Discouraged

If you think enlightenment is some particular thing which you can reach for or which you can attain, sometimes you will be discouraged. If you do not feel it’s possible to attain it, you will be discouraged. And you will give up the practice, and you will try to find some other teaching which is worthwhile to strive for. And so you will change from one way to another. Then you have no time to realize our true nature which is universal to everyone.

—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig for links to the full Shunryu Suzuki lecture and the source of the photo.

Enlightenment Is Always There

The problem is you are trying to do something, that is the trouble. Or if you do not understand what it is, you think nothing results or nothing exists. Or if you feel you can rely on something, teaching means nothing. But before you try to rely on it, teaching exists. Before you attain enlightenment, enlightenment is there [laughs]. That is true. It is not because you attained enlightenment that enlightenment appears. Because enlightenment is always there, so if you realize it, that is enlightenment.

—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig for links to the full Shunryu Suzuki lecture and the source of the photo.

Just to Sit

Even though we say “just sit,” to understand what it means is rather difficult, maybe. Dogen Zenji left us many teachings to explain what is “just to sit,” but it does not mean his teaching is so difficult. When you sit without thinking or expecting anything, and when you accept yourself as a buddha or as an ornament of buddha, or if you understand everything is the unfolding of the absolute teaching, or if you understand everything is a part of one whole being–when you reach this understanding, whatever we say, whatever we think, or whatever we see, that is the actual teaching of Buddha. And whatever we do, that is actual practice of the Buddha himself.

—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig for links to the full Shunryu Suzuki lecture and the source of the photo.

Father Steve Frost sends a painting

We court the vales of 'no-thing' and find 

the plains of Heaven:

 Steve Frost cuke page

Congratulations

To Danny Parker on the left who just received transmission from Ed Brown on Sunday, September 24, 2023. 

Danny Parker on Cuke 

Ed Brown cuke page

buddha, buddha, buddha, buddha

You know, when your practice is not good, you are a poor buddha [laughs]. If your practice is good, you are good buddha. And poor and good are also independent buddha. Poor is buddha, and you are buddha; and good is buddha, and you are buddha too. For every word, or whatever you think, whatever you say, every word becomes buddha. Then there is no trouble [laughs]. I am buddha. If I say “I am buddha,” “I” is buddha, “am” is buddha, “b” is buddha, and “buddha” is of course buddha. Buddha, buddha, buddha [laughter]. That is how you say buddha, buddha, buddha, buddha [laughter]. There is no need to translate it into English [laughter]. There is no need to be bothered by a fancy explanation of Buddhism [laughs]. If you say “buddha, buddha, buddha, buddha” [laughs], that is the way. That is shikantaza, you know: everything is buddha. So, sitting is buddha, lying down is buddha, and whatever you say, each word is buddha. Dogen understood in this way, so he said, “When it is cold, you should be a cold buddha. When it is hot, you should be a hot buddha.”

—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig for links to the full Shunryu Suzuki lecture and the source of the photo.

Attain Is Extra

When it is hot, you should be hot buddha. When it is cold, you should be a cold buddha. But this is a very direct understanding of the story. Actually it says when it is hot, you should kill hot. When it is cold, you should kill cold by practice. But according to Dogen Zenji, when it is cold you should be a cold buddha, and when it is hot you should be a hot buddha. If you say “kill,” kill is extra [laughs]. If you say “to attain enlightenment,” attain is extra.

—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig for links to the full Shunryu Suzuki lecture and the source of the photo.

50 Years of Poetry from Jane Hirshfield

The Asking: New and Selected Poems by Jane Hirshfield

The long-awaited new and selected collection by the author of “some of the most important poetry in the world today” (The New York Times Magazine), assaying the ranges of our shared and borrowed lives: our bonds of eros and responsibilities to the planet; the singing dictions and searchlight dimensions of perception; the willing plunge into an existence both perishing and beloved, dazzling “even now, even here”

Amazon link

Jane Hirshfield cuke page

Hot Buddha, Cold Buddha

Tonight I want to explain shikantaza. We say “just to sit.” What does it mean, just to sit?

A monk asked a Zen master, “It is very hot. How is it possible to sit somewhere where no hot and no cold weather comes?”

The master’s answer was, “When it is hot, you should be hot buddha [laughs, laughter]. When it is cold, you should be a cold buddha [laughs].”

That is “just to sit.”

—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-07-24 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig for links to the full Shunryu Suzuki lecture and the source of the photo.

Art by Paul Reps

Ken Ireland tells a tale about him and Philip Whalen and a fox

 

Philip Asks Me the Big Question

Ken Ireland cuke page

and here's a bonus post by Ken with Phillip Whalen

thanks Katrinka