Eternal Teaching

Image from Amazon

When we become lazy, Buddhism looks like it will be no more. But when we are sincere, Buddhism will come out. Buddhism will be understood. You may say there is no more Buddhism in India or China or even in Japan, but Buddhism is eternal teaching.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

One by One

But Buddha said: I prepared everything for those who will understand me. And I saved all the people who were possible to save. And I prepared to save all people when the time comes. So, if one of his disciples understands him, it’s good enough. There is the possibility of saving all human beings if one of his disciples understands him. In this way, Buddhism has spread, one by one, little by little.

Photo by Anandajoti Bhikkhu in Tricycle

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

This is a follow-up podcast with Robert Britton, Bob to me, in which he focuses, using his many decades of applying the Alexander technique to sitting. He was at the SF Zen Center for ten years. He became an Alexander teacher and still is. For 39 years he applied what he’d learned from the Alexander technique at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music helping musicians sit, hold and use their instruments so that they don’t create physical problems. He’s helped many people at Zen Center and beyond in how to sit, stand, walk in a healthy way. Learn about Bob Britton and sitting—and more—in this podcast with him.

Medicine

So, if you don’t understand what I mean by buddha-nature, I don’t mind at all [laughter]. Buddha said whether you take my medicine or not is not my responsibility. Just to talk about it—just to try to help people is my way. Whether or not you take it—it can’t be helped if you don’t take it. That is true.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Someday

What we are discussing here is not philosophy at all. If you understand what I say, I think it is possible to know what I mean by buddha-nature. It is possible because although my English is not good, I think I can express myself about buddha-nature in my poor English [laughs]. That is why I repeat the same thing over and over again. When I think you don’t understand, [laughs] I will repeat it until you understand it. If my words are not good enough, I will hit you [laughter]. Then you will understand what I mean. As long as I understand it, someday you will understand what I mean. If you don’t understand me just now, someday you will understand. Someday someone will understand. This is great patience. I think I will wait for an island to go to Seattle from Los Angeles [laughs]. They say it is moving like a boat in millions of years. By the time it reaches Seattle [laughs], someone will understand it.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Each Day

For Ryokan each day is a good day, and each day is a day of enlightenment. There is enlightenment on each day, on each practice you do, as long as you have a clear understanding of buddha-nature.

Image of Ryokan statue from Encyclopaedia Britannica

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

More Tassajara Stories from DC

   photo taken last week by Tomas Fricke

In this podcast posted a few days ago, DC (me) tells more Tassajara stories as an addendum to the Tuesday Dec. 9 SFZC Zoom event with Edward Brown answering participants questions we didn’t get to and elaborating as I do. Find link to Dec. 9 Zoom event, A Night of Tassajara Stories, at: cuke.com/TOC-DC.htm.

cuke.com podcast page

Remarkable Progress

Image generated by ChatGPT

Dogen Zenji says our practice is like going through fog. It is not like going out in a thunderstorm [laughs]. If you go out in heavy rain, your clothes will get wet all at once. You will be soaked, but a sudden rainstorm will not penetrate into your underwear. But when you walk through thick fog for a long time, even though you don’t realize it, your clothing is wet, and it will penetrate into your underwear. This is true practice. You don’t think you made any progress, [laughs] but you had remarkable progress, and someone who knows what real practice is will acknowledge it.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

This Kind of Spirit

We say you cannot plant any plants on a stone [laughs]. You should be like a stone. No good or evil can grow on buddha-nature. It is so hard and so strict. Good or bad is delusion. Any delusion can grow on your spirit. Or we say it is impossible to thrust a needle into iron. This kind of spirit is wanted when you practice our practice. Then little by little you will make progress.

Image generated by Leonardo.ai

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

As Much As You Can

So, our practice is the practice of accepting everything as it is and to do things as much as we can. Don’t be greedy about progress in your practice. If you can make progress, little by little, as much as you can, that is enough. But concerning the sense of buddha-nature, it should be very clear and strict.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Thanks to the San Francisco Zen Center for the online event, Dec. 9, 2025. In the follow up podcast David answers additional questions. Links at: cuke.com/TOC-DC.htm

Didn’t Mind At All

Do you know Ryokan? A famous Soto priest. He didn’t mind anything bad—it’s the secret of the Soto way. Concerning Soto practice, he was very strict, but [laughs] he didn’t mind whatever people said or whatever he himself felt. He didn’t mind at all. Even when he was sick, he didn’t mind. Even though people did not understand him, he did not mind at all. If someone asked if he was not serious, he didn’t mind. But when he thought someone was too serious or sincere, he minded very much. And if someone asked him what was the Soto way, he was very serious. He had a strict sense of buddha-nature, his buddha-nature was very, very sharp and strict. Because of that strictness, he could accept his poor and humble and unfortunate life. But he didn’t mind at all because he had a strict sense of buddha-nature.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Accept Something Intelligible

If you cannot accept something intelligible, you are still pursuing good or bad in a worldly sense, a scientific way, philosophical way, or ethical way. You are not pursuing religious practice.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

A Message from Paul Zengyu Discoe

Dear friends and fellow practitioners,

I have found myself on a five-acre farm on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, about 2,000 feet in elevation, surrounded by forest. The property is owned outright, and there is a small endowment to begin shaping the site and creating a place for practice.

The plan is to build a small practice center grounded in the teachings of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Dōgen Zenji.

I would like to connect with practitioners interested in a way of life based on right livelihood and simple living, as an alternative to the frenzied spending and materialism that are damaging us and the planet. If this resonates with you, or with someone you know, please reach out to info@chopandcarry.org. 

With gratitude, 

Paul Zengyu Discoe

http://www.chopandcarry.org/

Paul's cuke page

Beyond Good or Bad

So, in our practice there is no evil or good. It is not a matter of evil or good. Both are good. There is no need to fight about it. Just let them come and let them go out. So-called evil or good are something which your small mind creates. For your true nature there is no good or bad. Your true nature is something which is beyond good or bad. It is valuable because it is beyond good and bad. It is valuable because you cannot figure out what it is.

Based on an image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

A Night of Tassajara Stories

Tuesday evening, Ed Brown and I, DC, were on a Zoom show hosted by the SF Zen Center. 

Here's the link to watch it - thanks to Zen Center's generosity.

Enjoy.

Ed Brown cuke page

A Practice of Big Mind

There is a big misunderstanding in our practice, I think. Most people have a misunderstanding that practice is some way we try to get out of evil. That if we train, eventually we will attain enlightenment, and we will be completely free from evil. This is the usual understanding. But that practice is small practice, not big practice, not pure practice. There is no big mind in that practice. So, to know what is true buddha-nature—what is true nature—being aware of it, and practicing as a practice of big mind is our true practice.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

“Ah, that’s good.”

So, the most important point is to acknowledge exactly what is buddha-nature. Buddha-nature is not small ego; it is big ego which is observing what you do and accepting what you do always. Whatever you do, it will say, “Ah, that’s good.” [Laughing.] “Nothing wrong with it.”

Image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

ED Brown and DC with Tassajara Stories December 9 on Zoom

A Night of Tassajara Stories with Ed Brown and me, DC--a San Francisco Zen Center online event

December 9th - 6 to 8pm California time. 

Here's the SFZC page for it with how to attend on Zoom

Don’t be attached even to the evil which is not here.

Dogen said, “Don’t be attached even to the evil which is not here. To attach to the evil which is not here means purity.” If there is no evil here, you are pure. But don’t be attached to even the state of mind you have in purity. And even though you are not pure, don’t try to escape from it. If you try to escape from it, it means you are attached to purity. A small ego is working still [laughs]. Your small ego is trying to push out an evil thought. So still you are occupied by small ego as long as you are trying to get out of it.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Beyond Intoxicating Liquor

Our buddha-nature should be beyond pure or impure. It means just to be aware of your true nature which is beyond pure or impure. To attach to purity is good, but buddha-nature is not pure or impure. If you understand this point, just to sit without thinking, without being bothered by something which will come. Even when you have something in your mind, don’t try to escape from it. Just sit. It will go. And you are beyond it. Those images come in and go out. This is so-called being beyond intoxicating liquor.

Image generated by Leonardo.ai

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Robert Britton, Bob to me, was at the SF Zen Center for ten years. He became an Alexander teacher and still is. For 39 years he applied what he’d learned from the Alexander method (if I can call it that) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music helping musicians sit, hold and use their instruments so that they don’t create physical problems. He’s helped many people at Zen Center and beyond in how to sit, stand, walk in a healthy way. Learn about it in this podcast with him.

Don’t Attach to Purity or Impurity

When you sit, you say something occurred in your mind which is not so good. Some image came. Something covered your wisdom or buddha-nature. When you say so, you have the idea of clearness because you think you have to keep your mind clear of various images which will come to you. This is how you understand it, but Dogen Zenji says: Don’t even try to clear up your mind, even though you have something there. Don’t want to be pure. If you want to be pure, it means you have attached to purity. That is also not so good. Don’t attach to purity or impurity.

Image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Beverly (Horowitz) Armstrong new poem

 Soon Solstice by Beverly (Horowitz) Armstrong

Direct Experience of Buddha-nature

The purpose of practice is to have direct experience of buddha-nature. That is the purpose of our practice. So, whatever you do, it should be the direct experience of buddha-nature.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

At Each Moment

Drawing by Stan White

This is a very important point: to fight it out with the body [laughs], not with the mind, not by thinking, not by wandering about. To find something which we should do at each moment is the best way to raise our mind. To raise our mind means to realize big mind, not small mind. Small mind is wandering about. But for big mind there is no place or time to wander about. It is too big to wander about [laughs]. Too big. If you want to realize that imperturbability of your spirit, you have to raise your body. There is enlightenment.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Raise Your Body

There was a famous novelist, Toson Shimazaki. And in the opening page of a book he said, “If you want to raise your mind, you should raise your body.” I was very interested, and very much encouraged by his words when I was quite young. At that time, I couldn’t go to college because I had to help my master, and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to go, [laughs] but I had to help him. So sometimes I did not know what to do. And when I read those two lines, “If you want to raise your mind, you should raise your body,” I knew that was why he went abroad. But I thought that is very good, so I must do something. If I thought, “What shall I do?” I would suffer more. So, I must work hard: cooking or cleaning or sweeping the garden. So, I stopped thinking about myself, and I worked and worked and worked. And that helped me very much.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Kirk Rhoads spent years at the SF Zen Center then moved to Yaizu Japan where Shunryu Suzuki’s home temple Rinsoin is located. In this podcast he talks about how his path led to Zen, his years at Zen Center and Japan where he became close with Hoitsu and Chitose Suzuki, and his return to America. He also talks about the Kent Rhoads Foundation which he founded in honor of his late brother. The purpose of it is to provide support so that more people can afford to attend Zen retreats and practice periods, a noble goal. See kentrhoadsfoundation.org.

Activity

In Japan we had a clinic for the insane, and in that clinic the patients worked all day long. Even though they had nothing to do, they should pick up dust, [laughter] or clean the floor, or repair shoji. They had to find something to do as long as they stayed in the clinic. That way helps patients very much. When you lie in bed thinking, “What is it?” or “What should I do? Why I am so bleak?” in this way, there is no time. There is no hope of recovering. You should set your true nature in activity, set your machine in motion. That is the only way.

Image generated by Leonardo.ai

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Not So Good

Image generated by ChatGPT

You have at least one eye to see yourself. And one eye will tell you, you are not so good [laughter]. That is a big enlightenment. When you think that you are not so good, your true nature starts to work.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

One Hundred Thousand Downloads!

On behalf of the entire Podbean Team, we want to congratulate you on reaching 100,000 downloads of your podcast “Cuke Audio Podcast”!

Cuke Podcasts Page

Right Here

Most people are attached to some result from their practice. That is why they do not attain enlightenment. Enlightenment is right here in your practice, but people think by practicing something will result. But actually, enlightenment is right here.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Good Enough

Image generated by ChatGPT

For someone who has mental suffering, practicing just to sit is maybe enough. When they can sit, they are pretty good already. When they think, “I am all right, there is no need for me to practice any religious way” –if they say so, that’s the worst. When you think it is necessary for you to practice zazen, that is a big improvement. Just to try to sit is good enough.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Helping

If one person has a clear understanding of suffering and what is our true nature, many people will be enlightened. But without enlightenment, to help people means nothing. We say, “A blind man leading blind men.” [Laughter.] Even if they have a lantern, it doesn’t work because the leader is blind. If you are enlightened, everyone will help you. If you are not enlightened [laughs], even though everyone helps, you will not be helped. If you are enlightened, actually everyone, whether or not they are enlightened, will help you.

The Blind Leading the Blind - Bruegel

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Chris Miller's impressive new book

Rilke, the Buddha, and Orpheus: New Translations of Selected Poems

by Christopher Lennox which is a pen name for early Zen Center student Chris Miller. It's the latest Cuke Press book

Amazon link -  https://amzn.to/4pyo7oR

Cuke Press

Chris Miller cuke page

Clear Understanding

The people who say, “I am right,” or “I am not doing anything wrong.” Those are the worst people. Those people will create various problems in this world. They are creating problems without knowing they are creating them. So, there is no way to persuade them. That is why we have to have a clear understanding of our life. When we work with people like that, we have to have a clear understanding of what is suffering and what is our true nature.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Why We Have a Teacher

Religious mind is so strong. If it is necessary, one will burn their physical body. If your true nature tells you to burn up your body, that’s all right [laughs]. It is so strong, much stronger than emotions. You cannot do that by emotions; just your true nature can do it. But when I say this, you will have some misunderstanding. That is why we have “cover.” That is why we have the Shobogenzo. What is true religion? Just to jump into a fire is not religion. Sometimes a crazy person will do that. So, right understanding of our inmost nature is very important. That is why we have a teacher, and why we have Shobogenzo.

