No Mistake

Student D: Docho Roshi, the fish is in the water. The water is in the fish. It is soundless, and you cannot hear it. It is clear, and you cannot see it. It has no smell. How can there possibly be a mistake?

SR: There is no mistake whatsoever. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki shosan ceremony - 67-12-07 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Fear

Student C: Docho Roshi, outside I see the trees, and the things that grow, and the rocks seem to do perfect zazen. And I see my own potentiality for this, yet still I feel great fear. Please tell me what is the true nature of fear?

SR: Fear has no reason why it arises. So when the rocks and running water become a part of you, when you become truly their friend, there will be no fear.  -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki shosan ceremony - 67-12-07 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Forget

Student B (Dan Welch): Docho Roshi, as the sun enlightens our daily life, as the stars never cease to shine, how is it possible to forget?

SR: Originally you do not forget it.  -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki shosan ceremony - 67-12-07 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Moment

Student A: My heart is full of joy. This zendo at Tassajara is like my own home. Sitting in zazen, eating with my fellow monks, trying to follow the way of my Roshi. Word by word, moment by moment, feeling by feeling, my delusion and my feeling is expressed in this moment.

SR: Yes. “In this moment” is right. Don't live in future or past.  -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki shosan ceremony - 67-12-07 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Paul Lee's great website

Ecotopia - 

Paul's cuke page with memories of Shunryu Suzuki and more.

Ways

So without experience of observing it, to discuss our rules is not right, because we put emphasis on our experience, not, you know, discussion itself-- intellectual discussion, whether this is Japanese way [laughs] or American way. We have not much idea of Japanese or American way. Whatever way may be good ways [laughs]. American way, I think, or our way. So we should find out. We should try to improve our way, and we should develop our way. This is bodhisattva's mind or spirit. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Jeff Sherman sends note and photos

Check it out on Jeff Sherman page.

That's larger on cuke of course.

Merry Christmas! Etc!

Selemat Natal! - Merry Christmas in Indonesia where it's a national holiday. Our Christmas tree is made from wrought iron by the owner of a local hardware store - the plants in it and lights came later.

This is a good holiday greeting card for Bali this year. It's got Christmas, the Bali Hindu celebration of Galungan and Kuningan (good explanation, colorful photos) starting tomorrow, and a Happy New Year.

Those long drooping decorative bamboo poles are penjur and are used for Galungan and Kuningan. Our landlord's son made us one for our place. They're quite tall - go above the electric lines.

Discussion

Now if you discuss, you know, I think the conclusion [laughs] will not result in same idea we have had. So if you practice it, and if you find some problem, you know, about that problem I want you to discuss. This kind of discussion is very important, I think. This kind of idea is quite new to me. By discussion you will have chance to explain why you observe our way. So others will be interested in our way. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

A Video Message from John Tarrant

The Pacific Zen Institute is a fiscal sponsor of Cuke Archives and they're doing a year end fundraising drive.  Check out the founding teacher's appeal. - Thanks. - DC

Observation

Here in Tassajara, I think you have difficult time in observing our way, which is not familiar to you. But I want you to observe it first of all, and then you can discuss about our way. So observation is first and discussion is next.  -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Sincerity

Whether the rules are part of you or not will be checked out by your teacher [laughter]. Even though you are observing our way, you know, if the rules are not a part of you, you know, he will see it. The point is your sincerity, not form. We rather put emphasis on each one's own way.  -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Rules

In our practice we do not like to be caught by some rules. Nevertheless, we make best effort to observe our way. When we make best effort to observe our way, there are no more rules. The rules are part of us.  -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Continuing from Yesterday and Days Before

There are various ways of life, and there are misunderstandings with your life, so there must be some philosophy as a background of this kind of teaching. That is why we find our teaching pretty difficult, especially when you studied intellectually. The best way is just to practice until you understand it. This method is completely different method: to force some way on us. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Correction: Jack Weller's memorial Thursday

Received an email saying I'd been sent the wrong day for Jack Weller's memorial but the email just said "tomorrow at 6:10 in the zendo following 5:30 zazen at the City Center. I'm pretty sure that means Thursday, December 20th.

Jack Weller page

Obvious

So universal value is something very vague and not distinctive, and not interesting at all. When you  appreciate many kinds of things which are different from each other, you will have happy life, you will enjoy our life. This kind of thing is quite obvious. There is no need for any interpretation or philosophical discussion about it. It is actual truth. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Memorial Service for Jack Weller

There will be a memorial service for Jack Weller at the SFZC City Center on Wednesday, December 19th at 6:10 PM, the time for the regular evening service following 5:30 zazen.

Jack Weller page

Name

You can see many mountains, you know-- you will enjoy to see many mountains, but when you are interested in the sight of the mountains you see, the value of each mountain will be ignored. If I call you by name of human being-- ”Hi, human being!” [laughs, laughter], your character will be ignored. Everyone is human being. We don't know whether [laughs] you are man or woman or young lady or old lady: just any human being [laughs]. It doesn't make any sense. If you are called by your name, you know, you will be happy. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Jack Weller cuke page

Forgot to add link to prior post: http://cuke.com/people/weller-jack.htm

RIP Jack Weller

Just got word that Jack Weller died last night peacefully after a week in hospice. RIP Jack, a truly gentle soul. - dc

Jack Weller cuke page - with the audio and a transcription to a talk he gave recently at the SFZC City Center on his memories of Shunryu Suzuki and Chogyam Trungpa.

