the time is now

Shunryu Suzuki Transcript

Sokoji
c. 1960

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Dogen met an old monk in China who was drying mushrooms by a monastery wall on a hot summer day. "Why are you out here in the heat? Why not go in and rest until the sun is lower in the sky?" Dogen asked. "This is what I'm doing now," answered the monk. "It's my job and no one else's job. Why would I try to be somewhere else?"

The time is now. What we are doing is now. There is no other time. This is reality. I am here now. You are here now. That incident with the old monk taught Dogen what a Buddhist life is, what reality is. It is not for another time or another place or another person.
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Source: Kazemitsu Kato remembered a snippet from an early Shunryu Suzuki lecture in English. This transcript is from Crooked Cucumber: Chapter Ten. There is no audio available.
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File name: 60-00-00: the time is now (titled by pf)

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