Eyes and Ears

If you have the eyes to see, the ear to hear what others may say, all the religion will be your religion. When you have this kind of ears to listen to various religion, then you are Buddhist.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-10-00 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.

Cling

So, if you believe in Buddhism, you have no problem with what kind of religion you should believe in. All the religion you will believe in, at the same time, will be Buddhism, if you understand it properly. But because you cling to one teaching only, forgetting all the rest of the teaching, or if you cling to the teaching just because your teaching is lofty, then you will lose the true meaning of the teaching. Even though your religion is good, if you think your religion is good but the rest of the teaching is not good, it means you ignore the rest of the truth.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-10-00 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.

Good Only

Usually I find people seeking for something good only, something lofty only, but they are not interested in something common, something usual. But we do not stay in the stage of Buddha, because true Buddha is always someone who help ourselves and who help others too.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-10-00 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.

updownward

 So, our teaching is very upward and very downward, at the same time.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-10-00 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.

Bali Usada

A week of Tapa Brata with Merta Ada
fixed link
Is now in Indonesian - Baca di bahasa Indonesia


That's the meditation hall.

Grahame Petchey's Way-seeking Mind Story

This by DC was read by Richard Baker at Grahame's memorial at Green Gulch April 21, 2018

Help

Our teaching is teaching how to obtain enlightenment and how to help others, and how to help ourselves. And our teaching is, at the same time, how to help others and how to forget all that we have and know how to be common. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-10-00 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.

Compare

If you compare Buddhism to other teaching, you cannot find out true, why we believe in our way. Because it is not matter of comparison, or it is not matter of which is better, or it is not matter of lofty teaching or common teaching. Our teaching is lofty teaching, of course, but on the other hand it is very common teaching. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-10-00 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.

Great ZMC Photos

from Zen Mt. Center practice period spring 2018 - thanks Myles Cowherd

Beyond

Zen is beyond even all human effort. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-10-00 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.

More on the Bali Usada retreat

Adding to the Bali Usada retreat report made earlier this month.
fixed this link

Characteristic

A characteristic of Buddhism, is it's the teaching which it's possible to include various kinds of understanding. All kinds of understanding – and right or wrong, good or bad, high, or lofty, or common. Buddhism has some possibility to put every teaching in right order, and to have understanding of each experience or knowledge – not only religion, but also scientific knowledge, by including all kinds of culture and effort of human being. This is the most important characteristic of Buddhism.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-10-00 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.

Obtained

Whether you have a problem in your life or not is up to the way you have. So there is no problem in your understanding because of the double nature of the truth or paradoxical nature of the truth. This kind of mind will be obtained by your true zazen.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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.

ZEN ODYSSEY

The Story of Sokei-an, Ruth Fuller Sasaki,
and the Birth of Zen in America
Janica Anderson and Steven Zahavi Schwartz 

Wisdom Books page for this book

Steven Schwartz will be at Readers' Books (130 E Napa St, Sonoma), Thursday evening April 26 at 7pm,

Big Mind redux

Because we have big mind and sometimes it is very complicated -- complicated big mind -- that is our problem. Sometimes simple -- too simple big mind to figure out what it is. That is also big mind.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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.

Big Mind

The big mind is something to express, but is not something to figure out. Big mind is something which you have but is not something to seek for.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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.

Point

The point is whether you have the big mind or the small mind. In short, when we do everything without thinking this is good or bad, and when you do something with your mind and body -- whole mind and body, then that is our way.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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.

Form

Our practice sometimes looks like very formal, but our mind is not formal. Our mind is very informal, but we practice with people who have some clinging idea. So according to the situation we practice our practice in various forms and various ways. As long as we do something it should be some form. That form should not be always the same. But there’s no reason why it should be always different. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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. [I took the word "not" out of last sentence. Japanese use double negatives. He didn't mean "why it should not be" - dc]

A one week Tapa Brata retreat

At Bali Usada's Forest Island with Merta Ada

Rigid

Rigid formal practice with informal mind - this is our practice. Our practice sometimes looks like very formal, but our mind is not formal.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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.

Double

The Soto way is always double -- has double meaning, positive and negative. And our way is also Hinayanistic and Mahayanistic. I always say our practice is very Hinayanistic. Hinayana practice with Mahayana spirit is Soto way.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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.

Elizabeth Baker singing in Berkeley

I would like to invite you to a semi-staged performance of Handel’s Serse (Xerxes) in Berkeley on April 15th presented by the Handel Opera Project. I will sing Serse — the lovestruck and entitled King of Persia — along with an ensemble of fine singers and instrumentalists. As you may know, the opera features the aria 'Ombra mai fu,' one of Handel’s most beloved melodies.

Here are the details:

Handel’s Serse
Sunday, April 15, 7:00 p.m.
Christian Science Organization, 2601 Durant Ave., Berkeley
Chamber Ensemble conducted by William G. Ludtke
Seating is limited

To purchase tickets, go to: Brown Paper Tickets - Serse by George Frideric Handel

Read a rave review of a past performance of Elizabeth's

How we Listen

 Not to figure out some intellectual understanding, not to express some intellectual, one-sided idea, you listen to it without figuring out, without trying to understand it from one sided view. This is how we listen to a talk, and how we talk about our teaching.----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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.

Way Talk

When we talk about our way we are apt to create some misunderstanding of our way. Because true way has at least two sides - negative side and positive side which is opposite. So when we talk about negative side, the positive side is missing and when we talk about the positive side the negative side is missing, and it is impossible to talk positive way and negative way at the same time. So we don’t know what to say. So not to say anything, and to do it, is the best way. Showing one finger or drawing a round circle may be the best way, or bow. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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.

An Overview of Cuke Archives

Written for the Winter 2018 SFZC Newsletter

Talk

The more you understand our thinking, the more you find it difficult to talk about it, because the purpose of talk is to give some idea of our way, but originally our way is not something to talk about, but something to practice. So best way is just to practice without saying anything. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-27 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.

Happy Belated Buddha's birthday

April 8th. In Japan anyway. 

Concentrated

When your effort is concentrated on the true way of things, it is not so easy to be angry. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-12 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.

Technique

Zen is not some technique, to obtain something. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-12 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.

The Uncertainty Club

Has a new issue - With each Stitch the World Spews Flames

an online mag from John Tarrant's Pacific Zen Inst.

Patient

If your practice of Zen is right, naturally you will be patient. So there's no need to try to be patient if your practice is good. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-12 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.

No Gap II

So, you know, dana practice and precepts observation is not two – is just one. And zazen practice is also another side of that one practice. If so, there cannot be any gap between one practice to the other. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-12 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.

No Gap

In your mind, there should not be any gap from one practice another. If you have right understanding of our practice, there is no gap between your observation of zazen, observation of precepts, or dana Prajnaparamita. All those practice are many many cases of one practice.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-12 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.

Steve Tipton has a new book out

The Life to Come: Recreating Retirement

Amazon dot com link

Steve Tipton cuke page

Steve Tipton books page

Stop

To stop anger when it appears, constant practice is necessary. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-12 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.

Grahame Petchey memorial at Green Gulch April 21

Grahame Petchey cuke page