July 30th, 1971
Friday, July 30th, 1971Shunryū Suzuki-rōshi
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Friday Evening, 30 July 1971
Listen to this talk: Suzuki-roshi 71-07-30
This evening we observed—this evening is called Fusatsu. As I explained last night,[1] this ceremony actually started even before Buddha. And after Buddha, the ceremony more and more include more positive elements: just, you know, to observe—not only just to observe, to keep their life, human life, from evil spirits, observing some good, and acquiring some strength—and throughout [?] protecting themselves from the evil.
That also—to attain the perfection of human practice, Buddha started—observed this ceremony. The form is merely what we must do, and more and more exactly. But must be nearly the same. But meaning changed little by little.
So if we study what kind of [1 word unclear: sūtra?] [in] Buddha’s time—Buddhists observe, then we will find out various elements. Last night I explained about it. Better to, you know, to see various kinds of flower in a basket, you know. There are—there—there is many kinds of flowers. Some of the flower is about the precepts about—about our human nature, or buddha-nature. And some—some of them is to—to stop doing something bad. And some of them is about life style of Buddhists—like the last one: “Don’t eat after twelve o’clock [noon].” This is, you know—it means—it is the life style of Buddhists at that time. And we are still—we Buddhists, even though we eat three times a day, we have this kind of spirit. And when we chant and you read meal chant, you will find out this kind of spirit.