Study Yourself — Shunryu Suzuki Roshi — Archived Dharma Talk — Sept. 9, 1965

Main ideas / concepts / lessons

• Studying Buddhism is not about becoming knowledgeable about Buddhism as an object of study. It is about studying and understanding oneself.

• Understanding “oneself” requires guidance/teaching, because it is otherwise “impossible” to know yourself directly—similar to how scientists need laboratories to study water.

• However, teaching is not the same as the self:

  • Teaching provides an explanation pointing toward what you are, but it is not the “thing itself.”
  • Therefore, attaching to the teaching or to the teacher is a major mistake.

• Ideal teacher–student relationship:

  • When you meet a teacher, you should use the teaching to become independent.
  • The goal is that you don’t cling to the teacher, but can stand on your own through understanding yourself.

• How Dharma teaching relates to the student (Dōgen’s / “D Way D analyzed” approach):

  • Teaching can be delivered in different ways: focusing on the disciple, the teaching, the teacher, on both, or sometimes giving no explicit instructions.
  • The core point: the student’s true nature is already present whether they recognize it or not.
  • A danger occurs when:
    • the student becomes attached to “their awareness” of true nature
    • the student mistakes what they have become aware of for themselves (mistaken identification)

• Practice should connect directly to everyday life:

  • There is no real separation between monastery practice and ordinary activity.
  • The study in this place becomes part of your incessant (continuous) daily activity.
  • The meaning of life is approached by understanding the meaning of everyday activity with awareness.

• Monastic life is ordinary, not “special” in a supernatural sense:

  • Outsiders may react emotionally or find the monastery’s sounds/rituals unusually deep.
  • Practitioners directly are less concerned with “unusualness”—practice is simply doing what is appropriate (sitting, bowing, eating, etc.).

• “Buddhism” is characterized as doing what should be done correctly:

  • Whether Buddhism is judged “good” or “bad” is secondary.
  • The real expression of Buddhism is appropriate action (e.g., routine daily acts like breakfast and bedtime).

• Encouragement is only a tool, not the aim:

  • Support or motivation can be “medicine” when discouraged.
  • The purpose is deeper awareness; when you are in the right spirit, you don’t need “medicine.”

• Practice should avoid over-interpreting or “stimulating” the self:

  • “Perfect” practice does not provide interpretations that inflate the ego/self-concept or provoke the self.
  • Discussion of the body/clothing/body-activity is limited and not the full picture of self-activity—it’s only to prevent misunderstanding.

• Key teaching phrase / logic:

  • Studying Buddhism is studying yourself.
  • Studying yourself is forgetting yourself.
  • Forgetting yourself means letting go of misunderstanding tied to temporary forms/appearances, so you can realize the true activity of “big existence/reality.”
  • When this is realized, there is “no problem whatsoever,” and one can enjoy life without difficulty.

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Method / instructional structure presented

• Step 1: Use teaching as guidance to study yourself

  • Accept that you cannot fully know yourself without some teaching.
  • Treat teaching as an explanation, not the final reality.

• Step 2: Avoid clinging to teacher or teaching

  • Do not attach to:
    • the teaching itself as an object
    • the teacher as a dependent authority
  • Use the teaching to move toward independence.

• Step 3: Don’t mistake “awareness” for the true self

  • Avoid the error of:
    • attaching to the awareness of your nature
    • identifying what you notice/think you know as “yourself”
  • Recognize that true nature is present even if unrecognized.

• Step 4: Understand practice as continuous with daily life

  • Make the study part of your everyday, ongoing activity.
  • Find the meaning of life by finding awareness of the meaning of everyday actions.

• Step 5: Treat encouragement as optional “medicine,” not the goal

  • Use encouragement when needed (when discouraged).
  • Don’t confuse “medicine” (support, motivation) with the true aim.

• Step 6: Don’t rely on self-based interpretation

  • Instruction should not:
    • stimulate ego/self-concepts
    • overload the student with interpretive notions about “me”
  • Talking about body/activity is only useful insofar as it prevents mistakes.

• Step 7: Practice the “forgetting” that clears misunderstanding

  • Let go of attachment to temporary expressions/forms (colors, temporal forms).
  • Move from “talk about self” toward realizing the true activity of reality.

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Speakers / sources featured

• Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (Referenced via the video title; he is the implied speaker delivering the archived Dharma talk.)

• Dōgen (Referred to as “D,” described as having analyzed ways to teach disciples.)

• “Buddha” (Mentioned as part of ritual practice, but not as a direct speaker in the subtitles.)