I didn't know anything about Shunryu Suzuki (and actually confused him with the other Suzuki) before picking up a copy of his classic that I had sitting on the shelf. And since the book consists entirely of excerpts from informal talks he gave at the San Francisco Zen center back in the sixties, I still feel like I've only just gained a little flavor of his teaching. As with all things Zen, it's hard to know what to say about it. I enjoyed reading his plainly spoken but utterly paradoxical explanations of true zazen. Some parts of it resonated deeply. Other parts felt like they were at the tip of my tongue. And some of it was simply baffling. Perhaps the thing I will remember is his repetition of the idea that we cannot practice zen with any "gaining idea". Zen is good for nothing. In turn, anything we do without expectation, without attachment to is outcome, is zen. That is all.
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