Criticize

As long as religions have absolute dogma, that is: “You should not do so. If you do so, you will be punished.” This is nearly the same as ethics. As long as the teaching is like this, when you want to study you cannot go further. But Buddhism allows discussing further. You can criticize more. There is no barrier. So, that is why people are interested in Buddhism because we have no borderline for religion.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-C 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.

Actual Reality

When we are confined to a scientific world, we have no chance to find actual reality. So, in that case they are not buddha because they don’t know it [laughs]. But when someone becomes aware of true reality beyond science—more actual reality than science, or one who finds out science does not satisfy them, they are buddha. That is enough, you know.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-C 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.

“Buddha”

“Buddha” has many meanings. Historical Buddha is Buddha. A buddha who attained enlightenment is buddha. But in this case, to attain enlightenment does not mean he did not have buddha-nature before he attained enlightenment. He found out what he had. That is enlightenment. And this kind of person is an enlightened person.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-C 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

When we say “don't know” it means “beyond science or philosophy.” Science is the study of the shadow of actual life—the study of dead corpses [laughter]. So, we say “beyond.” But, it is ultimate truth—ultimate, not truth, but ultimate—something which does not need any explanation. Right there.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-C 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.

Religious Work

There is a clear distinction between social work and religious work. Social work is based on science and sociology. Of course, sociology is good. And, we should have sociology. But to help others in a religious sense is quite different from social work. So, what I mean is, working at a hospital is to help others. For a religious person, working at a hospital without changing anything is our practice. For those who understand the religious way, there is no sociology. Sociology [laughs] is, without changing anything, a religious activity for a person who knows how to help others. But, for those who do not understand religious life, sociology is just sociology. And, if you ignore religious life, it will not work properly. Some confusion will be created. So that is why all of us should have a religious life.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-C 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.

To Help Others

In Zen “to help others” means we do not take it in a dualistic sense. “To help others” means to think of others as a part of you. Not “others” —not “you, yourself.” You think to help others is to help someone, some imperfect person helps people. But when we say, “to help others” in our sense, it means to consider people a part of you, or it is like your hands or your body. So, in this sense we help others.

Photo by L. S. Sleven, courtesy of the Monterey County Public Library, from The Double Cone Quarterly

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-C 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 New Book by Reb Anderson

On Amazon

Featured Cuke Archives page

https://www.shunryusuzuki.com/ai-min-edits.htm

Help Others

Enlightened means, maybe, many things. And the word “enlightenment” is very wide. Enlightenment does not mean to attain perfection. Bodhisattva’s way is to help others, even before he saves himself. That is the bodhisattva’s way. So, the point is how to help others.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-C 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.

Best Spiritual Books of 2025

2025 Spirituality & Practice Award Winner

Tassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West — The First Year, 1967 By David Chadwick

www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/29706/tassajara-stories

Cuke page: https://www.cuke.com/ts/

Berkeley Zen Center to Install First Female Abbot on March 1st

Berkeley, CA – February 12, 2026 – The Berkeley Zen Center (BZC) is excited to announce a

historic moment in its nearly sixty years of practice with the installation of its first female abbot

on March 1st, 2026.

The new abbot, Linda Galijan, was ordained as a priest and given authority to teach and ordain

others by BZC’s first abbot Sojun Mel Weitsman. Weitsman founded BZC in 1967 along with

his teacher, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, author of the classic collection of essays, Zen Mind,

Beginners Mind. Hozan Alan Senauke succeeded Weitsman in 2021, having been picked by

Weitsman years before. Senauke died after a long illness in late 2024.

The BZC Board invited, and its membership chose, Galijan to be the Center’s third abbot. She

takes on the role after decades working in a range of healing capacities—as a professional

musician in classical, swing, and world-beat bands, a massage therapist, and a licensed clinical

psychologist. After establishing her Zen practice at BZC, Galijan lived at San Francisco Zen

Center (SFZC) and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (TZMC), serving as President of SFZC, and

Director and Head of Practice at TZMC. She has led meditation intensives, given Dharma talks,

and taught classes at Zen centers around the country.

