The 2nd Tassajara Cook Book (that we know of)

The Tassajara Food Tripby Bill Shurtleff
1969

Another feature in this series of rare  and what we're calling in-house publications on cuke.com.

Last question

Student AA: Docho Roshi, you said that there's no special meaning to the Lotus Sutra. And last night you said that Dogen said everyone is going to attain enlightenment-- everyone will become enlightened. We're all practicing now so it seems like it's okay to say that to us. But if I was some businessman in San Francisco that you just happened to meet on the street, and he said: “What's the Lotus Sutra?” What would you say?

SR: What would I say? I may say, “That is Lotus Sutra,” but I may continue and say, “but you will not think so.”

The Sounds of Eiheiji

The Way of Eiheiji: Zen Buddhist Ceremony

A two record box set put out by Folkways Records in 1960

Created by Elsie and John Mitchell      

1959 recordings of chants and ceremonies, bells, hans, etc at Eiheiji, Soto Zen's most famous monastery. Bell sounds used in Podbean Cuke Audio are taken from a the introductory sounds for the Heart Sutra, the first cut on the two albums. Herein one may listen and read the 25 page booklet that came with it.  

Cuke Audio Podcast #5 is up

Go to Podbean Cuke Audio to hear 

Podcast #5 featuring
Chapter two of Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki

Contents
3:41 - Life in Bali with Sarah Wormald, diving guru
15:36 - Guest, Peter Schneider, Suzuki disciple, teacher at Beginner's Mind Zen Center.
37:03 - Chapter two of Crooked Cucumber 

Worry

Student Z [Chris]: Docho Roshi, before I came to Zen Center I used to worry a lot. But-- things are better now.
SR: All of you seem to agree with him. [Everyone was laughing.]   -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

The Dharma Lamp from Los Altos

Haiku Zendo Ho To Newsletters

featuring Kobun Chino Otogawa

Feel Bad

Student Y [Rick Morton]: Docho Roshi, I don't understand what to do about the bad things I think about myself.

SR: Yeah. Maybe so, you know. If you don't do anything, still you don't feel good. And if you do, you feel also-- sometimes good sometimes bad. So this is a very difficult problem. Maybe only way to get out of it is to practice zazen sometime, and to do some special work sometime. And you should make best effort in each moment. That is only way. Don't think too much. Thinking will not help you.    -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

A Classic Early Soto Zen Booklet on cuke

The Way of Zazen

by Rindo Fujimoto Roshi

Meaning

 Student X: Docho Roshi, what is the meaning of the Lotus Sutra?

SR: Lotus Sutra. If you understand what is this place-- where you are and what you are doing-- you will understand meaning of Lotus Sutra. In that way you should study. Don't think there is some special meaning to anything-- to anything.

Student X: No special meaning in it?

[Answer inaudible, maybe a gesture.]   -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

An Obscure Little Treasure

Haiku Zendo Chronicles

Memories of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi - Part I

The 1973 publication from students at that zendo in
Los Altos

Reality

Student W [DC]: Docho Roshi, life is pretty difficult. That's a small thing to say. I don't know what it is, so how do I accept it?

SR: The only way is to continue our practice. Without our practice there is no way to find out-- to reach the realm where we have not much confusion and trouble because our way is based in reality.     -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Time

Student V [Paul Discoe]: Docho Roshi, if everything is time, how can there be any past or future? And how can you get things done on time, or not have enough time to do something? This whole idea of time leaves me very confused.

SR: Even though you're making your effort to follow the time, time is not different from what you do. What you do is actually time, whether you are in a hurry or not. There is nothing which could be called time but what you do and what you see. So time is very -- time itself is Buddha which is always with us. Whatever we do it is with us. But we human beings always try to control ourselves. When we try to control ourselves it's to feel better. And this desire is just for ourselves. Everything may have desire in its wide sense, but human desire is very dualistic. We should be in time. It is only human beings who separate reality and the idea of time. So it is human destiny to control ourselves by the idea of time, by the idea of Buddha. The Buddha existed for human beings.

Student V [Paul Discoe]: And time is necessary too-- the idea of time?

SR: Yes.    -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Excerpts from Wind Bells

Been posting Wind Bell excerpt pages here recently. Here's the SFZC Wind Bell Excerpts link page with 20 links a number without having gotten to yet.

Image is from the sculpture excerpt page, a sculpture of Shunryu Suzuki made by his disciple Peter Schneider. An excellent likeness.

Katagiri

Dainin Katagiri in the Wind Bells and of course there's a link there to his cuke page page where there's tons but there could be more. Just haven't gotten around to it.

Wide Open

Student P [Pat Herreshoff]: Docho Roshi, yesterday afternoon you gave a lecture on the Lotus Sutra. You said-- I believe that you said the Lotus Sutra describes reality to itself. And I feel that you demonstrate reality to yourself every moment, every day. Being a teacher I know that you-- I mean, since you are a teacher, surely you want us to see this reality that you demonstrate. But my eyes are stubbornly closed to it. Could you give a word that would help me open them?

SR: Actually your eyes are not closed. Eyes are open. Even though you say so I feel, you know-- I see your eyes wide open. When you feel in that way-- that you feel in that way is the proof of your wide-open eyes.

Student P [Pat Herreshoff]: That's good news.    -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Podcast #4

Go to Cuke Audio on Poebean for Podcast $4

Chapter one of Crooked Cucumber with comments - preceded by a bit of Life in Bali and guest Eugene  Bush of the Arcata Zen Group with a novel and comapassionate approach to washing hands.

Wait

Student T [Pat Lang]: Docho Roshi, how do I really wait?

SR: Wait. Yeah. True wait. If you want to wait, really, in its true sense, you should follow things as they go. That is how you wait. IThe best way to go on a trip around all the world is to stay right here. You are always here. It means that you are waiting for everything. If you stay always at home, everyone will have a chance to meet you. If you are always making trip, people will find it difficult to see you. So to be just where you should be is how to wait. So it may be necessary to be patient. What I mean is there are many ways of waiting, so this should be the way to wait-- do whatever you like.    -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

New Menu for Cuke dot com

Check it out.     --- Thanks Larry Burns for the idea and Peter Ford for the execution

Leaf

Student R [Frances Thompson]: Docho Roshi, this leaf is an exquisite construction. It has ribs to hold it out into the sunlight. It's made of two layers of cells. The upper layer is smooth and even. The under layer has many tiny holes through which carbon dioxide is absorbed. In a chemical reaction in the sunlight, the carbon is removed and oxygen is released through the tiny holes into the air which we breathe. If there weren't green plants on earth, there would be no animal life. We wouldn't be here. There'd be no air to breathe. Is this leaf an illusion?

SR: Yeah. There is leaf. That is not illusion. But maybe what you said may be illusion because what you said is not good enough to describe. I am sorry.

Student R [Frances Thompson]: But maybe if I could really understand the leaf-- the First Principle of the leaf-- the other things would still be true, wouldn't it?

SR: Yes. Yes.    -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

BZC Mt. Seat Ceremony coming

Sojun Mel Weitsman will be stepping down from his long-held position of abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center and Hozan Alan Senauke will be stepping up sometime soon. I don't know any details. Please pass them on if you do know. Shunryu Suzuki sent Mel to Berkeley in 1967 so he's been in charge since then. He officially became abbot in the seventies.  He's 90 now. Here's a page for them at the BZC site. - DC

Body and Mind

Student Q [Evelyn Pepper]: Docho Roshi, you told us yesterday that we should be one-- our bodies should be one with our Small Mind. Right? Last night?

SR: When you say “mind and body,” that body means your physical body in its limited sense. It is a way of understanding, or viewpoint-- standpoint. To sit, in a limited sense, we say “mind and body.” But actually it is the same, but if we take physical viewpoint, this is body. But if we take spiritual viewpoint, this body is not just body. It is body and mind too. That is what I meant.    -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Sharing

Student P [Pat Herreshoff]: Docho Roshi, if there is nothing but what we have to share, and no help but what we have to give to each other, how can we act unselfishly if we're not ready to renounce our minds?

