Strained

When we talk about Buddhism, it is liable to be a strained application of our teaching. You know we have certain faults of teaching and logic, so our talk is liable to be a strained application of Buddhist logic. This means a little, but it doesn't help so much. So we have to destroy the logic, and we should feel what we say, or we should have some intuition to grasp the teaching. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-14- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Moon

As you know, the teaching is, as we say, a finger pointing at the moon. You should not see the finger, you should see the moon. But usually your understanding of what I say and your questions are always in the realm of your thinking or conscious understanding. That is not the purpose of the study of Buddhism. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-14- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Talk

We do not talk in the realm of reasoning or thinking. We talk out, we get out of our talk. When you hear our lecture, you should not hear my voice or what I say. You should understand what I “talk out.” Do you understand? It is rather difficult to express. Not up to here. You should understand something more than what I say in terms of reasoning or logic. That is how you study Buddhism and how to talk about Buddhism. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-14- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Clear

If you want to study Buddhism, you have to clear your mind. You should not have any prejudice. You should forget all you have learned before. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-14- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Yourself

It is pretty difficult to study, to listen to our lectures or our teachings. Usually when you study something, and even when you are listening to our lecture, I think that what you understand will be an echo of yourself. You think you are listening to me, but actually you are listening to yourself, so no progress will result. You always understand our lecture in your own way. Your understanding is always based on your way of thinking. So I think that you hear my voice and see my face, but actually you see yourself, and what you hear is nothing but an echo of yourself. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-14- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Mind

Our study will be concentrated for a while on the statement: “The mind itself is Buddha.” [From the first sentence of Shobogenzo “Sokushin Zebutsu.”] ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-14- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Have to

If you say you cannot practice any more because of this or that, that is the opposite of what I mean. Because of this or that, you have to practice! Do you understand? Because you are busy, you have to study. Because your mind is occupied by some particular thing, you have to practice. Because you've become interested in something recently, you have to practice our way or else you will be lost. Otherwise, whatever you do, it won't work; you are not you. When you want to leave you, you should practice zazen. That is the most important thing for you. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Afraid

I saw many students who were very afraid of their new experience. It is so unusual that you become afraid of it, and you may not be able to see your teacher in most cases. But there is no need to be afraid of it. Anyway, we should practice our way from beginning to end. As long as practice follows your intellectual understanding or your emotional activities, whatever it is, it will be adjusted, and it will be your own in its true sense. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Just learned that Charles Felix died last December

Charles Felix was a good friend of Green Gulch and a pleasure to know and my wife Katrinka knew him quite well because she managed the Pelican Inn for ten years - after he'd sold but he remained involved. We also visited with him later at his Sonoma home. I find no photo of Charles on the web or mention of him on the inn site, but many of us remember him fondly. - dc

***

Nothing

The most important belief we should have is belief in nothing. To believe in nothing is to believe in everything. First of all, we should believe in nothing. Don't feel lonely. You exist just by yourself. We must have this kind of spirit and 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Warm

So we have to study with our warm heart, not just with our brain. Direct experience, direct practice is necessary. If you want to do this, you have to be very straightforward, very open, and ready for everything which will happen to you.  ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Alone

Some of you will have to go to your own home and practice alone. In such a case, when you have a new experience, you should continue your practice following the new experience within yourself, and act bravely according to it. This kind of make-shift will be necessary for you. We should never be bound by the same old way. We should always be ready for new experiences. You may say it is kensho, but whatever you say, it is quite a new experience, both intellectually and emotionally. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

New Experience

When you have a new experience, at first you may form a greater belief. And you may even cry over this new experience because it is so different from the experiences you have had, and because it is too real to you. That is because your practice is still lacking. In other words, you have to practice until you become accustomed to new experiences and can digest them and act properly according to them. This kind of understanding is necessary. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02- as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Written for Tassajara first practice period

If you are truly involved with the development of our way,
there will be no idea of development,
of religious or worldly, of Japanese or American,
of man or woman, or even of Zen.
Such true activity will start
when distinctions are forgotten
and hindrances become the opportunity for practice.
Thus you will know your own way .
It is the time to put these seven hundred year old
teachings of Dogen Zenji into practice.  ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

For first practice period at Tassajara

So through group practice you find out how to know your own way. For example, Buddhist ceremonies are too complicated to do perfectly and so in our observance of them we can see our own way and not just the way of the ceremony. And in learning to accommodate ourselves to the practice of others and to our teachers, we will find out how to communicate with others and with all worlds and their various Buddhas. This is not just verbal communication. It is more direct than that. It is person to person and beyond any specific way. This is known as the Bodhisattva's way. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Short Cut

