Each Activity

When you practice zazen, without doing anything, just concentrating on inhaling and exhaling, there you express the dark side of reality. When you do something, it may be said that is the bright side of reality, but actually each activity is the same as the practice of Zen because each practice in the smallest particle of time is the same as your long periods of practice in a cross-legged posture.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-02-18 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 Practice and Everyday Life

So, in our practice, actually, there’s no difference between universality and specialty. When you do some special things, you express your Buddha nature there. So, we do not try to escape from this world, this phenomenal world, to some special world. We should find out the true meaning of life in our everyday life. That is our way. If you understand this point, there is no difference between your Zen practice and everyday life.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-02-18 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 the Right Position

When you put something as you should in a higher place, you will find universality in that existence. If you mix things up, it means you treat things only as material objects, you do not find any value in them. You treat them just as material. But when you put things in the right position, you will find their meaning and value.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-02-18 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.

Universality

Where there is some limitation, there is universality. This universality is not just an idea. This universality has actual meaning. Or we say that it has validity. Universality must result in some actual value. So, when we do some particular thing, in that special activity we will find universality as an embodiment of Dharmakaya Buddha.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-02-18 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.

Some Limitation

In the monastery it says, “In the darkness, there is brightness, in the brightness there is darkness.” You will find darkness in your practice can bring another bright side into your life. In that case some limitation is necessary. We should do different things at the right time in some certain way. We cannot mix up things. Things which you should put higher, you should put in a higher place. The things which you should put lower, you should put in a lower place. This is our way.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-02-18 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.

Other Shore

This is the wisdom of Prajna Paramita, wisdom to cross this shore to the other shore. So, on this shore, there’s the other shore. On the other shore, there is this shore. When you have this wisdom: this shore is the other shore, and the other shore is this shore. This is called perfect wisdom. So, it’s said, this is the supreme mantra. And so the most important point of the Prajna Paramita Sutra is emptiness, or “not,” or “no.” If you understand this “no,” or “not,” you will have prajna paramita, the wisdom to cross this shore to the other shore.

Painting by Mike Dixon

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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

https://cuke.com/f

Frog

Do you know Sengai’s picture of a frog? “If we can obtain Buddhahood by sitting zazen…” [laughs] the frog says. The frog has enlightenment [laughter]. You may laugh at the frog [laughs] who thinks, “I can attain enlightenment by my sitting posture.” You are laughing at him, but he may laugh at you. You may say, “Just by sitting, how is it possible to [laughter] attain enlightenment?” I don’t know which is laughing at which. So even the frog has enlightenment when he sits like this. We cannot laugh at him. But if we practice zazen in a cross-legged position in order to attain enlightenment, that is worse. You are worse than a frog [laughs].

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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 Step

It is not by advancing step by step that you attain enlightenment. You cannot arrange your steps to reach enlightenment. Each step is independent practice, and with each step there must be enlightenment. When you devote yourself to only one step, there is true understanding of that teaching. So, it means you have enlightenment. When you try to arrange it, you will lose the essence of the teaching.

Found in The Way of Eiheiji booklet

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Bill Porter Interview

Video interview with John Kain on Lion's Roar, How translator Red Pine (aka Bill Porter) “Dances With the Dead”

Bill Porter's page on cuke.com

Each Teaching Is Independent

When there’s no need to say anything about a relationship, there is reality. But usually, we arrange teachings in some system. This teaching is for babies. This teaching is for boys, and this teaching is for girls. This teaching is for beginners; this teaching is for advanced students [laughter]. Arranging teaching in this way is not the true way. Each teaching is independent. You should not compare the teaching you have with someone else’s teaching. This is for me an advanced student [laughs], but this is the teaching for some beginners, not for me. This is a very poor kind of understanding. Whatever the teaching may be, the teaching you have heard is your teaching.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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”

So, when we say “form,” period, that is all. When we say “emptiness,” that is all. There is no comment. “I,” that’s all [laughs]. No “you.” When I say “you,” that’s all. No “I.” It is not after communicating “I” and “you,” true intimate understanding between us. When I become just “I,” you become “me.” When you become just “you,” I become “you.”

Photo by Paul Kagan

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Stone

You can get rid of the idea of emptiness too. So, it means to have direct experience of your life, without having an idea of “no” or “yes.” This point is very important. When you become you through and through—we say, when stone is stone through and through, that is real stone. That is not just stone.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Persimmons

[Referring to the concept of detachment] If you put a notice on a persimmon tree, people will be interested in that tree, and they will try the fruit to see if it is sweet or not. So, the best way is not to say anything about the trees [laughs]. Then no one will come. No one will be interested [laughter]. If it’s said this is sweet or bitter, you will be interested in that.

Image by © Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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

https://cuke.com/f

Form Is Emptiness

When we say, “form is emptiness,” I think you understand that. You may understand form is emptiness, means detachment. If form is emptiness, we should not be attached to any certain form. That is true. But you have the idea of detachment, you know [laughs], so that bothers your true understanding of detachment.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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 That Moment

In this sutra it says, “form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” And “sensation, thought, and our active substance, our consciousness also are emptiness.” It means we have to have actual understanding of our forms and sensations, and thought, and consciousness. It means we must have true practice, and we have to find the reality in the various activities of our mind, and in our physical activity. Whatever we do, at that moment, we should realize our way.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

City Center Event

Book Reading of Return to Our Senses: A Path to Stability in an Unstable World

by Lee Klinger Lesser

at City Center

October 16, 2026 / 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Return to Our Senses offers a life-changing invitation to come home to what is most reliable and intimate: our direct, embodied experience. In a time marked by turbulence, speed, and chronic uncertainty, this book presents the somatic mindfulness practice of Sensory Awareness as a practical and deeply humane antidote to disconnection and overwhelm. This evening will include readings, stories, and an opportunity to practice together. This is a free public event.

https://www.sfzc.org/calendar/events/city-center/book-reading-return-our-senses-path-stability-unstable-world-cc-1016

Return to Our Senses: A Path to Stability in an Unstable World - on Amazon.

Spirit

You should have transmitted spirit from Buddha because you cannot understand your practice just by sutras or teaching. Without the spirit to continue your effort, you cannot be a Buddhist.

Marcus Hartsfield

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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 of Those Experiences

How we practice zazen, how we study Zen is by finding our own practice under various circumstances. So sometimes we will have difficulties, sometimes we will have joy of practice, but each of those experiences is Zen practice.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Merit

Actually, there is no need to talk about the merit of Zen practice. Talking about the merit of Zen would encourage the wrong understanding of practice. When you do it—just do it—you have enlightenment.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Concentrate on Your Practice

When you do your best, there is emptiness, there is enlightenment. When you are practicing Zen, in between good and bad practice, between enlightenment and practice, that is not our practice. When you just concentrate on your practice, that is enlightenment.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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

https://cuke.com/f

A Slap

“No good” is not actually no good. “No good” is very good [laughs]. But you should not accept it in terms of good or bad. You should accept it as a real slap [mimics slap] — “No good!” Then you will realize yourself in a true sense.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

No Good

Usually, we say even though your zazen is not good, that is true zazen. “Don’t worry,” [laughs] we may say. This may give you some encouragement, but in its true sense, when the teacher says this, we are not so kind. When I want to be kind to you, I should say, “No, that’s no good!” [laughs]. That may be better to encourage you. If I say, “That is good,” then you may give up your effort. Nothing will come from your practice. But when we say, “That’s not good,” then something will come up from that “no good.” So, “no good” is very important.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Do Your Best

Don’t be concerned about what your teacher may say about your practice. He may say, “Your practice is not good!” [Laughs.] He may say so, but it’s all right. You have to do it; you have to sit with all your strength. You have to do your best.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.