The Venerable Thich Quảng Đức Monument

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

RIP Mary Watson

Mary Watson lived next door to and was involved with Zen Center for many years. It was always good to see her and, until he died, her husband Jack Weller.

Jack Weller's cuke page

Mitsu Suzuki memories page with Mary's memories of her

She died maybe Thursday the 20th night (judging from the message I got) in her apartment at 340 Page. She apparently had a cold that couldn’t be resolved. Her son Daniel is with her now and the CC community is sitting with her body today - so maybe that was Friday the 21st. If you have background info on Mary you can share for her obituary, Her health had declined over the past year.

Painful or Not

Moreover, your body is not yours at all [laughs], in its true sense. “True you” has no form or no body to have pain. “True you” has no pain at all. Sometimes your true nature tells your physical body to kill yourself [laughs], if it is necessary. That is true self. If you are fully enlightened in your true self, whether your body is painful or not is not a problem.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Mary Mocine  had visited Tassajara a couple of times but her first practice experience was at a mindfulness retreat with Yvonne Rand at Green Gulch. She was at Zen Center for a number of years and in this podcast she also shares experiences with various teachers and temples in Japan. She had a sitting group in Vallejo for a couple of decades.

Accept

Image generated by ChatGPT

Yeah, the physical pain is real [laughter]. If you accept it, it is real. If you don’t accept it, it is not real, you know. “My legs are painful.” That’s all. If you put a period, “I am painful.” That’s real. But if you say, “I am painful, so what shall I do?” Or, “Is there any way to escape from it?” Then the pain you mean will become big [laughs]. To accept the pain as it is is big patience.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Eternal True Nature

If you hesitate to accept truth, you will be lost. There is a time for suffering to stop, but true nature will never cease to act. The terminology [laughs] of delusion is something which is not real and which can be put an end to. That is delusion. And true nature is something which is eternal, it cannot be lost. And through suffering you can have direct experience of how strong your true nature is. Your true nature is much stronger than the suffering “small you” creates. True nature is incomparably greater than small mind.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Tears

Image generated by Leonardo.ai

If you find your inmost request by struggling or with tears, or with difficulty, you will never forget about it. Then an inmost request is in emotional feelings rather than logical reason. The logical understanding of an inmost request is a philosophy of true nature. And the understanding of an inmost request by your tears is an actual feeling that makes sense to you. And you can apply it. You will never forget about it. So, we should know that there is truth in our utmost distress or suffering.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Barton Stone joined Shunryu Suzuki for zazen very early on. He's a peace activist, expert carpenter, gardener, poet, and now practices Zen with with the Stone Creek Zen Center in Graton, CA. We'll have the phone chat, read his poems and an old interview. - This is an encore presentation from an August 29, 2020, podcast when Cuke Podcast was only five months old.

Emotional Feelings

Photo by Robert Boni

The emotional feelings, whether good or bad, you have them, and they are strongest. It is easier to find what is your inmost request by the strongest function of your mind. It is easier. And if you find your true nature, in your strongest emotional feelings, you will be very much encouraged by it. But if you find what inmost request means by logical thinking, you think, “I understand that is an inmost request.” That’s all. When you understand it, it will be forgotten, and you will think, “In this book, someone says inmost request is something such-and-such. So, when it is necessary, if I read that part I can understand it.” This kind of understanding will not help you at all. And in a case of necessity, you will forget all about it [laughs].

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

A note from Baker Roshi

From Crestone Mountain Zen Center Newsletter, Nov. 2025

Click for the full message

Richard's cuke page

The Best Time

Before you open one eye, it takes time maybe. But for someone who suffers a lot, it is not so difficult. That is why we do not help people so easily. We are waiting for the best time for them to confront the problem completely.

Image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

One Eye

Image generated by ChatGPT

If one of your hands gets out of suffering that’s enough, even though you are not completely free from suffering. Or if one eye does, it will be enough to see what you are doing. You can see with one eye, you know [laughter]. You will say, “Oh my. I am creating suffering. There is no need to open two eyes.”

