Mu

So those masters who understand Soto way, instead of “just to sit,” they may give you koan mu. What is mu? “Just to sit is mu” [laughs]. There is no difference. And this just to sit will be various kinds of koan, actually. So there may be thousands of koans for us, but if you can sit shikantaza, shikantaza includes various powers of practice. And this is the direct way to the enlightenment, or renunciation, or nirvana-- whatever you say. -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC 

More on Robert Lytle

Here's a page for our dear dharma brother Robert Lytle who passed on to the next bardo earlier this month. If you want to add anything, just send it on. - DC

Robert and wife Brenda Grosz back in their Zen Center days. Maybe C. 1990?

Be Myself

This is not something you understand because I say so, you know. This is not teaching you believe in because Buddha says so. This is actual ultimate truth. The only way to attain renunciation without causing any problem for anyone is just to be myself. No problem whatsoever. -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC 

Just to Sit again

“Just to sit” is the most direct teaching. You cannot [laughs] say no or yes even, you cannot say anything about it - “just to sit” [laughs]. So we say “just to sit.” There is no more teaching.   -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC 

Just to Sit

We say “just to sit,” but this word "just" is A should be A, directly points to liberation from A. Because you try to be something else, you lose your reality. So I should be just me. Then, at the same time, I have liberation. I have enlightenment. I am not a ghost [laughs]. I exist here. I am Buddha himself. I am not a ghost. This is just to sit.    -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC 

Vanish

So to be just A like A-- only when we satisfy ourselves as A, you know-- as me, there is a chance to have realization or there is chance to vanish [laughs]. It is necessary to vanish [laughs]. If you don't, you are ghost [laughs] in your delusion. Something that exists should vanish. Is there something which doesn't vanish forever?   -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC 

Buddha

So there is no need to have bridge to the other shore. Other shore is other-shore buddha, this shore is this-shore buddha [laughs]. Just name is different but actually everything is Buddha. Bridge is ornamental Buddha, and this shore is also ornamental Buddha. The other shore is also ornamental Buddha.   -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC 

The SFZC's Engage Wisdom Audio Archive

The SFZC's Engage Wisdom Audio Archive is formidble and well-presented. They're presenting dharma talks at that site from all the teachers who speak there. As part of this great project, and of particular interest to us, is the Suzuki Roshi Audio Archive. Peter Ford, my associate at Cuke, has transcribed a couple of entries from there that weren't in the archive (- from a set of tapes recently found at the City Center) and entered the new transcripts on the EW site and shunryusuzuki.com. The EW link is being placed now with each entry in the shunryusuzuki to join the link to the SFZC other Suzuki lecture site - https://suzukiroshi.sfzc.org/. We're in touch with Charlie Wilson, a Zen student and owner of Sonic Zen Records in Berkeley who's doing the audio work, We've worked with him before. More on him later. Good going ZC!  

Practice

What is practice? When we were young, we used to discuss about what is bodhisattva's way to save others before we saved [laughs] ourselves. What does it mean? Is it possible to save others before we save ourselves? That kind of thing. And what is the goal of practice, and what is idea and what is the reality, reality in its ordinary sense? And reality cannot be, you know, the ideas. The practice will be the bridge from the reality to idea. This kind of discussion we had. But according to Dogen Zenji, practice is practice-- practice buddha, reality is the reality buddha, idea is idea buddha [laughs]. There is no problem [laughs, laughter]. When you practice, there is no Buddha or no human being. That which exists is just practice. When you say: “I am a human being,” it means human-being-buddha, another name of buddha. We understand in that way.   -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC 

Fighting

When you have no mind and body, you have no problem [laughs, laughter]. Because you say, “This is mind and this is body and body should not be the burden of the spirit,” or something like that. “Our mind should work hard to control our body” something like this. In this case, mind is not mind. Mind is delusion, and body is also delusion. And delusion and delusion is fighting.  -------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC