From Japan

Andrew Atkeison has some neat recent posts on his Iron Flute blog.

Beyond

If we have gaining idea, we cannot practice Buddhism, which is beyond our ordinary purpose of life.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-12-17b speaking on Dogen's Gakudo-yojin-shu as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts..

Read the Instructions

A woman who said she had a professor in the states who gave a test with several pages of questions. Students rushed through trying to answer all the questions as fast as they could trying to complete the test in the time allotted. When that time came the prof told them to go back and read the instructions. Most had skipped over that. The instructions said not to answer any questions. A few students passed that test. Wonder what subject they were studying.

Final comment

Anyway, it may be pretty difficult to understand what Dogen really means, but if you practice hard and seek for the truth, then you will find out what he means. Thank you very much.   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-12-17a speaking on Dogen's Gakudo-yojin-shu as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.

In the Air

On the way to Zurich, an hour or so from Dharma Sangha's Johanneshof in the Black Forest for their 20th anniversary and Zentatsu Richard Baker's 80th birthday. Will return in a month. First time out of Asia since early December 2013.Great photo of Johanneshof and surrounding area on their site in German. - dc

Forgot most important thing in world

Forgot to link to the Jerry Brown Article on the imminent danger of nuclear weapons disaster yesterday but it's there now. Was obviously distracted by one of the multitude of less important things. - dc

cuke page for Species Threat #1 - Nuclear War 

Think he said status not statue

If we return, we will transcend even the statue of Buddha. It means there is no Buddha even. When you, you know, get beyond the conscious world and when you are in pure consciousness, there is no Buddha even. That is our practice.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-12-17a speaking on Dogen's Gakudo-yojin-shu as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.

Most important thing in the world

A Stark Nuclear Warning - by CA gov Jerry Brown, a review in the NY Review of Books.

cuke page for Species Threat #1 - Nuclear War 

Home

If we return it means to be beyond our conscious world or even pure conscious world. We say we return: Return means to go home. Our home is in pure consciousness or unconscious world. That is our home. And our everyday activity in conscious world means to go out of it and to work on outside [laughs]. So to return means to go back to pure consciousness or direct experience.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-12-17a speaking on Dogen's Gakudo-yojin-shu as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.

Spring Water

At that mountain resort in Tabanan Bali mentioned yesterday, we could drink the water from their spring out of the tap. Been a long time. After a two hour walk I went into the cold stream rushing over rocks. Wore a long sleeve shirt  in the morning and evening. Had almost forgotten what it was like.