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

If You Know

If you only know that you are creating suffering for yourself, this is good enough, and it will work pretty well. “Oh, I am creating suffering. I have created a difficult problem.” When you say so, you are already out of suffering. You are not completely involved in the suffering you had.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

A Long Period of Zazen

Long periods of zazen are very difficult. Short periods of zazen are very difficult too. It is rather troublesome to do every morning [laughter]. The results will be different, but difficulty is the same. So, a long period of zazen is easier, I think, easier if you have time. It is easier, and you will have a deeper understanding. You have the possibility to clear up all of your misunderstandings. You will stop creating suffering [laughter].

Image adapted from Google Play Store

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Be Patient

Image generated by ChatGPT

Student: How can you meditate when your legs are aching? [Laughter.]

SR: Hmm?

Student: Is that all in the mind?

SR: Just be patient [laughs, laughter].

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

In case you didn't see this email

A message from DC and Cuke Archives: doing our part to help preserve the legacy of Shunryu Suzuki and those whose lives cross his.

Dear Friend,

It’s been a couple of years since we sent out an update on what’s happening at Cuke Archives.

After eleven years collecting and refining the most memorable personal anecdotes about the founding of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first volume of Tassajara Stories appeared this fall, published by Monkfish. I’m working to complete the next two volumes and their audiobooks. There’s more than that to come if I keep at it, but for now completing the Tassajara Stories trilogy and the weekly podcasts is what absorbs the majority of my attention.

Here’s a brief picture of what else has been happening.

We continue doing what we’ve been doing for decades—working with the Shunryu Suzuki lecture archive, entering more lectures—verbatim, minimum edits, other edits, audio, whatever we created, could find, or link to—such as the Engage Wisdom transcript and audio presentation. Go to Cuke Update for more.

There are daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpt posts with an image on the Cuke Daily Blog, Instagram, Facebook Cuke Archives, Bluesky, and to email subscribers. The oral and written history content of cuke.com is slowly and constantly expanding giving a more thorough view of the people and events that are touched and have been touched by Shunryu Suzuki’s time in America. More than anything Cuke Archives is the story and stories of people.

For many years I did the daily lecture excerpts while Peter Ford concentrated on getting cuke.com and shunryusuzuki.com better organized and easier to navigate. He’s still doing that but now he also presents those excerpts. One thing I feel we fall short on is posting about all the new material in the archive as it appears. That’s my fault. I get so focused on the work I’m doing I keep failing to get around to sharing the news. I’ll try to do better. Meanwhile, some of the additions and improvements to the archive that have happened in the last few years you can find at Cuke Update.

I’m still involved with the ongoing development of every aspect of Cuke Archives and on average have several hours of communications daily, but since the last update I’ve been increasingly engrossed in what we call special projects—mainly creating books and audiobooks and recording podcasts. The podcasts consist mainly of talks with a wide gamut of guests involved with or somehow related to the Shunryu Suzuki lineage and the centers and groups that have sprung from it. Cuke Podcast page.

We depend on your contributions to keep all this work going. Donations through PayPal, check, or credit card can be made by clicking on this Donate link or on the primary pages of cuke.com and shunryusuzuki.com.

For a contribution of $125 or more, we will gratefully send you a copy of the newly published Tassajara Stories, a hardback which retails for $33.99.

Check what others are saying about Tassajara Stories.

There’s more to Tassajara Stories than stories about Tassajara. The Preface to the book will make that clear.

Statements of Support for Cuke Archives

Who we are

Another way to look at what we do is that it’s a way for us to all say hello to each other. Updates such as this one are sent out less than once a year. If you are open to receiving a few more messages in a year, please reply “friend” to join the special Friends of Cuke Archives mailing list.

Thank you and take care.

David

“We’re all bozos on this bus.” - Firesign Theater

Let the Flower Be

Originally, there is no suffering. Everything is going in its own way, and there should not be any suffering. But you create some suffering. Everything is changing, and everything is growing, but sometimes you want to stop it, and you want to own a flower, like an artificial flower. That is the cause of suffering, and you create that suffering. If you let the flower be as it is, you have no suffering. When you say “suffering,” it is already a flower which is created by you. It is pretty hard to accept the flower which is growing or falling. When you see the flower, you feel as if it will exist forever [laughs]. But actually, it won’t.

Photo by Perfecto Insecto

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Why We Suffer

Why we suffer is because everything which gives us suffering is something created by our mind. Everything you see is something created by your mind. When we say “suffering,” that is your suffering. Your suffering comes from something which is created by your mind. You are participating in creating some suffering. It may not be just you, but you are the main actor in the play.

Drawing by Stan White

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.