Each

So we rather put emphasis on the difference between each being. Although we put emphasis on difference, we do not discriminate which is better. It is different, but each is same value or absolute value because it is different. When you put emphasis on universality, it means you are killing things, at least the value of things will be ignored. True value of each existence will be ignored. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Different

When you put emphasis on the universality, everything loses its own value. When you mix male and female and divide in two [laughs], you will lose your life. Man should be a man, and woman should be a woman because, you know, man and woman is different. There is value and there is life. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Validity

Everything has absolute value because it is different from others. If everything is same, they will lose the value. Because it is different, it is value. So to mix up everything is to kill buddha-nature. So when one is teacher, he should be teacher. When one is student, he should be a student. But it does not mean student cannot be a teacher. So we rather put emphasis on validity than universality. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

A new poem from Bhikkhu Moneya

Kathina in Sri Lanka

Place

Even though everything has buddha-nature, it does not mean you can mix up everything. As Dogen Zenji said in his Instruction for Cook, “Something which should be put higher place, should be put higher place. Something which should be lower place, should be lower place.” Everything has its own function and virtue. So according to the virtue, we should treat them. Only when we treat them according to their virtue, everything will have same value. Because water cannot be exchanged for fire, fire has its own virtue and water has its own virtue. So water should be in the kettle and fire should be under the kettle, you know. If everything is its own place, everything has same value, he says. So we should not mix up everything.  -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Carefully

The best way to understand what is buddha-nature is just to practice our way and treat things very carefully. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Merit

When I was young, someone explained said, “You should cultivate virtue. You should accumulate merit. If you give others the good pickles, you will accumulate merit. That is why you should take the worst pickles.” And I thought, then I would rather take the best ones [laughs, laughter] to save others --- to let them accumulate more merit. I don't want to accumulate merit for myself. I didn't try, but I thought so. Really I thought so. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Value

Although we put emphasis on difference, we do not discriminate which is better. It is different, but both is same value or absolute value -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

First and Last

To repeat something is not so difficult. If you repeat it, it will be a part of you, and this is, you know, how we observe our way. Here at Tassajara you do not pass big pickle dish. You divide mine and it's put it in front of you. But if you pass in one big dish starting with me, I shall always eat the worst part [laughs], and in the monastery, the last one will eat the best part. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Amuse

Sometime I, you know, I am amused myself [laughs] to observe Japanese way in America. When I go to grocery store, I usually buy worst fruits or oldest [laughs] vegetables. I take off something good to find something bad. And why I buy the worst one, because I feel very sorry [laughing, laughter throughout story] for the worst one. This is habit, you know, and I pay same amount of money. So at the store they are interested in my way of buying. “Why don't you take this one? This one is better,” they say. “No, I want to buy this one.” And they say, “Why? Why?” I will say, “I don't know why.” And I-- I amuse myself with my habit. I have very funny habit. But I couldn't get rid of my forgetfulness. I tried pretty hard, but I still forget. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Why?

So this is the matter of sense, you know. This kind of thing is created with our way in our practice for a long time. So it is rather difficult for you to observe our way, I think. Nowadays young people come and practice Zen in Zen temple in summer vacation. If I told them to observe our way, they ask me why [laughs]-- like you do, you know. And it is rather difficult to explain why [laughs], because we do not do it with some reason. This is just habit. Habit is very important. So to observe way until it becomes our habit. This is very important.  -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Danny Parker on Ed Brown's Situation

Danny is a priest ordained by Ed. Here's his letter on the SFZC abbot's decision to ban Ed from teaching at the SFZC centers.

Update - There was a meeting a couple of weeks ago between some SFZC folks and Ed and a few people he brought including Peter Coyote. Ed said it was quite polite.

Habit

[ This way of treating objects carefully, carrying one by one with two hands and so forth] It is a kind of Japanese habit and this kind of idea originated from Dogen Zenji's way. ...And we do it without asking why. We just do it because we respect it. That is even more than respect. To respect things is something dualistic. “To be one with it,” we say. When we become one with it, there is no idea of big or small. Smaller things is easier to be one with it, and simpler things is easier to practice one of the duality. We do not even figure out why we do this. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

A Memorial Eko for Shunryu Suzuki

This Eko was sent by Peter Coyote who read it during a service at Hokyoji

Photo by Rowena Pattee

Hands

Usually we treat things with both hands. Sometime some beginners will carry their eating bowl in one hand like this. It looks very strange [laughs], like pumpkin [laughs, laughter]. We always carry things, if possible, [with] both hands. And you carry things in one hand or at once, you know. We do not carry so many. We will carry one by one, going back and forth [laughs]. This is more-or-less Japanese way.  -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Thick Cups

In the framework of your economic world, to consume things will encourage the producing more things [laughs]. So to use many things will help the circulation of money. For this economic reason, you do not treat things so well. Nevertheless, I found your cup is very thick. If it is thin, as thin as we have in Japan, [laughs] one dozen cups will be destroyed every day [laughs, laughter] in your kitchen. So yours are very thick, but ours is so thin. It is easier to handle if it is thin. But you have to  treat it very carefully. Because we treat it very carefully, there is no need for our cup to be so thick. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC

Bridge

If you go to Eiheiji, there is Half-Dipper Bridge: Hanshakukyo, so named because Dogen Zenji used to bring back the leftover water to the river. After he use half of the dipper of water, he took it back to the river again [laughs]. At Eiheiji we never wash our face with bowl full of water. We use just seventy percent of water in our washing basin. And when we empty it, we do not empty water this way [away from the body]. We dip it-- we empty it this way [toward the body], you know [laughs]. If you empty it this way, you must be very careful [laughs]. If we are careless, we know what will happen to us. So we will have to empty it very carefully. We treat things very carefully. And we respect things very much. -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-06-B 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.