“Returning to my home temple during Hozan’s illness, I was expecting to stay for just a few

months to support the community. That stay was extended, bit by bit, and when Hozan ultimately

passed and BZC needed a new abbot, I wanted to stay and support BZC during the next chapter,”

says Galijan. “As abbot, my intention is to provide a sense of continuity between the strengths

and values of BZC’s past and the possibilities for renewal and growth, which includes finding

ways to respond to these turbulent times grounded in wisdom and compassion.”

A humble but venerable home for Soto Zen practice in the Bay Area, BZC aims to welcome all

who come through the gate, inviting beginners and mature students to delve into practice and

take the teachings into their everyday lives.

“So many organizations struggle after the founder is gone. But BZC is thriving,” said Colleen

Busch, BZC Board President. “Women have always held leadership and practice positions at

BZC, but never abbot. Linda has a naturally open, encouraging, settled presence that I know will

bring benefit, not only to BZC but to the wider community.”

The installation ceremony will be held at BZC. It is not open to the public, though it will be

livestreamed through the website: www.berkeleyzencenter.org.

About Berkeley Zen Center

Rooted in the Soto Zen lineage established in America by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Berkeley Zen

Center offers a variety of programs, including zazen (meditation), retreats, classes, Dharma talks,

and a residential program. The Center is dedicated to supporting individuals to walk the path of

1liberation through zazen and sangha (community) life, encouraging practitioners to build a solid

foundation and bring their practice into their lives.

For more information, please visit www.berkeleyzencenter.org.

Contact:

Colleen Busch

Board President

Berkeley Zen Center

(510) 845-2403

president@berkeleyzencenter.org

www.berkeleyzencenter.org 

Sesshin Is Mind

Activity will stop—the true activity of your life will be no more. So, if you do not catch it when you are active, how can you catch it? And there is a way to catch it. That is our practice. That is sesshin. Sesshin is mind. To catch our true mind is sesshin. This mind cannot be caught by thinking or feeling. It is too late. So, moment after moment, to watch your breathing, to watch your posture is to dwell on your true nature. There is no secret beside this point.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Right There

There is no need even to read one page of a book. There is no need even to listen to this. It is here. Before a fish comes, there is fish [laughs]. In the Sandokai it says, “Before the night has gone, the dawn is here.” When you are waiting for dawn, dawn is here; you are there, right there. Your true mind is right there. When you are wandering, the true mind is right there. When you are suffering, the true mind is right there, with suffering.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Catch It

When the Second Chinese Patriarch saw Bodhidharma, and confessed his shameful mind, Bodhidharma said, “Bring me a shameful mind. Catch the shameful mind.” He said, “I cannot catch it.” Of course, [laughs] no one can catch it. It is a shadow. How can you catch a shadow? So, he said, “I cannot catch it.” And Bodhidharma said, “The confession is over.”

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

This Moment

It is inevitable for us to have shadows. But to step on your shadow [laughs] is impossible. How can you catch your shadow? If you try to step on your shadow, the shadow will be ahead of you. If you go one step behind, the shadow will be behind you. It is impossible. It is foolish to think “future” or “past.” Why don’t you catch yourself in this moment? When you are doing something, you are there. You are too attached to visible things.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Shadows of the Mind

If you firmly believe in scientific truth, and are caught by the scientific way of life, you have no idea what true mind is. You are always chasing after a shadow of the mind. A philosophical interpretation or psychological interpretation of your mind is just a shadow of the mind, but you firmly believe in it. So, you mistake LSD for enlightenment [laughs]. If the Sixth Patriarch were here, he might say, “With such people I cannot talk.”

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Everything

So, in your practice, whether that practice is good or bad, perfect or imperfect, when this kind of mind is at work, your practice is the practice of enlightenment. Your practice includes everything, within and without. The whole world is your home, and everything belongs to you.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Tassajara Stories - Kindle

Monkfish cut the Kindle price for Tassajara Stories in half. The high price was a mistake.

https://amzn.to/4qztW5y

Nothing But Fish

In this case, the vast sky is my home. There is no bird and no air. Air and bird are one. So Dogen Zenji says, “Bird flies like a bird; fish swims like a fish. Water is its home. And when it swims in the water, it is water and a fish—there is nothing but fish. All the water belongs to him. And when he can swim everywhere, it means he can think. That thinking is right thinking. Logical thinking or analytical thinking, is not true thinking.

Photo by Andrew Atkeison

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

That “I”

Before you see buddha-nature, you see your mind. You watch your mind. When you watch your mind, when you say, “My zazen is very poor zazen” [laughs], here you have true nature. But you do not realize that is true nature. You ignore it—this is a silly mistake. There is immense importance in the “I” when you watch your mind. That “I” is not dead “I.” That “I” is always incessant activity. That “I” is always acting. That “I” is always swimming. That “I” is always flying through vast air with wings. By “wings,” I mean thinking and various activity. That “I” is flying through the vast sky.

Photo by Paul Lichtblau on pexels.com

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

“I think, therefore I am.”

As Descartes says, “I think, therefore I am.” Here, “therefore I am”—that “I” is not just small mind. He could not deny that “I” which thinks, which watches water. That someone who is watching—you, who are watching water—is true nature itself. You think fish is true nature [laughing], but it is not. You are watching water. And that “you” cannot be denied. That is ultimate existence. And at the same time, that is universal existence. That is your “I,” and at the same time it includes everything.

Portrait after Frans Hals from Wikipedia

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

DC at book event in Sanur - Zoom link

Topic: A Conversation with David Chadwick at Talking Leaves Bali

Time: Feb 8, 2026 02:00 PM Asia/Makassar (that's 10pm Feb.7 West Coast US)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89286831257?pwd=JbW4Y2PCpoQ1Gg9cByanGkSZ2SAEqz.1

Meeting ID: 892 8683 1257

Passcode: 754279

Watching Water

Bodhidharma, the first Chinese patriarch, said, “If you want to see a fish, you have to watch water.” If you want to see a fish, you have to watch water before you’ll see any fish. If you want to see buddha-nature, you have to see your small mind before you see buddha-nature. Actually, when you see water, there is true fish. Here, by “fish” he meant “true nature.” If you want to see true nature, when you see the water, there is true nature. The true nature is watching water. You are watching water. At the same time, true nature is watching water.

Image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Zen Conversations and Profiles - Richard Baker

Rick McDaniel's Zen Conversations and Profiles' excellent piece on Richard Baker.

He interviewed Baker for this not that long after Baker's stroke last spring. Nicole Baden was there and helped out some but Baker is candid and open in a way that's impressive to me. - DC

Richard Baker cuke page

Actual Mind

The most important thing is to understand our true mind or inmost nature in our practice. How we understand our actual mind should be the most important point. That is why Zen emphasizes living in each moment.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Richard Jaffe was a student at the San Francisco Zen Center for years. He went on to become a leading Buddhist scholar who has spent a lot of time in Japan and knows Buddhism and especially Soto Zen there thoroughly in Japanese. He’s a professor of religion at Duke University, retiring this or next year. His first book was Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism followed by collections of the writings of D.T. Suzuki. On Duke’s site it says: Richard Jaffe specializes in the study of Buddhism in early modern and modern Japan. In particular he has focused his research and teaching on the transformations that took place in Japanese Buddhist practice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Jaffe's current research centers on the role of D.T. Suzuki in the globalization of Japanese Buddhism in the twentieth century. He also has questions for me later on in this podcast.

A Dissection

Science or philosophy is like a dissection. It is possible to analyze what we did after we did something. It is possible. But it is already a dead corpse [laughs] a dead corpse of our practice. So even if you analyze what you have done, it will not work. It will not help you so much.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.