SR: Actually, to act in a selfish way is also sharing something and helping with each other. We cannot be completely selfish, anyway. That is not possible because every one of us are rooted to the same ground.   -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Wind Bell Search page

The Wind Bell Search Page - try it out. Searches through all the Wind Bells using various criteria - year, issue, author, catagori, key words. Sometimes if I don't get what I want this way, I just used the search box at the top of the Home and other keyy pages on cuke.com and that will do it. - dc

Next question not a question

Student O [Sally Block]: Docho Roshi, thank you for helping us all so much. I hope that someday we may be able to fully express our thanks.

SR: Thank you.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Mitsu Suzuki in the Wind Bells

Shunryu Suzuki's wonderful wife - Okusan, Mrs. Suzuki, Suzuki Sensei, Suzuki Mitsu - as found in the Wind Bells of the SFZC 1961 -  2012

Wind Bell Excerpts

The City Center and Neighborhood in the Wind Bells of the SFZC 

Follow

Student N [Liz Wolf]: Docho Roshi, should I follow myself, my body, my being-- or should I follow the schedule?
SR: To follow the schedule may be better.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Forever

Student M [Mary Quagliata]: Docho Roshi, I think that I will practice zazen for the rest of my life. Thank you.

SR: You mean forever.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

All Suzuki lectures from the Wind Bells

A reminder that one catagory of excerpts from the Wind Bells of the SFZC, 1961-2012, is a page with links to all the Shunryu Suzuki lectures from the Wind Bells.

The strangely distorted by Blogger cover of that 1999 Wind Bell features the art of Hoitsu Suzuki. See it full size here with that whole Wind Bell. 

Cuke Podcast 3 is now up

Comments on the Introduction to Crooked Cucumber - after some Bali Ramblings

on Podbean Cuke Audio

Comments on the Introduction to Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki - after some Bali ramblings, or local news and ruminations. Opening and introductory words first of course. Bali ramblings begin at 4:53. Zen stuff begins at 18:22 with a phone conversation with Sojun Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center in CA. We get into the book at 26:46 with a brief reading through the front matter followed by comments on the cover, front matter, and introduction which takes a little over an hour followed by the soothing closing words and music. 

Continue

Student K [Dan Welch]: Docho Roshi, you say this is the last day of our training period, but I believe that we will continue the spirit of this practice forever. Thank you very much.

SR: That is the way. -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Zoom Lectures by Sojun Mel Weitsman

To hear them go to the site for Berkeley Zen Center. There's the Zoom link and password right on the home page there.

Sojun Mel Weitsman's cuke page

Continuing the QQ & A

Student L [Katherine Thanas]: Docho Roshi: When does my life express the Dharma and when does it not? 
SR: When it does not? There is no time when it doesn't. It always expresses the Dharma.-------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco closing

and may never re-open - from ABC News.

From that article: "Founded in 1953 by two friends, college professor Peter D. Martin and the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights became a cultural institution for San Francisco's bohemians and literati."  

I didn't know about Peter Martin. City Lights has been so central in the lives of many people in the cuke realm - the Zennies, the artists, the poets, the readers, the browsers, the walkers around. 

I need help expressing how important it has been. Please send any comments or memories of City Lights and what it's meant to you to dchad at cuke dot com. - dc

Drying Machine

Student J [Niels Holm]: Docho Roshi, when the rain falls evenly on the whole world, and the moisture is penetrating the whole universe, how come I feel like in a drying machine?

SR: You feel like in a drying machine maybe because the moisture is all over, so the drying machine is necessary. But still the drying machine is not powerful enough to dry out everything. -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Tim Burkett sent a few brief memories

Brief and potent memories of his Zen path from Tim Burkett, abott of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center - That's a link to a page on their website with a brief bio of Tim.

Q & A Continues - Flowing

Student I [Jeff]: Docho Roshi: If the Law is like the water flowing, it seems sometimes there's a lot of dams in the mind-- in the brain. And they don't let the water well up from the hara spring. And it seems that the process of opening this well is a process of dying. And all the old habits and conceptions and assumptions and personalities are being washed away. And all the old ways of living are being washed away. And there's a lot of-- there seem to be a lot of monsters and kinnaras and nagas that are very full of hate and fear and pain. And if we truly die in this flow-- can we truly die in this flow and just trust it to take its natural course and not disturb it? Be still? And be clear?

Tassajara in the Wind Bells

Follow the first mentions and early features on Tassajara in the Wind Bells - starting with an April 1962 mention of looking for land.

True Law

Student H [E. L.]: Docho Roshi: What is the True Law?

SR: True Law? When you ask what is True Law, I'm afraid you will lose the True Law. When you are doing something just for sake of doing it, there there is True Law. Just like the water flowing. That is true Law. -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

First Ordination, Jukai

Got an email asking who received Jukai, lay ordination, at Sokoji in 1962. I thought I had that info but I don't even try to remember where it is unless I give up using other methods. So I did the first thing I do when I'm looking for something. I went to the home page of cukecom and wrote "jukai" in the site search box up top. That did n't work so I wroet "first ordination" and that worked. From the General Wind Bell excerpt page and found this with all fifteen names listed. - DC

Cuke Audio Podcast #2

The 2nd podcast from Cuke Audio is titled Crooked Cucumber Introduction and Ramblings. It starts off with the ramblings and ends with the introduction.

Cuke Audio podcasts are uploaded every Tuesday.

Thank You

 Student G [Danny Chesluk]: Docho Roshi, there's really nothing particular I'd like to say. I'd really like to say thank you for Tassajara and for being here. Thank you. 
SR: Thank you. -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Finite

Student F [Jack Weller]: Docho Roshi, I wish to ask a question that I ask of all religions. In the sutra that we have been reading [Lotus Sutra], and in other Buddhist works, and in your lectures you speak about the infinite. Infinite time, infinite truth: a truth-- true in the past for an infinite time. It is said that a sutra has been repeated again and again in the past for an infinite amount of time, or, if not infinite, then for an uncountable number of years-- of eons. Yet we know that man is not infinite in the same sense that-- at least today-- we believe that man evolved, physically-- evolved from other animals. This happened at a period of time that is not countable or infinite. Is then the sutra, your teaching, and other Buddhist teaching-- teaching about an infinite dimension of man, a finite being?
SR: Finite being itself already the revealed infinite being. In this sense we should appreciate our life, moment after moment. And we should appreciate things which we observe, day after day. This is actually the only way to appreciate the infinite, the ultimate, the first principle. So infinite should not be just an idea. We should appreciate everything without discrimination, not by small mind but by buddha-mind. True appreciation is by our big, limitlessly big, limitlessly great big buddha-mind. You have to accept things as it is, after all.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Shunryu Suzuki in the Windbell

Aside from having all the Windbells on cuke, there are many excerpts, some, individual excerpts to go with relevant material, others all the material from the Wind Bell on a particular person or subject. Here's a page for Windbell Excerpts related to Shunryu Suzuki.

Path

Student E [Alan Winter]: Docho Roshi, speak to us of the search for the true path.

SR: True path. Don't think there is some special path which is true or false.

Student E [Alan Winter]: Then of-- each on our own paths?

SR: Do your best on every moment. Finding your position and reacting properly to everything.

Student E [Alan Winter]: That's all that I can do.

SR: Yes.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

From Los Altos

Chronicles of Haiku Zendo Including Memories of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi - Part I
edited by Barbara Hiestand
Haiku Zendo Foundation Los Altos, California 1973

Another selection from the In-house Publications, one of the selections from Bibliography on the Cuke drop-down menu on the home and key pages.

This is the zendo where Shunryu Suzuki delivered the lectures edited for Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.

Cuke nonZense Blog

This is a reminder that there are daily posts on the Cuke nonZense Blog. Today there's a Covid-19 map of Denpasar, Bali, with explanation. We live in the bottom right area, Sanur.

