Thursday, November 30, 2023

Always Expressing Buddha-nature

Student [Katherine Thanas]: Docho Roshi, when does my life express the Dharma, and when does it not?

SR: When does it not? There is no time when it doesn’t. It always expresses the Dharma.

Katherine Thanas: But sometimes better than other times.

SR: Hmm, don’t think in that way. You are always expressing buddha-nature. In the same way, it is you who thinks you are expressing “better” or “not so good.”

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Continue

Student [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.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Lewis Richmond can help you prepare your book, ms, article, blog, whatever.

A couple months ago I emailed you that I was now seeking work as a freelance editor.  That email generated two substantial projects which I am currently working on.  Those are keeping me busy but I have space for one more project--it might be yours or of someone you know. Though I specialize in developmental editing of non-fiction book-length projects, I am available for a variety of editing tasks, including blogs, business content generation (I owned and ran a software business for 25 years).  Please check out my website Editor page HERE and view, print, or download my Editing resume HERE for more information. If you wish to contact me, my contact info is below.

Lewis Richmond 

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Freedom from Everything

Student [Jeff]: Docho Roshi, if the Law is like the water flowing, it seems sometimes there are a lot of dams in the brain. And they don’t let the water well up from the hara like a 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 seem to be a lot of monsters and kinnaras and nagas that are very full of hate and fear and pain. And can we truly die in this flow and just trust it to take its natural course and not disturb it? To be still? And be clear? 

SR: Whatever you say, things are going as it goes. But we analyze things, discriminate between things. But that analytical thinking and discriminative feeling is also a flow of the truth. After all, we have nothing to say. The only way is to appreciate this great activity of the Buddha, moment after moment. We should not forget this activity, even though we analyze things and discriminate things. Don’t be completely involved in discrimination or thinking. You should have always freedom from everything, like Buddha. If you want to do so, you should practice zazen. Okay?

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Monday, November 27, 2023

True Law


Student [E. L. Hazelwood]: 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 the sake of doing it, then there is True Law. It is like water flowing constantly. That is True Law.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Rico's Published Essays


The Great Return
(How do we manage our remaining days) is now the essay on top.  It's a new one by Rico Provasoli. But the next time he adds another essay, it will be on top because all his essays have the same link.

Rico on cuke

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Featured Cuke Archives page

Podcast with Shosan Vicki Austin, a priest and teacher at the SF Zen Center whose reach has spread further due to her knowledge of ceremonies, meditation, and Iyengar Yoga....cuke.com/f

Correction to recent post

The following was posted from the Shunryu Suzuki lecture archive as one Q & A with two parts. But these are two separate Q  & A. The first questions is from Alan Rappaport and the presenter in the second exchange is not identified. They just said the customary 'Docho Roshi" (docho is the abbot) and were silent.

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

 SR: Nothing special. 

____________________

Docho Roshi—[Silence.] 

 SR: Yes, I am here. 

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Infinite

Student [Jack Weller]: Docho Roshi, I wish to ask a question asked of all religions. In the Lotus Sutra and in other Buddhist works, and in your lectures, you speak about infinite time, infinite truth. A truth true in the past for an infinite time. It is said that the sutra has been repeated again and again in the past for an infinite amount of time, or, if not infinite, then uncountable numbers of years, of eons. Yet we know that man is not infinite in the sense that—at least today we believe men physically evolved from other animals. This happened over a period of time that is not uncountable or infinite. Is then the sutra and your teachings, and other Buddhist teaching, speaking about an infinite dimension of man, a finite being? 

SR: A finite being itself is 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, 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. Appreciation, true appreciation, is by our limitlessly big, limitlessly great, big mind, buddha-mind. It means to accept things as it is, after all.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Friday, November 24, 2023

True Path

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

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

Alan Winter: Then each of our own paths? 

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

Alan Winter: That’s all that I can do? 

SR: Yes.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Already Practice


Student [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.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Thanksgiving Message from Brother David Steindl-Rast

 

+ Dear Relatives and Friends,

 

As we celebrate again Thanksgiving Day, i’d like to send you a present:

lines composed by my admired friend Mary Agnes Zakens:

“I rise each morning to meet a procession of bearers of good tidings —

Good, even when they are difficult; Good, because uplifting whenever I rise to the occasion;

Good, because shared.”

I find it helpful to read this short reminder every morning; it helps me go into the new day with confidence, even though i know that much of what i will encounter will indeed be bad news.

Every day i find new proof that even bad news can be “uplifting”, can raise my aliveness to a higher level, if i rise to the challenge they present to my imagination, my creativity, and my courage.

But what does it mean that our difficulties are “good, because shared”?

We – the human family – have reached a point at which the challenges we are confronting can only be overcome if all of us work together.  Daily, our bad news make this obvious – and that is good. Good, because it demands cooperation.

If i rise to that challenge in my daily life, i contribute my share to overcoming division worldwide.

Here, once again, the saying proves valid: “Think globally, act locally.”

We can study and face the big issues, the biggest being division – separation from our authentic self, from one another, from the Center that holds us together. 

We can start by saying nothing that divides; by doing all we can to heal divisions wherever we meet them.

May your Thanksgiving celebration this year be first and foremost a healing of relationships. Our world needs it.

Blowing soap bubbles and thinking of you with love,

Your Brother David







Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Here

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

 SR: Nothing special. 

 


cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

No Trace

Student [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 practices 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. 

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.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Monday, November 20, 2023

Questions

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 the true way.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Sunday, November 19, 2023

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Continue Our Practice

It takes time until we actually practice our way and extend our way in our everyday lives. So, there is no reason why you should try to attain something. Anyway, to continue our practice without giving up [laughs], that is the most important thing for you.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Friday, November 17, 2023

Middle Way

We have been studying the same thing [laughs], over and over again—sometimes by the Prajnaparamita Sutra, sometimes by the five ranks, sometimes by the ten powers. But actually, these are various explanations of zazen power. If you extend our understanding, you will understand everything in the most meaningful and adequate way. That is called the “middle way,” the most appropriate way. And you will do something which is necessary when it is necessary, in the most adequate, appropriate way [laughs]. This is a very difficult practice. Someone who can do things in this way is a good priest [laughs], a good student.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Just Practicing

You should not be aware of your practice. That is the stage you will attain, where there is no feeling of practice—no feeling of your body or mind, no feeling of suffering, and no feeling of joy. You are just practicing without any problem [laughs]—without any pain.

Photo by Meiya Wender

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Cuke Podcast with Shamsul Bahari


Shamsul Bahari was born in Penang, Malaysia, and through a circuitous route through Denis Kelly ended up at Green Gulch Farm. He's back in  Penang now. Check him out in the podcast and at  cheeseburgerbuddha.blogspot.com

His podcast is on other platforms as well. Look for it there under Cuke Audio Podcasts.

Thoroughly Practice

When we understand our teaching or our practice, actually there is no teaching or no Buddhism [laughs], because whatever you do, that is Buddhism itself. But it does not mean if everything is Buddhism there is no need to practice our way [laughs]. That is wrong understanding. Only when we thoroughly practice, can we teach this understanding.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

All Vehicles

We include all teaching, without abandoning the Mahayana. When we understand and practice our way, whatever teaching you observe, that is our Mahayana teaching. So, you cannot [laughs] abandon our Mahayana way. When you have true understanding of our practice, that includes all vehicles, without abandoning the Mahayana vehicle.

At inter-denominational outdoor Buddhist ceremony at Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, 1965.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Monday, November 13, 2023

Even the Sound of a Motorcar

Our teaching in its wide sense is everything. In its narrow sense, a teaching is something which was told by some sage. That is the teaching in its narrow sense. But in its wide sense, everything is the teaching for us: the color of a mountain, the sound of a river, even the sound of a motorcar is a teaching of Buddha. We understand in this way.

Photo by Gene DeSmidt

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Devote Yourself to Your Practice

Devotion to the Buddha’s teaching, and no attachment to anything—to anything. When you devote yourself to your practice, you will have the power of understanding through everything. You will have incessant practice because you observe the truth through verbal and non-verbal things. Because you strengthen your devotion you will hear everything as Buddha’s teaching. So, back and forth, you will practice our way endlessly. And, as Dogen Zenji said, without any trace of it, this kind of pure practice will continue forever, endlessly. This is the power we obtain through our practice.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Friday, November 10, 2023

Like Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara

When you are doing something with calmness of your mind, with good concentration, without being involved in any prejudice, and without sticking to your own viewpoint, then you see things as it is. You know what people want, like Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. So, satisfying people with what they want, this power naturally will appear.

Art by Dan Welch

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Rick McDaniel's profile of the SFZC, mainly Suzuki and Baker

San Francisco Zen Center by Rick McDaniel from his Zen Conversations and Profiles website.

From the Shunryu Suzuki lineage, McDaniel did a piece on me, DC, and my beloved 1st ex, Daya Goldschlag, Alan Block, Mary Mocine, oh - I see one on Dainin Katagiri with Dosho Port, That's just recently. 

-----

I went over the SFZC piece for Rick and below are a few corrections I still have to make.

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Buddha’s Mercy

You will have expedient ability when you do not think that what you are doing is the absolute itself. You know it is expedient. But this is something which you should do with kindness, with the same mercy as Buddha’s mercy. That is the actual power we have as a Zen student.

Koshland Community Park free ice cream party

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

The Formless Record of the Transmission of Illumination


Dear Friends in the Dharma,

It is a great honor and pleasure to announce the publication of The Formless Record of the Transmission of Illumination: A Contemporary Commentary on Keizan Zenji’s Denkoroku by Inoue Gien Roshi. This is the first volume of a projected four-volume series of a translation by Keiko Ohmae and me in which Inoue Roshi provides a masterly commentary on Keizan Zenji’s monumental work. In the Denkoroku, Keizan Zenji expounded on the essence of the Buddha’s enlightenment and its transmission through fifty-two generations of buddha-ancestors.

Volume I of this translation begins with Shakyamuni Buddha and goes through the twelfth ancestor, Asvaghosa. It examines the circumstances through which each ancestor met their teacher and attained realization. Keizan Zenji furthermore explored the way in which each of their stories was intimately connected to the practice of Zen. Inoue Roshi offers us a timely update in his commentary on this important work, assuring one and all that we, as we are now, are the same as the buddhas and that the practice of zazen is the way for each person to verify this for themselves.

Published by Dharma Spring Press. 274 pages. Available from Amazon. $18.95. - Amazon link

2024 is the 700th anniversary of Keizan Zenji’s death. There will surely be heightened interest in the coming year in Keizan Zenji’s accomplishments including his masterwork the Denkoroku.

Nine bows,

Daigaku Rummé
Confluence Zen Center
St. Louis, MO


Daigaku's cuke page

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

The Power of Good Devices

Whatever you say, that is not emptiness itself, but it can be a good device to instruct people and alter their conduct. If someone is too rigid, or someone is too partial to some idea of emptiness or some kind of teaching, we can expediently correct their understanding. So, whatever the teachings are, those teachings are importantly just good devices. And it is important for us to have the power of good devices. So, whatever you do, that activity should be a good device to instruct people [laughs]. You should be a good example for people.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Talk About Emptiness

It is interesting to talk about emptiness, you know [laughs, laughter]. Whatever you say, that is emptiness. If you have a good friend, you can talk about the emptiness whenever you like [laughs]. Whatever you say, that is emptiness [laughs, laughter]. And you can enjoy the discussion of emptiness. But that is not the emptiness we mean. But this kind of understanding helps our study, of course. And we shouldn’t say, you should not write or say anything about Buddhism.

Anthropologist Maud Oaks with Shunryu Suzuki on dining room deck at Tassajara

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Jacob Fishman's Photos


I just put up a podcast with Jake Fishman..(That's a link to the Cuke Podcast home, Podbean. Go to the Podcast page on cuke.com for more options).

In the podcast he talks about taking photos in the zendo at Tassajara in the spring of 1974 while we were sitting zazen. He got special permission to do this. It's rarely been done. We are most fortunate to have these photos now - and not just because I was the shuso that practice period. This link is to the first one. To go to the next just tap on the right arrow.

The photo is one from his collection that he probably didn't take because it's of him.

Jake Fishman's cuke page.

 

Monday, November 6, 2023

Somethingness

Because of somethingness, emptiness makes sense. So we rather put emphasis on somethingness or everyday activity without sticking to some idea of emptiness.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Featured Cuke Archives page

A 1973 interview with Hakusan Kojun Noiri discussing Shunryu Suzuki.

http://cuke.com/f

Saturday, November 4, 2023

Seeking Paul Reps stories


There's a fellow in Australia creating an archive of Paul Reps material. Got any story, memory of him? If so, please send to dchad at cuke dot com.

Thanks. 

Paul Reps cuke page


True Emptiness

When you say “just emptiness,” that is the idea of emptiness, not actual emptiness. When we attain emptiness by all parts of our body, that is real emptiness, actual emptiness. When everything exists in its own way and expresses the absolute, we call it a true emptiness.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Friday, November 3, 2023

Form or Manner of Activity

Although there is black and white, those are two sides of one coin, the absolute and the relative. And there is also some difference in the Rinzai and Soto way of practice. Soto puts emphasis on this one [white], and Rinzai puts emphasis on this one [black]. So Rinzai puts emphasis on enlightenment, and we put emphasis on each part of the body that participates with the practice of the absolute. So, that is why we are concerned about the mudra and posture and every form or manner of your activity.

Dainin Katagiri

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Pointing to characters on a blackboard

This is black, and this is white, as you see. But for me, this is white and this is black [laughter]. Black signifies the absolute, and white signifies the relative. This is nighttime. This is daytime. Nighttime you cannot see anything, but daytime you will see everything in its relative sense. But absolute—you don’t see, you don’t hear, you don’t think. That is the absolute.

Photo by Robert Boni

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Think Non-thinking

Dogen said, “think non-thinking.” When you do this, you cannot think, but your mind is pervading every part of your body. So that is “think non-thinking,” not usual thinking in terms of good or bad. Your mind is everything and is every part of your body. When you practice zazen in that way, figuratively speaking, you manifest the Buddha in each world, in every pore of your body.

Painting by Helen Dunham

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-08-25 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.