Student: Would you explain more what you mean by “strict practice”? Suzuki Roshi: Strict practice? Things are already going in a very strict way. There is no exception. Wherever there is something, there is some rule or truth behind it that is always strictly controlling it, without any exception. We think we care for freedom, but the other side of freedom is strict rule. Within the strict rule there is complete freedom. Freedom and strict rule are not two separate things. Originally we are supported by strict rules or truths. That is the other side of absolute freedom. Student: Could you give us more examples that apply to our individual lives? Suzuki Roshi: When you get up you should just get up. When everyone sleeps you should sleep. That is my example. – from Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai. Also see Suzuki Roshi’s Dharma Talks blog.

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