Enlightenment

Always our way is where you practice it, there is enlightenment. And even though you do not expect enlightenment, enlightenment is there. Or we can say, if you expect enlightenment, enlightenment will not be there.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-31 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.

Wherever

Wherever your mind is, whatever you think, there is something, and that something includes you yourself, your big mind or true nature.

Calligraphy from a poem by Upasama

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-31 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.

Funeral Ceremony for David Chadwick

Green Gulch Farm
Sunday, April 12, 3 – 6 pm PDT

https://cuke.com/f
or
https://www.sfzc.org/calendar/events/green-gulch-farm/funeral-ceremony-david-chadwick-green-gulch-farm-ggf-412

Self-evident Fact

This kind of philosophy—not philosophy, actual fact—is interpreted in a philosophical way [laughs]. That is why it is difficult to understand Buddhist philosophy. The most difficult thing may be to give some interpretation to self-evident fact [laughter].

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Wonderful Fish

Student: How long does it take?

Suzuki: Nooo, it doesn’t take any time [laughter]. You are there. Fish is there, right there. Buddhism is two-handed. You can ignore the truth, but it is right here. This fish has immense value. You cannot measure its value. You don’t know whether it is big or small. How many fish are there? One, two, three. Each one has his own fish, and each fish is the same. It’s wonderful.

Image from wikimedia.org

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Sky Is Mind

When you say “mind,” there is no material. When you say “material,” there is no mind. Before you see fish, watch the water. When you watch the water, there is fish, not water. For science it’s water, but for me it is fish [laughter]. For the scientific mind it’s oxygen plus two hydrogen. But for me it is not water, it is fish, and I’m involved in it, and I am swimming in the water. In this way we are flying through the sky. All the sky is mind. This understanding is very subtle and wonderful. All the sky is my home. If you say it is too wide, that is your problem. If you say that’s wonderful, that is your pleasure of life.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Problems

For science mind is an object of study. But for us it is most concerning [laughs]. We are talking about each one’s mind. I am talking about my mind, and you are listening to your mind, not someone else’s mind. If so, that mind includes all the problems you have. Without mind, there is no problem [laughs]. Without “you,” there is no problem. Because there is “you,” you have problems. Because you have mind, small or big, I don’t know [laughs]. Anyway, because you have your mind, there are problems.

Drawing by Stan White

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Religious Mind

“Everything is mind,” we take this viewpoint. We are concerned about each individual’s attainment or nirvana or happiness which should be for each one of us. We do not talk about mind in just a scientific way. We mean my mind, your mind, or someone’s mind who is concerned about his own life. If so, mind includes various problems we see, or feel involved in. For us, mind is our hand, our room, our family, our country because our minds are concerned with people, with family, with our body. So, in this sense mind and body is one—in a religious sense.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.

Featured Cuke Archives page

David reading from Zen Is Right Here: Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki

https://cuke.com/f

Mind and Body

When you say “mind,” of course you have ideas of mind and body, or big mind and small mind. So there are various meanings. We mean many things by mind. But this was a big problem for us. It has been and still is a big problem. What is mind and what is our body? Materialistic or duality, or mind and body are the same. But in Buddhism, mind and body are two faces of one reality.

Beginner's Mind Calligraphy by Shunryu Suzuki

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-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.