Suzuki Roshi's Zen 5. Kindness and Toughness are not different

Kindness and toughness are not two different things. Suzuki Roshi did some hard training in his youth. his original teacher Gyokujun So-on was very tough. Today, in our world, we might almost call him an abusive person, and wonder whether there is something wrong with him. maybe we would send him to a therapist, or maybe Suzuki Roshi would have to go to a therapist to work through his experiences. But Suzuki Roshi loved him very much and felt that his guidance and his toughness was very important.

Suzuki Roshi really wanted Zen Center to purchase a farm, and this is why ZC got Green Gulch. And the reason he wanted ZC to have a farm was so that when times became tough, and food was hard to get, ZC would be able to have food, and to supply food for others. To Americans born after WW II, it seemed almost unimaginable that there could ever be a time when you could not get food. But Suzuki Roshi knew about hard times, he knew about not being able to get enough food. In the early days of Zen in China there were also hard times. Zen was suppressed, monks were kicked out of their temples, and there were many uprisings and revolts and famines. So Suzuki Roshi and the Zen school itself were formed in the midst of difficulties. Suzuki Roshi knew that the Zen life, that human life, requires a great strength. But in this strength is the truest kindness, for strength brings constancy and real kindness is not an emotion or a feeling but the ability to see clearly and follow through, and this requires a great strength. There is no effective kindness without strength. Suzuki Roshi was much loved for his kindness, and he did not consider himself to be a strict teacher. But he understood the virtue of strictness, and there was a strong backbone in the middle of his kindness. He was not sweet or sentimental.