Suzuki: being the cosmos

And when you have perfect 
composure in your practice. you include everything. You are not 
just you. You are the whole world or the whole cosmos. and you 
are a Buddha. So when you sit. you are an ordinary human. and 
you are Buddha. Before you sit. you may stick to the idea that you are ordinary. So when you sit you are not the same being as 
you arc before you sit. Do you understand? 
You may say that it is not possible to be ordinary and holy. 
When you think this way, your understanding is one-sided. In 
Japanese, we call someone who understands things from just one 
side a Itllllbtlll-ktlll. "someone who carries a board on his shoul-
der." Because you carry a big board on your shoulder, you can-
not see the other side. You think you are just an ordinary human, 
but if you take the board off, you wiu understand, "Oh, I am 
Buddha, too. How can I be both Buddha and an ordinary 
human? It is amazing!" That is enlightenment. 
When you experience enlightenment, you will understand 
things more rreely. You won't mind whatever people caU you. 
Ordinary mind? Okay, I am ordinary mind. Buddha? Yes, I am 
Buddha. How do I come to be both Buddha and ordinary mind? 
I don't know, but actually I am Buddha and ordinary mind. 
Buddha, in its true sense, is not different from ordinary mind. 
And ordinary mind is not something apart from what is holy. 
This is a complete understanding or our selr. When we practice 
zazen with this understanding, that is true zazen. We will not be 
bothered by anything. Whatever you hear, whatever you see, that 
wiu be okay. To have this feeling, it is necessary to become accus-
tomed to our practice. If you keep practicing, you will naturally 
have this understanding and this feeling. It will not be just intel-
lectual. You will have the actual feeling. 
Even though someone can explain what Buddhism is, if he 
does not have the actual feeling, we cannot call him a real Bud-
dhist. Only when your personality is characterized by this kind 
of feeling can we call you a Buddhist.

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