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

Featured Cuke Archives Page

 

Prescription

The Zen school was established without depending on any particular teaching. So, Zen students use various scriptures. We do not say this is the most important scripture or this is not so important. Whatever the teaching may be, that teaching will help at least someone. It may not be for all of them, but it will help someone. So, it is like medicine. For some patients some particular prescription is necessary, but we cannot say this is a better prescription or this is not so good. If you use it in an appropriate way, that is the test of a prescription.

—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.

Practice and Realize Our True Nature

That everything changes is an the actual truth, not Buddhism. This is the truth for Buddhists as well as for everyone. So, those teachings are not just our teaching, but for everyone. Even if Buddha didn’t talk about it, that is a truth which we observe every day. So, there is no need to depend on teaching. To practice and realize our true nature is the most important point [laughs]. That is Zen. If so, as long as we have buddha-mind Buddhism is for 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.

Linda Lupo Wong

 

Linda came to the SF Zen Center in 1971 and was around a long time. Read about her coming that at 

Linda Lupo Wong cuke page - and see a couple of photos of her there.

Check out her beautiful monoprints at her Linda Wong Monoprints and Collages website 

and her Linda Wong Monoprints artist page on Facebook.

No Merchants

For us there are no influential people or farmers. They are all Buddhists for us. As Dogen Zenji said, “You may say a merchant is not a Zen monk. But for Zen monks, there are no merchants or Zen monks. They are all Zen students.” This is our understanding of practice. So, whether they realize it or not, actually we are all practicing zazen.

—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.

Green Gulch Greengrocer c. 1975