Brief
Memoriesof Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Center back then, etc.
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Brief Memories
photo by Lisa Law
5-04-10 - Bob Walter remembers an exchange between Suzuki Roshi and a student, a teenage male, idealistic and sincere. It happened during a shosan ceremony at the end of a practice period, a ceremony in which students ask the abbot dharma questions. We might come across it in one of the recordings of shosan ceremonies and get the exact wording. But here's how Bob remembers it. We were all quite conscious of the War in Vietnam and this student was a pacifist. He asked something like: I'm married and have a wife and children and an intruder comes into our home and wants to kill us. What do I do?
Suzuki Roshi responded: Kill your self.