Your Own Practice

I see many students who are very much afraid of their new experiences [laughs] that are so unusual. But there is no need to be afraid. And those people may not be able to see their teacher in many cases. Anyway, we should practice our way from beginning to end. As long as the practice follows your intellectual understanding and your emotional activities, whatever they are, it will be adjusted and will be your own in its true sense. Whatever it is, if your practice follows, it will be your own.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Four Ways

Shi, ge, gyo, sho—four stages. Shi is belief, ge is intellectual understanding, and gyo is practice—emotional activity followed by intellectual activity, we call gyo. And sho is enlightenment or proof, proved by various teachers. This is very important. Four ways. So, our practice includes those four. Our practice is not just one of the four—of entering our way.

Photographs by Judith Keenan

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Neil Needs a Nudge - Tyson on Religion Stuck in the Literal - The title says it all. I rap on that some more and urge him to talk with me about this topic—not that there wouldn’t be a zillion others more qualified—but I’m asking and could suggest a broader approach so that his audience isn’t misled. Listen to the podcast.

Religion Is Just For Yourself

Don’t feel lonely [laughs]. You should exist just by yourself. You must have this kind of spirit. Then practice our way, and then read scriptures, or see your teacher. Then you will have the true meaning of your own life. Religion is through and through a personal thing. Religion is just for yourself, not for others.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Believe in Nothing

This is the most important belief we should have—to believe in nothing [laughs]. To believe in nothing enough is to believe in everything. So, first of all, we should believe in nothing.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

A Warm Heart

We are so grateful to have many teachers and teachings which are the accumulation of the actual experiences of various sages. All those teachings are drops of blood of ancient sages. So, we have to study with a warm heart, not just with our brains. Direct experience, direct practice is near. You have to be very straightforward, you should be very open, and you should be ready for everything which will happen to you.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Practice

Whichever way you take, the most important thing is the practice, you know, practice of Zen. If your process of attaining actual meaning of life does not follow practice, it is impossible. The problem you have will not be solved, so your life will not be your own. It is like food: even though you take food, if your tummy doesn’t digest it [laughs], it doesn’t work. So, the important thing is to digest things you have had. That is practice. By practice you will attain oneness of intellectual understanding and emotional understanding.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Back and Forth

In this way, back and forth, there are many possibilities in our practice. The first stage may be the last stage, and the last stage may be the first. So actually, there are no stages [laughs]. I am intellectualizing to help you, that’s all [laughs]. I don’t know what the right order is, starting from actual Buddha to the third stage, or starting from believing in the absolute nature which we originally have, and then intellectual understanding, and then emotional practice which your emotions follow. Or until your emotional activity follows your practice or follows your intellectual understanding that you practice.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

The Last Stage Will Be First

But this experience can be interpreted in reverse [laughs]. What Buddhas attained is the purity of mind or the absolute mind, so the last stage will be the first one in which you believe in. And because you have the last stage which everyone—every Buddha attained, and which everyone has, and because everyone has the same wisdom, whatever we do, whatever we understand.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

The 60s ZC and Hippies plus Unusual Stuff - Was it a bunch of hippies who helped Suzuki found Tassajara and who filled the zendo in the city. I look at this briefly. There's a lot more I could say, but I decided to think about how to approach the topic better. Then I talk about unusual experiences. It ends with a riff on current events. Listen to the podcast.