Today I was looking through a book for a spark to set off this talk and ran across an old note that said, ”The phrase ‘Nothing special’ keeps coming up for me. Could you please talk about its meaning?”
It is a good question, which is at the heart of our practice. Suzuki Roshi used this phrase a lot. At a time (the 60s) when young people were looking for profound experiences in psychedelics, some were investigating meditation. D.T. Suzuki was popularizing a side of Rinzai style that emphasized koan training leading up to kensho, or sudden awakening. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s training in the Soto school led him to understand that what brings us to practice is our inherently enlightened mind and that realization is like walking through a fog—unaware that through continuous daily zazen practice our clothes are becoming wet. Suzuki Roshi did not encourage attainment. He said that when we are always looking “over there” for something, it is harder to appreciate where we are right now. With this understanding, grasses, pebbles, and waters are always preaching the Dharma and teaching us how to act. So there is nothing special to achieve.
And yet, everything is special in its own unique form and way, and to be fully respected and appreciated as a form of Buddha nature.
Recently we were studying the Buddhist precepts of different schools. Some have 250, others have 16, and some have none. Suzuki Roshi respected them, but his understanding was that precepts are simply our way of navigating our life. When we pay attention to our surroundings and keep our senses and mind unassuming and open, everything we encounter brings us back to our compassionate, joyful, and harmonious practice. It is not that we ignore enlightening moments. But even when they are extraordinary, they are at the same time not more extraordinary than the ordinary sight of the divine light of a periwinkle by the side of the road.