Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

If somebody can remember his previous lives, doesn't that imply that something is permanent?

Answer

People think of their own egos. They want to understand and cannot understand completely. They think egotistically. If you are not egotistical then the subject is not so crucial; zazen is much more important. Here and now can be far more effective. Master Dogen wrote deeply on this question of before birth, after death. Before birth: a drop of sperm from the father, an ovule from the mother...a drop of blood... That also is ku. It's not worth thinking about, analyzing. Only here and now is important. When you have to die you have to die, and in that moment this life ends. The more egotistical people are, the more they are attached to life and the more they think about death.