Natural Reality Track

So, the most important thing is to believe in our Buddha nature and then intellectually you have to study our many ways. Back and forth we have to study our view of life. We have to have enough experiences to accord with reality. And then we have to acquire the power by which we can act without any restrictions, without any idea of teaching even. To act quite natural without being off the track.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 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.

The Same Experience

You may say it is kensho, or whatever you may say, this is a quite new experience both intellectual and emotional. And the many patriarchs and Buddhas will prove your experience. That is the last stage. Then you have the same experience as the old buddhas had. In this way Buddhism will be developed.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 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.

Yesterday's RIP post for Shuzan Uchiyama corrected

Yesterday's RIP post should have read RIP Shuzan Uchiyama not Shuzen Suzuki. It's been fixed and updated.

Link to yesterday's post 

Now it's included on the Aiko Uchiyama memorial page on cuke.com

Be Ready for a New Experience

Before you wonder what it is, you should practice more following a new experience. You may see your teacher, but the teacher will say, “Practice more with the new understanding.” And I don’t think all of you can always practice with a teacher. Some of you must go to your own home and practice alone. In that case, when you have a new experience, you should continue your practice folding the new experience within yourself, and act bravely according to the new experience. This kind of shift is necessary for you. We should not always be bound by the same old way. We should always be ready for a new experience.

Painting by Willard Mike Dixon

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 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.

RIP Shuzan Uchiyama

Just received this from Shungo Suzuki at Rinsoin in Yaizu, Japan, Shunryu Suzuki's former temple

Dear David-san,

 

The nephew of Suzuki Shunryu Roshi, Uchiyama Shuzan Roshi, has passed away.

 

He is the son of Suzuki Shunryu Roshi's younger sister, Aiko.

 

Name: Uchiyama Shuzan

 

Birthdate: August 2, 1939

 

Deathdate: February 13, 2025

 

Age: 85 years old (87 years old by Japanese age reckoning)

 

28th head priest of Zuienji Temple, Hamamatsu City

 

The chief mourner is his daughter, Miyagi Haruko.

 

Cremation was completed on February 16th.

 

The funeral will be held on April 2nd at Rinsoin Temple, with Suzuki Hoitsu as the ceremony chief priest.

 

He was a man who valued his roots and was proud to be Suzuki Shunryu's nephew.

 

The second photo was taken at the third anniversary of Aiko's death, held at the City Center.

 

Shungo Suzuki

Below is the group photo from that ceremony. When I met Shuzan Uchiyama in the dining room, he greeted me with an enthusiastic, "Hebo kyuri!" That was significant because it's the way to say crooked cucumber that we used in the Japanese translation of Crooked Cucumber - except for the title where they used the normal magatta kyuri because it wasn't so pejorative. I considered Shuzan's use of the word that day to be further confirmation that hebo kyuri is what Shunryu was called. Read more on this here. - dc

Back row L to R: David Chadwick, Kazuto and Mitsuo and Otohiro Suzuki. Haruko Uchiyama

Front row: Blanche Hartman, Vicke Austin, Christine Lehnherr, Shuzan and Tomoko Uchiyama.

This post now joins the page for Aiko Uchiyama on cuke.com

 

A New Experience

When you experience a new experience, at first you may even be afraid of it. And you may even cry over the new experience because it is so different from experiences you have had, and the experience is too real to you. But that is because your practice is still wanting. In other words, you have to practice until you can digest the new experience, and you can act properly according to the new experience. This kind of understanding is necessary.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 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.

Day by Day

Beyond time means to live in each moment. To enjoy or to appreciate your life, day by day, is how to live beyond the idea of time. Actually, there is no time, you know. Time is something which is happening. Day after day is time.

Drawings by Frances Thompson

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-07-23 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

Are We Part of It or the whole or what? Reading two Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts and commenting, then talking about what I'm going to do when this podcast is loaded. Listen to the podcast.

Forget

The purpose of my lecture is mostly to give you some way to understand the various scriptures and various thoughts, in an appropriate way, without being attached to them. Without wasting time. There is no need to remember. If you forget, it’s all right. If you doubt something, you will not forget it. Because you understand it, you forget.

Zen Is Right Here - Epigraph

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-07-23 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 Different Way of Understanding

[About government] they should know there are limits. And they should be more humble, and they could think more [laughs]. Then we will have a very good life. This is the only way to bring about a comparatively peaceful life. All those confusions are caused by misunderstandings of the truth. What I am talking about is something maybe you think unworthy because you compare religion to politics, or even to science, so it is difficult to understand. But religion is a different way of understanding our life. So, you should keep studying some things in some different ways.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-07-23 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.