Marty Balin page

Marty Balin memorial page with photos and memories by Gene DeSmidt - including a good story with Shunryu Suzuki and Marty at Tassajara.

Photo of Gen on the left with Marty taking a break from working on the old new bathhouse in 1978.

RIP Marty Balin

Marty Balin, a Founder of Jefferson Airplane, Dies at 76 - NY Times

Marty and other members of the Jefferson Airplane came to Tassajara as soon as the first guest season opened May 1st (I think) 1967.  Marty was a close friend of good ZC friend Gene DeSmidt. That photo is from DeSmidt Design Build dot com in the pyramid atop Marty's Mill Valley Home Gene designed and built. 

Yosimite

the year before last year, I went to Yosemite and saw a waterfall. I was watching it. It was one sheet of, you know, white pearls hanging on the rock. Part of the water separated from the rock and falling down. When I saw it, I felt very sorry for the [laughs] separated water. It was almost going to be mist but still water. If it become completely mist, there will be no problem [laughs]. But they are not mist yet. So it has to travel one thousand feet all the way down to the bottom. If I didn't see that separated water, I wouldn't have that kind of feeling for the water. But separation from the original source creates some feeling for us.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from thee links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Venus

Nowadays we have very complicated life. But in this direction, as long as we are making effort to reach the moon or the Venus, if that is only way we know, there is no hope for us to attain liberation.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from thee links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Suzuki on Evolution

Evolution of living being is going on in the course of specializing the original nature. You know, something like our human life started from a kind of amoeba, you know, in the muddy pond [laughs] in which something was lived, and they divide their body in two and four and eight. In that way our life started. The more and more our life specialized as a human being or animal or plant-- the more our life is specialized, the more complicated our life activity become. So a human being has more complicated life. So to be divided or to be specialized means to evolve ourselves-- evolution of life going in this way.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from thee links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Tassajara Stories

Nuggets of Tassajara Stories pop up on Facebook now and then and I'm working in that very area these days so we started a Tassajara Stories page on Facebook to see if it attracts any tale or memory that someone wishes to share. I'm mainly interested in the Suzuki era but didn't mention that in the opening post. I linked to two story threads from elsewhere on FB already and posted a link to a small collection of tales on cuke called Pilfering - at the request of Elizabeth Sawyer - but I don't want to put material from cuke there. It's to see if we can attract anything new.  

If you have a Tassajara Story to share either go there or send it to dchad (at)  cuke.com. Thanks. - DC

Thanks Peter Ford for setting up that page. 

RIP Baba Hari Dass

Baba Hari Dass, a Hindu Guru who lived near Santa Cruz, died on the morning of September 25 at the age of 95. Just learned this from Elizabeth Sawyer who studied with Baba Hari Dass and took me to meet him years ago.

Memorial Page for Baba Hari Dass

Baba Hari Dass on Wikipedia

Continuing from yesterday

Attainment by this way of practice, something is missing, and it is only delusion for us. It is not real. So true understanding of zazen is necessary, whatever practice you apply. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from thee links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Groovin Reuven

Going through the Names page on cuke.com - looking for Tassajara stories - and spent a lot of time updating it, getting it in better order, making pages for more people as a hub to gather multiple links pertaining to them. The last one was Reuven Ben Yuhmin (AKA Roovane Ben Yuhmin Robert Front)who definitely needed a main cuke page. A great character he.

In Ancient Time

In ancient time, people applied various ways in our practice. Sometimes they meditated on a white skeleton; sometimes they meditated on water; or sometimes they practiced zazen to obtain detachment -- thinking filthy bag containing [laughs], you know, lung and stomach and many nasty things within it. Even the beautiful [laughs] person contains many things [laughs] in her. So we are all a bag of filthy [laughing] things [laughter]. Actually they did it. There are many kinds of practice for us. You are just laughing at them, but if you were in that situation, you would do it. But in America, this kind of thing will never happen [laughter]. All those practices, when it based on the true way of zazen,  work. But as long a practice is directed to one way only, it doesn't work.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Unthinkable

Dogen Zenji said, “Think unthinkable.” We think, but the direction of our thinking is opposite. Instead of trying to attain something, we try to forget. Instead of keep thinking, we try to stop thinking. What you will acquire through this practice will be tremendous, and every activity should be based on this kind of readiness of your mind. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Resume

Our practice is to resume our original state of being which is universal -- all the beings in the world or in the cosmic scale in time and space. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Before

Before you die, you don't know how to live in this moment when you think of it. But as long as you know what will happen to you after your death, there is nothing to be afraid of. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay. DC comment: He'd also say he didn't know what happens after we die

Bottom

Whatever happens to you, as long as you know the bottom of the suffering, bottom of fear, you feel quite safe. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay. 

new nonZense blog

Now there is a Cuke nonZense Blog which is a What's New page for Cuke Annex. We're moving the nonZense posts such as found in Saunters and DC Misc over there. This way Cuke What's New blog can remain pristine and pure, devoted to Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts and Cuke Archives and the Cuke nonZense blog can grovel in lower realms. Thanks to Peter Ford for getting this new blog up and running - and for everything else he does for Cuke Archives. - DC

Fire Water

As an old Zen master said, “If fire comes, you should be burned. If the water comes, you should be drowned.” That is our way. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay. DC comment: that should doesn't come across so well in English. Doesn't mean you don't try to survive. But if you can't escape it, accept it. Ouch.

Marc Benioff on Beginner's Mind

from Business Insider - Benioff is CEO of Salesforce and just bought Time Magazine - thanks Peter Ford

Whatever

Whatever happens to us, if we know what is our life and where we go completely, there is no fear whatsoever. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay. 

David Rogers on Tassajara

David Rogers' impressive  and thorough books and articles on Tassajara history and flora linked to from his cuke page. 

More on going insane

It means, you know, we are alive-- we are human being [laughs]. There is no possibility for dog and cats to be insane [laughs]. Because we are human being, we should dress up in some way. If we go insane, we will, you know, walk around without any dress, you know. If we do so it may be terrible [laughs]. We don't want to do so [laughs]. That is, you know, human being. But for cats and dog there is no such fear.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay. 

DC comment: I think cats and dogs can go insane but I agree with him that going naked for them would not be an indicator.

Insane

Even though you cannot deal with your fear, nothing happens to you, you know. Even though you go insane, that is all right [laughs, laughter]. Because we are normal, we have that kind of fear. That we have the possibility of going insane is [laughs] -- we should feel lucky, you know, to have possibility of going insane. But usually, we are trying not to be insane [laughs]. That is opposite effort to our zazen effort. We rather [laughs] practice zazen to go insane or enjoying [laughs] possibility of going insane [laughs, laughter].  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

RIP Eldon Pura

Eldon was a good friend of Tassajara who came in to do bulldozer work back in 1969 and continued coming to work or visit. He had a sweet disposition. Read DC on Eldon and his obituary from the Salinas Times. He died this year in April at the age of 93.

Fortunately

Fortunately we disappear, we die. So as long as we die, it is obvious that we are-- we exist in realm of time and space. So we are completely saved.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

Forever

Because we disappear we are quite sure about our existence. If we do not disappear, we don't know what we are [laughs]. Maybe more than ghost [laughs]. If we exist forever, we should be afraid of ourselves [laughs]. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

Appear

So why do we have fear of losing ourselves? Even though our form will disappear, as long as time and space exist, it is all right. Nothing will happen. One after another something will appear. Actually, that which does not appear does not-- which does not disappear does not exist [laughs]. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

Koans - How To

How to Practice Zen Koans by John Tarrant in Lion's Roar

John is the founding teacher of the Pacific Zen Institute 

Realm

We live in the realm of time and space. Even though the earth disappear, space exist, time exist. As long as the space exist, time exist. Something will happen in time and space. So as long as time and space is is there, there is nothing to be afraid of, even though there is no form appears in this time and space. No one [laughs] can doubt that there is time and space. But according to Dogen Zenji, this kind of understanding is not deep enough, but tentatively we can acknowledge.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

Resume

In our mind, there is no star, no earth, no sun -- nothing whatsoever. But everything comes out from that nothingness where there is nothing. So even though we pass awaym we die, if we know that all of us arise from this nothingness, to die is to come back [laughs] to the source of life. So for everything to appear means the possibility of resuming original state from where we appear.   ---------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

Foreword to A Brief History of Tassajara

Foreword by DC to Marilyn McDonald's A Brief History of Tassajara

Proceeds from this book will go to Cuke Archives - as a good deal of Cuke funds went into making it available. It's the lead into a slowly expanding Tassajara History section on cuke.com.

Nothing Happens

I remember I said something, you know, very extraordinary [laughs]: Even though you die, nothing will happen [laughs]. Even though the earth is broken piece by piece, nothing will happen. If you practice zazen, your mind will resume where nothing happens,before anything happens.  ---------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

Fundamental

The more you practice our way, the more your mind will resume your fundamental state -- big, where there is no feeling and where you do not think anything; no discrimination, no attachment and no fear. This is the difference between the effort in your zazen practice and the effort in your ordinary activity.   ---------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

Continuing from yesterday's post

In this way the more your mind is particularized or crystallized, you will have at the same time more uneasiness. That is what will result by your effort in its ordinary sense, while zazen practice will not result in this kind of fear or attachment.   ---------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

Crystallize

Before the concentration happens to you, your mind is just big and your mind is something which you don't know. You do not have any feeling about yourself. But once you are involved in something or you are concentrated on something, there your mind will crystallize, and you will have some clear idea of yourself-- subjectively and objectively.

particularize

In previous lecture, I compared zazen practice and usual everyday activity. In usual activity, as you know, our effort is directed to outside, and our activity is concentrated on some particular things. This activity of particularize something creates many things. But this kind of creativity at the same time creates some fear. This creativity will result in some feeling-- whether it is good or bad.  ---------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-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.

Various Ways

We should not be involved always in just one-sided way of appreciating our life. Sometime positive, sometime negative. So in this sense we should practice our way in various way -- observing ceremonies and not observing ceremonies by just sitting. This is how our way should be.  ---------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-04-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.

Brian Unger's Novel is available

Cuke page for The Rincon Notebooks by Brian Unger

Brian Unger cuke page

Both Sides

We human beings understand things from various angles -- mainly from positive side and negative side. And when we observe things from both sides -- when we are able to appreciate things from both sides, one by one, there we have true way of life and true practice.  ---------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-04-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.