August 13th, 1971
Friday, August 13th, 1971Shunryū Suzuki-rōshi:
Friday, August 13, 1971
Zen Mountain Center
Listen to this talk: Suzuki-roshi 71-08-13
Last night,[1] when we have question and answer, we came across the very important point. In the—in Japanese, we say [phonetic] sabetsu-soku-byōdō, or shinkū-myōu.[2] Sabetsu-soku byōdō. This is—sabetsu means “speciality,” and byōdō means “equality.” Speciality means, you know—speciality means various being which is special. Each being are special, and each being has its own meaning of existence. When something exist, there is some reason why something exist. That is speciality. And equality is even though things is different—different, but strictly speaking each things does not exist in that way, because they are changing, constantly changing.
So if it is changing, we cannot say something really exist, you know, something we see [laughs] does not exist. You think you exist here, but it is not so. And which is easier for you to understand is, you know—maybe intellectually it is easier for you to understand things does not exist. Equality is easier to understand, and speciality is difficult to understand.
When you say “freedom,” the meaning of freedom or feeling of freedom is more like equality. We are, you know, each—”We are equal, so we must have freedom.” [Laughs.] That is what you say, but to us it is absurd. You know, if—if—if you want to be special, then it is not possible [laughs] to have freedom at the same time. When you are special, there is—you have some special reason to exist, you know. So, for an instance, a woman should be a woman, you know, and a man should be a man [laughs].