June 9th, 1971
Wednesday, June 9th, 1971Shunryū Suzuki-rōshi
SESSHIN LECTURE, Day 5
Wednesday, June 9, 1971
San Francisco
Listen to this talk: Suzuki-roshi 71-06-09
[I thought there was another day of sesshin, but today is our last day.][1]
I think you, you know, have understood— (Can you hear me? Yeah? Not so well. Okay? Mmm?) You have understood what is zazen as your practice. But I didn’t explain how you sit—I didn’t give you instruction how you sit in detail, but I told you, you know, how I practice shikantaza—or zazen. Maybe that is my way, so I don’t know how another teachers will, you know, sit, I don’t know, but that is anyway my shikantaza.
I started this practice, actually, maybe two—two years ago, after I went to [2-4 words unclear; one earlier transcript states, “cross the creek at Tassajara”] [laughs, laughter], not because I saw many good place to sit, you know. There’s two [or] three caves where you can sit. But not because of that. Perhaps some of you were swimming, you know, with me at that time. Some beautiful girl students [laughs, laughter] and Peter [Schneider?] was there [laughs, laughter]. And as you—I cannot swim, actually [laughs], but because they were enjoying swimming so much, so I thought I may join [laughs]. But I couldn’t swim. But there were so many beautiful girls over there, so I tried to, you know, go there [laughs, laughter], without knowing I couldn’t swim [laughs], so I was almost drowned [laughs, laughter]. But I knew that, you know, I will not die, I will not drown. I shall not be drowned to death, you know, because there are many students. So someone will help [laughs]. But I was not so serious.
But, you know, feeling was pretty bad, you know. Water is, you know—I am swallowing water [laughs]. So feeling was too bad, so I stretch my arm, you know, so that someone catch me [laughs]. But no one [laughs, laughter]—no one helped me. So I decided, you know, to go to the bottom [laughs, laughter], to walk, but that was not possible either [laughs, laughter]. I was, you know, I couldn’t reach to the bottom, or I couldn’t get over the water. What I saw is beautiful girls’ legs [laughs, laughter]. But I couldn’t, you know [laughs], s- [partial word]—take hold of their legs, you know. I was rather scared [laughs, laughter].