist asked Shunryu Suzuki about consciousness.
“I don’t know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students to learn how to listen to singing birds.”

Shunryu Suzuki once interpreted the Buddhist principle prohibiting the purchase and use of alcohol in a radical way.
“He means not to sell Buddhism. One does not get drunk only on alcohol but also on spiritual teachings.”

On the fourth day of a sesshin, as we sat with our feet and backs aching, hoping and doubting whether it all made sense after all, Shunryu Suzuki began his talk by speaking slowly:
“The problems you are now facing…..”
“They will go away,” we were sure he was going to say.
“….you will continue to face them for the rest of your lives,” he concluded.
The way he said it made us laugh.