That’s Enough

My master always told us: “You stinky boys, wash your underwear!” [Laughs, laughter.] What he meant is not just underwear, you know. My master’s way of training his disciples was pretty different from usual masters. He did not allow me to stay at Eiheiji too long. “Two years is enough! You will become a stinky Eiheiji student! That’s enough, you should go to Sojiji.”

Shunryu Suzuki at Eihei-ji leaving for takuhatsu. He is in monk’s pilgrimage robes.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Stinky Zazen

If we are caught even by the idea of Zen, we call it stinky zazen [laughs, laughter]. He is not fresh enough—old stinky Zen student! But if we do not have a chance to renew our practice, soon we will be stinky students. As if you wear the same underwear one week or two weeks [laughs]. What will happen to us, it’s obvious.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Good Stimulation

At some monasteries they bathe in cold water from December 1st until December 15th....I think, especially for people who live in San Francisco where the climate is always the same, it may be necessary to have some pool for Zen monks to take cold baths [laughs, laughter]. Maybe an exciting practice for us, and it will give pretty good stimulation for San Francisco people. It doesn’t mean to be involved in ascetic practice. The purpose of such practice is to renew your life physically and spiritually.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Great New Tassajara Photos

 David Silva's April 2024 Tassajara photos.

David Silva cuke page

Why We Practice Various Practices

So we say, “way as it is,” but actually when most people say that, it is not at all the way as it is. Without clearing your mind and without cleaning up your body physically, you will not have a chance to live in each moment. So, the big enemy for us is laziness [laughs]. If you are always lazy and drowsy, spiritually and physically lazy, you have no chance to live truthfully to yourself. That is why we practice various practices.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Renew

Moment after moment we should renew our life, we should not stick to an old idea or way of life. We should renew our life day by day. Especially at the end of the year, we should completely renew our feelings and completely renew our karma. If we stick to old ideas, it is rather difficult to renew our way of life. Some encouragement is necessary if you are always repeating the same thing over and over again. For instance, we use this kind of stick to renew our practice. If you become drowsy and you don’t receive it, you have no chance. But, if you receive the stick, you will have a chance to renew your practice. And in this way, you can live moment after moment.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

The Taste of Direct Experience

If we want to practice our way, we should free our minds of intellectual or conscious activity in terms of right or wrong, good or bad. Whatever it is we should try it, and we should have the taste of it through direct experience. Not just feeling or thinking, but direct experience. That is zazen practice.

Zenkei Blanche Hartman, Sojun Mel Weitsman, and Chuck Gould at breakfast in the Rinso-in family area, 2011.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Myo Denis Lahey is the abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco and has been since 2002. He first came to the SF Zen Center in 1970. Listen to our podcast and read more by and about him -  http://cuke.com/f

Seek for Something More

Because we are such intellectual beings it is necessary to be free from our reasoning or our intellect. And instead of being caught by our intellectual mind, we should seek for something more, and we have to rely on the way things goes. Here we are practicing, maybe you feel, the Indian way or Chinese way or Japanese way. But actually, there is no special way. Our way is not just for Japanese or Chinese or Indian people. This is for everyone. We sit in a cross-legged position, but if you think just the cross-legged position is Zen, that is a big mistake.

Oil portrait of Shunryu Suzuki, 1971

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

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