I used to post everything on Cuke What's New but a couple of years ago the nonZense blog was created so Cuke What's New could be Zen or our sangha related and Cuke nonZense could be more personal posts on topics such as environment and music. All the Dchad Miscellaneous stuff goes there too. Any story I want to tell or new poem or song I've written, what's happening with Katrinka and me in Bali. It's a little like my diary. Lot of climate and science posts. Only one a day with Sunday a day off. Cuke nonZense automatically uploads onto Cuke nonZense Facebook.

One figure, the number of reported positive cases - 32 in Bali and 4 in Denpasar, I think think of as indicating what the situation was two weeks ago.

You're invited. - dc

Impossible!

Student D [Stan White]: Docho Roshi, Zen is impossible! I will continue to practice. 

SR: If you know that you are here moment after moment, that is already practice.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Wind Bell publication

All the Wind Bells of the SFZC are on cuke.com with all the lectures excerpted and many other excerpts. Check it out at the Wind Bell page.

Nothing Special

Student C [Alan Rappaport]: Docho Roshi, what are you doing here?

SR: Nothing special.

Student C: Docho Roshi-- [Silence.]

SR: Yes, I am here.

Student C: Thank you very much.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Mayumi Oda's recent Newsletter

Read all about it here.

Look at her great Black Tara below.

Trace

Student B [Bill Shurtleff]: Docho Roshi, you have said, “Just listen to the Dharma.” And you have said, “The instant the 'I' appears, it vanishes.” When you speak, to whom am I listening? When I speak, to whom are you listening? When thoughts seem to speak, to whom are we listening? When the stream seems to speak, to what are we listening?

SR: To listen to Dharma; to speak about Dharma-- all of those practice should be Buddha's practice, which will continue forever without leaving any trace of them. You should not try to follow the trace of it. Just let them go and let them come.

Student B [Bill Shurtleff]: As a person speaks to us each day?

SR: You should react with single-mindedness. But don't leave any trace of it.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Cuke Audio Podcast

We have just entered into the podcast realm. Here's the first one:

May All Beings be Happy

on Podbean Cuke Audio

In the space of an hour, I tell the background story for the lecture that was used for the epilogue of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, read the opening, and then play Shunryu Suzuki's voice as he said it in the Page Street City Center on Nov. 16, 1969. To give the unitiated an idea of what Cuke is, I read the Message from the Cuke 2020 Presentation (linked to from the home page of cuke.com) and then read one of the thirty statements of support - from Michael Katz who explains how Cuke is a record of the saeculum of Suzuki and early Zen Center, a saeculum being an Etruscan measure of time. In it he refers to my dream about Bill Lane so I read the account of that. Lastly I tell about the yearly 24 hours of Nyepi in Bali when everything and everyone comes to rest, a trip to the emergency room the next mornin, and reflections on what transpired there. May all beings be happy. - DC

Beginning a stretch of Q & A

Student A [Claude Dalenberg]: Docho Roshi, questions come into my mind; none of them seem to be good questions. My heart comes into my throat and I do not know what to say, nor what to ask.
SR: When you have no questions, and when you have nothing to ask about, there you have true way.   -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

A Message from Silva on reading Whalen

Got this email from David Silva today and thought it would be good to share. - dc

I'm recommending you read Sourdough Lookout by Philip Whalen today. Wonderful poem. His best, possibly? Certainly his most famous.

 

Here it is online,  

I then continued reading backwards in On Bears Head, got as far a Souffle.

 

Speaking of trying to find your PW books. Upon my return from Japan, I read Scenes From Life At the Capital in its totality. Then wanted to read Schneider's PW bio,  Crowded by Beauty, on the parts when PW was in Kyoto. Weirdest thing, I could not find either book, even tho I'd just read Scenes, and Crowded By Beauty is way too large a book to lose. Maybe I should spend my time sheltering in place organizing my library.

Philip Whalen Cuke page

David Silva page