Chopping Wood & Carrying Water
I encountered Shunryu Suzuki years ago at his Zen center in San Francisco. I just wandered in off the street in the middle of three days of drinking. Two Zen novitiates in robes and Adidas gave me nervous looks, and then Suzuki came wandering into the room. We stood looking at each other without speaking, and then Suzuki, with a bemused smile on his face, put his hands together in the manner of someone about to pray, and bowed.
I returned the bow and then went back out into the streets.
