That Was Zen, This is Now

I was walking through the meatpacking district on my way home from the zendo last evening.

There I saw two billboards, one on top of the other, which caught my eye:

Blanche Hartman Roshi often says that she really has only one teaching: "Just this is it."

Her student, Jana Drakka, has shortened it to: "This!" 

Even Zen kitsch is "it."

A student once asked Suzuki Roshi: "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?"

Suzuki Roshi answered: "It doesn't matter."