Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

What would the world be like if everybody were a Zen monk?

Answer

It is not necessary to become a monk: I have never denied the importance of work and everyday life. Everyone should be able to earn his food. "Here and now" is important! In this dojo we do not practice zazen twenty-four hours a day; even I am not always practicing zazen. Through practice, zazen becomes the support of your everyday life; through zazen your entire life becomes Zen. So it is not necessary to become a monk; but if you want to, you will have a life beyond ordinary human life, you will have the highest spiritual life. What is spiritual life? Knowing oneself. Every great human has said it; they have all understood: "I am absolute Nothing... When we realize that we have no ego, that ego or self is nothing but interdependence, that we are exactly and no more than the result of the influence of our environment, that in all this there is no room for a me, that our life is without permanent substance then we are open to the dimensions of the cosmos, we can receive its energy and we can create. Open your hands and you will receive everything, even material things. Don't be afraid; that is satori.