Each Day

For Ryokan each day is a good day, and each day is a day of enlightenment. There is enlightenment on each day, on each practice you do, as long as you have a clear understanding of buddha-nature.

Image of Ryokan statue from Encyclopaedia Britannica

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

More Tassajara Stories from DC

   photo taken last week by Tomas Fricke

In this podcast posted a few days ago, DC (me) tells more Tassajara stories as an addendum to the Tuesday Dec. 9 SFZC Zoom event with Edward Brown answering participants questions we didn’t get to and elaborating as I do. Find link to Dec. 9 Zoom event, A Night of Tassajara Stories, at: cuke.com/TOC-DC.htm.

cuke.com podcast page

Remarkable Progress

Image generated by ChatGPT

Dogen Zenji says our practice is like going through fog. It is not like going out in a thunderstorm [laughs]. If you go out in heavy rain, your clothes will get wet all at once. You will be soaked, but a sudden rainstorm will not penetrate into your underwear. But when you walk through thick fog for a long time, even though you don’t realize it, your clothing is wet, and it will penetrate into your underwear. This is true practice. You don’t think you made any progress, [laughs] but you had remarkable progress, and someone who knows what real practice is will acknowledge it.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

This Kind of Spirit

We say you cannot plant any plants on a stone [laughs]. You should be like a stone. No good or evil can grow on buddha-nature. It is so hard and so strict. Good or bad is delusion. Any delusion can grow on your spirit. Or we say it is impossible to thrust a needle into iron. This kind of spirit is wanted when you practice our practice. Then little by little you will make progress.

Image generated by Leonardo.ai

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

As Much As You Can

So, our practice is the practice of accepting everything as it is and to do things as much as we can. Don’t be greedy about progress in your practice. If you can make progress, little by little, as much as you can, that is enough. But concerning the sense of buddha-nature, it should be very clear and strict.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Thanks to the San Francisco Zen Center for the online event, Dec. 9, 2025. In the follow up podcast David answers additional questions. Links at: cuke.com/TOC-DC.htm

Didn’t Mind At All

Do you know Ryokan? A famous Soto priest. He didn’t mind anything bad—it’s the secret of the Soto way. Concerning Soto practice, he was very strict, but [laughs] he didn’t mind whatever people said or whatever he himself felt. He didn’t mind at all. Even when he was sick, he didn’t mind. Even though people did not understand him, he did not mind at all. If someone asked if he was not serious, he didn’t mind. But when he thought someone was too serious or sincere, he minded very much. And if someone asked him what was the Soto way, he was very serious. He had a strict sense of buddha-nature, his buddha-nature was very, very sharp and strict. Because of that strictness, he could accept his poor and humble and unfortunate life. But he didn’t mind at all because he had a strict sense of buddha-nature.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Accept Something Intelligible

If you cannot accept something intelligible, you are still pursuing good or bad in a worldly sense, a scientific way, philosophical way, or ethical way. You are not pursuing religious practice.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

A Message from Paul Zengyu Discoe

Dear friends and fellow practitioners,

I have found myself on a five-acre farm on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, about 2,000 feet in elevation, surrounded by forest. The property is owned outright, and there is a small endowment to begin shaping the site and creating a place for practice.

The plan is to build a small practice center grounded in the teachings of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Dōgen Zenji.

I would like to connect with practitioners interested in a way of life based on right livelihood and simple living, as an alternative to the frenzied spending and materialism that are damaging us and the planet. If this resonates with you, or with someone you know, please reach out to info@chopandcarry.org. 

With gratitude, 

Paul Zengyu Discoe

http://www.chopandcarry.org/

Paul's cuke page

Beyond Good or Bad

So, in our practice there is no evil or good. It is not a matter of evil or good. Both are good. There is no need to fight about it. Just let them come and let them go out. So-called evil or good are something which your small mind creates. For your true nature there is no good or bad. Your true nature is something which is beyond good or bad. It is valuable because it is beyond good and bad. It is valuable because you cannot figure out what it is.

Based on an image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-29-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.