Pure Practice

This idea is very important: all discrimination in your mind is not there, when you practice something. That is pure practice. Or else all that you do will be just dualistic. This way is very difficult to apply in your everyday life, but if you have this attitude in your inmost heart, you can do anything, and you will be pure and free from the duality of the world.

Image generated by ChatGPT

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-AN 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.

Pure Rules

SR: When you pass a monastery officer’s seat, you have to bow. 

Student: Do you bow even if he is not sitting there? 

SR: Even when he is not there, you should bow. We call them Pure Rules. Pure Rules are not dualistic rules. Pure Rules are absolute rules, and it is not a matter of to obey or not to obey, you have to just do it. As you practice zazen, you just sit, and that is zazen.

Image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-AN 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.

Medicine Walk

The Vision Walkers Collective says come walk with us on The Medicine Walk, Saturday, October 4, 2025.

or gather some friends, take a walk and share your gratitude

Jo Wunderly is one of the leaders. - thanks Jo

Intuition

You should always have intuition. Without trying to do something, your intuitive action should help others. If you actually have bodhisattva-mind, you can help others anyway. The bodhisattva-mind is to pursue good, and truth and beauty. To follow the way is bodhisattva-mind. If one person follows the right way, that one person will help hundreds of people.

Drawing by Michael Sawyer

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B 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.

Audiobook Intro

Introduction to the Audiobook for Tassajara Stories 

It's missing temporarily in Audible—Preface is repeated twice—this glitch has been fixed but it takes time for a change to show up. If you've already bought yours, don't worry—they automatically update.

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Welcome to the audiobook for Tassajara Stories, a Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist monastery in the West—The first year, 1967.

Hi, I'm David Chadwick. I wrote Tassajara Stories and I narrate the audiobook, which is published by Monkfish Book Publishing Company. This audiobook is a production of Rumah Putih Studio, located upstairs in our home in Sanur, on the island of Bali. The final EQ and mastering were done by Tude Artasedana of Kubuku Studio, Bali. The audiobook does not include the end matter from the book, acknowledgments and some notes, or the images. You can find all that and a great deal more—extensive notes and background at cuke.com/ts. The musical segue between the parts of the audiobook is Kim Patra on harmonica playing a tiny snippet From Walkin' Down Dusty Road, a song I sing midway through the book. Oh yeah, one other thing. This is just the first book of Tassajara stories. There will be books and audiobooks to come with more Tassajara stories. That's enough. Let's go. I'll be your guide through Tassajara stories. 

MP3 

To Be Natural

Just to respond to some outward stimulation is not right. That is to behave like just animal-like [laughs]. That is not what we mean by “to be natural.” To be natural means to follow the pattern of human life, not animal life. We make a clear distinction from animal life, natural as a human being, or natural as an animal. If someone hits you, to hit back is an animal-like response. You should remember your true inmost nature.

Image generated by Leonardo.ai

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B 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.

@JerryBrownGov on X

https://x.com/JerryBrownGov/status/1973100878400987357

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Tassajara Stories

A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West
The First Year—1967

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