You should be like a child who draws things whether they are good or bad. Sometimes you will do things without much reason. If that is difficult, you are not actually ready to practice zazen.
Monica Linde, Eliot and Lethe Walters, and Jane Westberg outside of the Tassajara school-house.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-15 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
In this sesshin I feel very sorry that I cannot help you so much. But the way you study true Zen is not through some verbal things. You should open yourself, and you should give up everything. Anyway, you should try, whether you think it is good or bad. This is the fundamental attitude to study.
Shunryu Suzuki lecturing in old Tassajara zendo 1967
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-15 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
If possible, we should give instructions one-by-one. But because that is difficult, we give some lectures like this [laughs]. But you shouldn’t stick to a lecture. You should think more about what I really mean. So, for the beginner, maybe instruction is necessary, but for advanced students, we don’t give so much instruction, and they should try various ways.
Fall Practice Period 1984
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-15 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
When I got up twenty minutes earlier than the handbell came, I was scolded. “Don’t get up so early! You will disturb my sleep.” Usually if I got up earlier it was good, but for my teacher it was not good [laughs]. When you try to understand things better, without any rules or prejudice, then that means selflessness.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-15 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
Under bad circumstances you may easily give up. But in such cases, you should try hard. How should you practice, for instance, if you are very sleepy? “Oh, maybe better not to practice zazen. Maybe better to rest.” Yeah, sometimes it is better, but at the same time, that may a good chance to practice.
Drawing by Stan White
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-15 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
David Weinstein is the founding teacher of the Rockridge Meditation Community in Oakland, California and a therapist listed on the Psychology Today website. His path led to Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, India, Korea, Japan, Hawaii, and the Bay Area. Listen to our podcast and read more about him - http://cuke.com/f.
In morning time we clean our room. But we have not enough rags or brooms, so it is almost impossible for everyone to participate in our cleaning. So, under this circumstance, what you should do is to find something to do [laughs]. You may think, “There is nothing for me to do.” But there is, if you try hard to find out what you should do.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-15 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
Each one of us must have each one’s own way. And according to the situation, you should change your way to find some appropriate way. So, you cannot stick to anything. The only thing we have to do is to find some appropriate way under new situations.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-15 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
We have perhaps too many students in this zendo. But even if a master has only two or three students, they will never tell you our way in detail.... There is no particular way for us, because each one of us are different from the other.
Tassajara Fall Practice Period 1975
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-15 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.