December 27th, 1970
Sunday, December 27th, 1970Shunryū Suzuki-rōshi
Sunday, December 27, 1970
San Francisco
Listen to this talk: Suzuki-roshi 70-12-27
Dōgen-zenji said sickness does not, you know, destroy—destroy people, but no practice will destroy people. Sickness does not destroy people, but no practice destroy people. What do you mean [laughs]? What does it mean? “No practice destroy people.”
If, you know, we have no idea of practice, sickness—even sickness does not mean anything, you know, because when we cannot practice, we call it sick- [partial word]—sickness. But, you know, if you have no idea of practice, what is sickness? Maybe for the people whose purpose of life is to enjoy life, you know, when he cannot enjoy his life, it is sickness. But it is—that idea is self-contradiction, you know, because sickness is also a part of [laughs]—part of life. Maybe because he want to enjoy our life, he want to enjoy in its—enjoy in its more common sense—common sensitivity—enjoy our life. When you cannot enjoy our life, it is sickness [laughs], but, you know, sickness also, you know, [is] a part of life, especially when you become old. You will be al- [partial word]—almost everyday you will be sick [laughs]. So that—that does not, you know, mean anything to the old people.
So how to enjoy our old life is, you know, to have the idea of practice. When someone cannot [laughs] practice, you know: “Oh, I am sick.” [Laughs.] “It means something.” But even in their bed, you know, they have, you know, something to do: to have more better practice or more formal practice. So they—they will try to, you know, keep up more ordinal [ordinary?] way of practice, having medicine or—or something. Anyway, he will try.