So how do you think the unthinkable? There is no way. How? How is the way. Because we don’t know how. So, there you can put anything. How? This way is how. That way is how. All ways are how. It is like a fact. A cat is a fact. A dog is a fact.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-04-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
Peter Schneider, Yozen Taishin (Embracing Zen, Surrender to the Truth), ordained by Shunryu Suzuki and a dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman, was born December 24, 1937.
-Chris B (Myokan Daisho)
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I've been in touch with Peter and Jane recently and Peter very recently while he was in a convalescent center. We talked a couple of times since he was there. His mind was fine. Heartfelt condolences to Jane. They were a very tight couple. From the time they got together at Tassajara they've been inseparable. They'd get sick together. He said she wasn't well either. We tended to talk the three of us together. I told them to me they were a unit. Farewell dear friend and dharma bro - dc
Peter and Jane Schneider cuke page
The sun is not shining only on the earth, you know. If the earth happens to be here, the sun will shine on our earth [laughs]. Think unthinkable means your mind must be like the sun. It is shining, but it is not shining on some particular thing.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-04-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
Think the unthinkable. You must think the unthinkable means think not about something. Usually when you think, you think about something. But if your thinking mind is directed the opposite way, that is to think the unthinkable. Your mind is still clear, but there is no object.
One-stroke brushplay by Kazuaki Tanahashi
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-04-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
The power which you will obtain by true practice is the mind of hara we need. Here again, it is necessary to switch over your usual way of understanding to an opposite way of understanding. Without working toward the outside, to work inward without trying to achieve anything—to forget—to stop our mind which is working always outward. This is the most important point in Zen.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-04-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
There have been many misunderstandings about the power of hara. The power of hara is not to be some supernatural power. The power of hara is not something of which you can be proud or which you can obtain by hard practice or through dualistic effort. This mind is beyond our dualistic mind, so you cannot explain what it is by words. It is the mind which would be understood before you explain about it. This kind of mind is true mind.
Richard Baker and Shunryu Suzuki at Tassajara - 1967
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-04-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
So, the mind we will obtain by our practice is something which is very subtle and at the same time it is very great. This kind of mind is Zen mind.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-04-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
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What we will acquire by our practice or as a function of our tanden is sometimes very subtle, but subtle enough to catch. With the smallest sound, sometimes the mind will pervade the great universe. Actually, because it is so subtle it can cover the whole world. To appreciate the smallest trivial thing is actually how to appreciate—how to make our life on a cosmic scale. |
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—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-04-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version. |
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Pseudo Dionysius was a 5th century Syrian monk who wrote in Greek The Mystical Theology, his most famous work. It's like the Heart Sutra of Christianity, the via negativa, the neti neti (not this not that) of Advaita Vedanta. An appropriate reading for the holiday season. Listen to the podcast and read the book.
