Shunryu Suzuki Stories - Suzuki Stories Index

MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES

Letters on Suzuki Index - with more on these letters

Peter Schneider

One morning, when I was jisha, Suzuki Roshi noticed that I had come down with a cold and on our getting back to his cabin before breakfast he heated up a soup bowl of sake, which he never drank and I didn't know he had, whipped an egg into it, had me drink it, then sent me back to bed. That was certainly the warmest drink I ever had. A lot of students said they found Roshi to be a remarkable man, but I never felt that particularly. He was just really easy to be with. I suppose it was because of his being the only open person I had ever known. After a lunch during the first summer at Tassajara someone wanted to take a picture of several of us on the bridge and I said something like, "Be more spontaneous!" to which he said, "You don't seem so spontaneous to me."