To live in this world means to exist under some condition moment after moment. We should have the flexibility of mind to adjust our being to these conditions so that when we do change our attitude or circumstances, there will still be a fundamental imperturbability to our minds and bodies. This imperturbability gives us absolute freedom and we should practice our way until we obtain this. Group practice. is the short cut to the imperturbable mind which is beyond concepts of personal or impersonal, formal or informal. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Group

The purpose of group practice is not the observation of rules and rituals. Although the rules do allow you to focus on your practice, and to live according to the essentials needed to practice together, the purpose is co==x obtain freedom beyond rules and ceremony, to have naturalness, a natural order of body and mind. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Scarecrow

We say our practice is scare-crow practice. If you just sit there are no sparrows around you. Even though you do not try to scare them they are scared of you and they do not come to you. So if you practice zazen there is no problem and there are no precepts to observe. So there’s no need to observe them. You are observing them. And you have wisdom. In this way we should keep our precepts and we should cope with our problems. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Trees

There may be big tree and small tree. Under the big tree there is small tree and you will think the small ones are suffering under the big tree. It looks like a problem. Even in nature we see many problems. But if you see the root of the trees -- small trees and big trees you will understand how they survive.

Off to a Retreat

Left this morning on a Peramatour Bus for Lovina up north ten kilometers from the Brahmavihara Arama, a Buddhist temple (see photo), for a Vipassana retreat that starts on Saturday and ends Friday the 18th at noon. Katrinka will pick me up with a driver then and we'll stay up there maybe for a day or two or three because it's a whole three hours away on the other side of the island and we only get that far away occasionally. Got some friends up there too. All the Suzuki lecture excerpts are already in the queue for every day through the 19th cept Sundays which is cuke day off. Katrinka will also bring my laptop so I'll catch up on email maybe that evening or the next day. Taking iPhone but don't use it for email and will have to hand it over for the duration of the retreat - sort of like checking your guns at the door or the Samurai leaving their swords outside the teahouse.

Dark

So even though you try to work for problem in the dark you cannot do that. When the light comes various problems will be dissolved. Because it is dark you have problem. If it is not dark there is no problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Del going Home

Del Carlson will be going back home on Thursday. He's okay now. Here's a photo of him in the hospital before he went to his niece's to recuperate.

Del's cuke page with this photo larger at the bottom. 

More Stan White Zen Ink Drawings

This is a four page Hokoji newsletter Stan penned. 

Thanks Alan Bassett for sending it.

Bright

To practice Zen -- when you practice Zen there is no problem and you will have some bright light within yourself -- within and without. Bright light. So when the light comes there’s no problem. In the darkness there is problem.  ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Delicous

You make delicious problems to eat or you can make various liquor. This is how we live with problem. But if you realize this point you may realize how important it is to practice Zen.  ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Home-made

People create the problem when they do not have it actually. When you are afraid of some problem, or when you are too much concerned abut yourself you create problem which you haven’t. Originally you haven’t but you create problem for yourself, and you suffer from it. Mostly our problem -- the problem we have is home-made problem.  ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Keeping

When we are not keeping our precepts we have precepts, but when we keep almost all the precepts, the precepts: do not kill, do not steal -- Perhaps if you do not know what is your law -- lawyer might be annoyed but almost all of us do not know what is law. But when we do not know what is precepts, we are keeping them. And even though you have problem that problem will vanish when your practice is healthy.  ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Long time since been to Los Altos

When I am in Tassajara I think about San Francisco or Los Altos, I feel as if many things to talk about, but when I meet you I have nothing to say. This is very funny. Nothing to say at all. But this is the way it should be. When we have something to talk about that is not so healthy, sometimes, but when we have nothing to say, that is very healthy situation -- especially when I see young people I forget everything. And sometimes I am ashamed of preaching to them. It’s much better not to say anything. That is how I feel, actually. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Just added a bunch to

Tassajara historical photos and documents

Simple

The expression may be sometimes very fancy, but the reality is quite simple. In this simplicity we must find our goal, moment after moment. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-22-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Don't Know

It is one, but two. Many but one. So we don’t know what to say. We don’t know exactly. In this sense this is something beyond our knowledge. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-22-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,

Pair

Many is one and one is many - when you feel actual being of yourself. Here we have pair of opposites and at the same time we have no pair of opposites, because the pair of opposites is originally one. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-22-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,