Wind Bell Excerpts

The City Center and Neighborhood in the Wind Bells of the SFZC 

Follow

Student N [Liz Wolf]: Docho Roshi, should I follow myself, my body, my being-- or should I follow the schedule?
SR: To follow the schedule may be better.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Forever

Student M [Mary Quagliata]: Docho Roshi, I think that I will practice zazen for the rest of my life. Thank you.

SR: You mean forever.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

All Suzuki lectures from the Wind Bells

A reminder that one catagory of excerpts from the Wind Bells of the SFZC, 1961-2012, is a page with links to all the Shunryu Suzuki lectures from the Wind Bells.

The strangely distorted by Blogger cover of that 1999 Wind Bell features the art of Hoitsu Suzuki. See it full size here with that whole Wind Bell. 

Cuke Podcast 3 is now up

Comments on the Introduction to Crooked Cucumber - after some Bali Ramblings

on Podbean Cuke Audio

Comments on the Introduction to Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki - after some Bali ramblings, or local news and ruminations. Opening and introductory words first of course. Bali ramblings begin at 4:53. Zen stuff begins at 18:22 with a phone conversation with Sojun Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center in CA. We get into the book at 26:46 with a brief reading through the front matter followed by comments on the cover, front matter, and introduction which takes a little over an hour followed by the soothing closing words and music. 

Continue

Student K [Dan Welch]: Docho Roshi, you say this is the last day of our training period, but I believe that we will continue the spirit of this practice forever. Thank you very much.

SR: That is the way. -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Zoom Lectures by Sojun Mel Weitsman

To hear them go to the site for Berkeley Zen Center. There's the Zoom link and password right on the home page there.

Sojun Mel Weitsman's cuke page

Continuing the QQ & A

Student L [Katherine Thanas]: Docho Roshi: When does my life express the Dharma and when does it not? 
SR: When it does not? There is no time when it doesn't. It always expresses the Dharma.-------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco closing

and may never re-open - from ABC News.

From that article: "Founded in 1953 by two friends, college professor Peter D. Martin and the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights became a cultural institution for San Francisco's bohemians and literati."  

I didn't know about Peter Martin. City Lights has been so central in the lives of many people in the cuke realm - the Zennies, the artists, the poets, the readers, the browsers, the walkers around. 

I need help expressing how important it has been. Please send any comments or memories of City Lights and what it's meant to you to dchad at cuke dot com. - dc

Drying Machine

Student J [Niels Holm]: Docho Roshi, when the rain falls evenly on the whole world, and the moisture is penetrating the whole universe, how come I feel like in a drying machine?

SR: You feel like in a drying machine maybe because the moisture is all over, so the drying machine is necessary. But still the drying machine is not powerful enough to dry out everything. -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-09-00 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC