Of course, the question caused some anxiety among those in the room who were laughing quietly but nervously because the question could be perceived as disrespectful. However, Suzuki took it quite seriously. When the laughter subsided, he quietly answered: “Everything changes.”
Suzuki presented “reality” from the Buddhist perspective. Reality is impermanence, reality is change and, therefore, we have to live our lives in keeping with the way things “really” are, not the way we wish them to be.