Barton Stone joined Shunryu Suzuki for zazen very early on. He's a peace activist, expert carpenter, gardener, poet, and now practices Zen with with the Stone Creek Zen Center in Graton, CA. We'll have the phone chat, read his poems and an old interview. - This is an encore presentation from an August 29, 2020, podcast when Cuke Podcast was only five months old.
The emotional feelings, whether good or bad, you have them, and they are strongest. It is easier to find what is your inmost request by the strongest function of your mind. It is easier. And if you find your true nature, in your strongest emotional feelings, you will be very much encouraged by it. But if you find what inmost request means by logical thinking, you think, “I understand that is an inmost request.” That’s all. When you understand it, it will be forgotten, and you will think, “In this book, someone says inmost request is something such-and-such. So, when it is necessary, if I read that part I can understand it.” This kind of understanding will not help you at all. And in a case of necessity, you will forget all about it [laughs].
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D 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.
Before you open one eye, it takes time maybe. But for someone who suffers a lot, it is not so difficult. That is why we do not help people so easily. We are waiting for the best time for them to confront the problem completely.
Image generated by Google Gemini
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D 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.
If one of your hands gets out of suffering that’s enough, even though you are not completely free from suffering. Or if one eye does, it will be enough to see what you are doing. You can see with one eye, you know [laughter]. You will say, “Oh my. I am creating suffering. There is no need to open two eyes.”
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D 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.
If you only know that you are creating suffering for yourself, this is good enough, and it will work pretty well. “Oh, I am creating suffering. I have created a difficult problem.” When you say so, you are already out of suffering. You are not completely involved in the suffering you had.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D 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.
Long periods of zazen are very difficult. Short periods of zazen are very difficult too. It is rather troublesome to do every morning [laughter]. The results will be different, but difficulty is the same. So, a long period of zazen is easier, I think, easier if you have time. It is easier, and you will have a deeper understanding. You have the possibility to clear up all of your misunderstandings. You will stop creating suffering [laughter].
Image adapted from Google Play Store
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D 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.
Student: How can you meditate when your legs are aching? [Laughter.]
SR: Hmm?
Student: Is that all in the mind?
SR: Just be patient [laughs, laughter].
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D 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 DC and Cuke Archives: doing our part to help preserve the legacy of Shunryu Suzuki and those whose lives cross his.
Dear Friend,
It’s been a couple of years since we sent out an update on what’s happening at Cuke Archives.
After eleven years collecting and refining the most memorable personal anecdotes about the founding of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first volume of Tassajara Stories appeared this fall, published by Monkfish. I’m working to complete the next two volumes and their audiobooks. There’s more than that to come if I keep at it, but for now completing the Tassajara Stories trilogy and the weekly podcasts is what absorbs the majority of my attention.
Here’s a brief picture of what else has been happening.
We continue doing what we’ve been doing for decades—working with the Shunryu Suzuki lecture archive, entering more lectures—verbatim, minimum edits, other edits, audio, whatever we created, could find, or link to—such as the Engage Wisdom transcript and audio presentation. Go to Cuke Update for more.
There are daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpt posts with an image on the Cuke Daily Blog, Instagram, Facebook Cuke Archives, Bluesky, and to email subscribers. The oral and written history content of cuke.com is slowly and constantly expanding giving a more thorough view of the people and events that are touched and have been touched by Shunryu Suzuki’s time in America. More than anything Cuke Archives is the story and stories of people.
For many years I did the daily lecture excerpts while Peter Ford concentrated on getting cuke.com and shunryusuzuki.com better organized and easier to navigate. He’s still doing that but now he also presents those excerpts. One thing I feel we fall short on is posting about all the new material in the archive as it appears. That’s my fault. I get so focused on the work I’m doing I keep failing to get around to sharing the news. I’ll try to do better. Meanwhile, some of the additions and improvements to the archive that have happened in the last few years you can find at Cuke Update.
I’m still involved with the ongoing development of every aspect of Cuke Archives and on average have several hours of communications daily, but since the last update I’ve been increasingly engrossed in what we call special projects—mainly creating books and audiobooks and recording podcasts. The podcasts consist mainly of talks with a wide gamut of guests involved with or somehow related to the Shunryu Suzuki lineage and the centers and groups that have sprung from it. Cuke Podcast page.
We depend on your contributions to keep all this work going. Donations through PayPal, check, or credit card can be made by clicking on this Donate link or on the primary pages of cuke.com and shunryusuzuki.com.
For a contribution of $125 or more, we will gratefully send you a copy of the newly published Tassajara Stories, a hardback which retails for $33.99.
Check what others are saying about Tassajara Stories.
There’s more to Tassajara Stories than stories about Tassajara. The Preface to the book will make that clear.
Statements of Support for Cuke Archives
Another way to look at what we do is that it’s a way for us to all say hello to each other. Updates such as this one are sent out less than once a year. If you are open to receiving a few more messages in a year, please reply “friend” to join the special Friends of Cuke Archives mailing list.
Thank you and take care.
David
“We’re all bozos on this bus.” - Firesign Theater
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Originally, there is no suffering. Everything is going in its own way, and there should not be any suffering. But you create some suffering. Everything is changing, and everything is growing, but sometimes you want to stop it, and you want to own a flower, like an artificial flower. That is the cause of suffering, and you create that suffering. If you let the flower be as it is, you have no suffering. When you say “suffering,” it is already a flower which is created by you. It is pretty hard to accept the flower which is growing or falling. When you see the flower, you feel as if it will exist forever [laughs]. But actually, it won’t. |
 Photo by Perfecto Insecto |
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—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D 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. |
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