Happy New Year!

 Yes indeed. May you have a new year happy, healthy, free from harm, and full of awakening. - dc

At tje End of the Year

And end of the year is the most busy days. We have to clean up our rooms, and if you have some debts you should pay. For someone to collect the money he lent, and for the most people it is time to pay the debt. And after cleaning up everything, spiritual and physical, we decorate New Year's decoration. Those should be done before twelve o'clock. And after twelve o'clock there is no need for you to pay back the money you owed.

So usually it is pretty exciting week. This kind of custom still in Japan and each one of us, rather we enjoy this kind of activity. We understand each other. We fool ourselves in some way and enjoy the last day of the year. This idea is based on Buddhist way of understanding life. Moment after moment we should renew our life, we should not stick old idea of life, or way of life, we should renew it, our life day by day, especially at the end of the year. Especially at the end of the year we should completely renew our feeling and completely renew our car. If we stick to old ideas always, or if you have no chance to renew it, it is rather difficult to renew your way of life. Some encouragement is necessary if you always repeating same thing over and over again, then even though you have no feeling of sticking to old way of life, actually you are confined in old way of life. Some excitement or some occasion is necessary.  -- from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29

Interview with Lew Richmond

Ted Howell has been helpful sending in errata with the podcasts and on cuke. He just noted there were a few bad links on Lew Richmond's page. I saw what I did wrong. I cut and pasted the links from a post here on Blogger but that doesn't work - it brings one inside the cuke Blogger account. Not good. So thery are now fixed. 

And here's one of the now fixed links to a March 2021 interview with Lew by Michael Kay on Michael Kay's blog

focusing on Lew's latest book (I am pretty sure)

 Every Breath, New Chances: How to Age with Honor and Dignity—A Guide for Men

That's an Amazon link

Here's Lew's cuke page.

Thanks Ted.

Beyond

You first way you think, that is how. That is the unthinkable. But you have no notion of thinking about anything. That is our practice. "How do you think the unthinkable? Think beyond thinking and unthinking." Think beyond thinking and unthinking. Your thinking should be beyond I think or I don’t think. It must be right there always.                --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Deep

What it means is very deep. How do you think the unthinkable? This is not just, you know, a question. It is a strong statement. How do you think the unthinkable. This is not interrogative. It is strong affirmative sentence. How do you think the unthinkable. Unthinkable thinking is how.                --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

An old Dharma Bro shares

Ron Browning wrote:  A friend shared this WONDERFUL virtual Dhamma Retreat (via YouTube) offered by Ajahn Brahm and Venerable Ayya Chanda Bhikkhuni! 

💓☸️💓🙏🙏🙏

Cuke Interview with Ron Browning

How?

So how do you think the unthinkable? There is no way. How? How is the way. Because we don't know how. You know, how? So there you can put anything, you know. How? This way is how. That way is how. All the way is how. This is how. This is how.                --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Neglected to edit Friday's Suzuki lecture excerpt

So here it is with a DC edit.

The sun is not, you know, shining, only on the earth. If the earth happens to be here, the sun will [laughs] shine on our earth. To think the unthinkable, your mind must be like the sun. It is shining, but it is not shining on some particular thing. It is more than thinking about something.               --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Micah Hugs

An article in Santa Rosa CA Press Democrat on Micah's Hugs, founded by Micah and Michelle Sawyer to help those afflicted with addiction, founded after Micah Jr. died of an overdose.

Micah's Hugs dot com

Micah's Hugs Facebook 

Micah's Hugs winner of North Bay Spirit Award for fight against addiction - There's a link to a video on this in the Press Democrat article. Here it is on YouTube.

Micah Jr was the grandson of Ken and Elizabeth Sawyer. I loved it that there were three generations of Sawyers working for Sawyer construction: Ken, Micah, and Micah Jr. It was so sad when Micah died. Micah Hugs not only helps others Micah and Michelle and Micah's mother Denise grieve for the truly tragic loss of Micah Jr., it helps all of us. - DC

Merry Christmas

 Hope you are having and will continue to have a most merry Christmas. 

Trying to upload a Christmas podcast on Cuke Podcast but I guess cyberspace is full of people connecting. Anyway, at some point will upload a podcast wherein I read the brief chapters four and five of Pseudo Dionysius' Mystical Theology. Here it is on cuke. That's my Christmas message to you and yours. - DC

Ah - finally it uploaded. Here it is. Today's Christmas podcast.