Through Your Practice

If you want to see the double moon, you must build up your character and you must have the power to observe the double moon. In other words, through your practice you obtain the power to see the double moon. As long as you are just trying to figure out if this way of observing is right or wrong, you cannot see it. When you are quite sure about observing, you can see the double moon.

Watercolor by Damian Maynard

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.

Invisible Effort

We say, “a white bird in snow.” You cannot see a white bird in the snow, but still the bird exists. When we devote ourselves to true practice, our practice is not visible. But this invisible effort will build your character, and you will obtain the power to be a master of the surroundings. As long as you are chasing after only visible things, you will never understand the meaning of our life. This is how we devote ourselves to our way.

Image generated by ChatGPT

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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 Painted Moon

As long as you are caught by a single moon which is always the same for everybody, you cannot see the true moon. You will be seeing a painted moon which never changes [laughs]. There is no meaning to it.

Image generated by ChatGPT

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.

Double Moon

Mutual understanding is the double moon; not the single moon, not the same moon. And the moon they see in Japan is the same moon—it is the same. But it is not the same, it is double [laughs]. I don’t know how many moons we see, but the feeling of observing the moon is the same. Even though sometimes we see the moon with sadness and sometimes with joy, the moon is the same. Here, we see the double moon. It should be double, but the moon is the same.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.

Mutual Understanding

We have mutual understanding, but the way you and I express our innermost request is not the same. Because it is not the same and cannot be the same, we can respect each other’s efforts, and at the same time we can know how difficult it is. That is mutual understanding.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.

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You Become You

Image generated by Leonardo.ai

When you become you [laughs]—when bamboo is bamboo, that is Zen. When a tree is a tree, that is Zen. We have to realize our inmost nature as a being, or our inmost request of ourselves. An inmost request works for every existence in the same way, but as each existence is unique, even though the inmost request is universal, the way of expression should be different.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.

Become Yourself

Photo by Mark Abrams

If we try to be the most famous, useful, or powerful, we will lose the true meaning of existence. So we say when you become yourself, Zen becomes Zen.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.

Be Yourself

Bamboo cannot be a pine tree [laughs]. Bamboo is always valuable as bamboo. A mixture of bamboo and pine will not serve for anything because bamboo is straight and a pine tree is crooked. So, bamboo and pines are valuable in their own way. There is no need for us to be famous or to be useful. First of all, each one should be themself. Then we will find our world very convenient.

Image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.

To Light Up One Corner

It is not a matter of what is good or bad. It is a matter of whether you devote yourself to the truth completely. In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha said to light up just one corner—not the whole world. To make it clear just where you are. To shine on or light up one corner. This is a very important point in our practice.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-08-28-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.