Frog

Do you know Sengai’s picture of a frog? “If we can obtain Buddhahood by sitting zazen…” [laughs] the frog says. The frog has enlightenment [laughter]. You may laugh at the frog [laughs] who thinks, “I can attain enlightenment by my sitting posture.” You are laughing at him, but he may laugh at you. You may say, “Just by sitting, how is it possible to [laughter] attain enlightenment?” I don’t know which is laughing at which. So even the frog has enlightenment when he sits like this. We cannot laugh at him. But if we practice zazen in a cross-legged position in order to attain enlightenment, that is worse. You are worse than a frog [laughs].

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Each Step

It is not by advancing step by step that you attain enlightenment. You cannot arrange your steps to reach enlightenment. Each step is independent practice, and with each step there must be enlightenment. When you devote yourself to only one step, there is true understanding of that teaching. So, it means you have enlightenment. When you try to arrange it, you will lose the essence of the teaching.

Found in The Way of Eiheiji booklet

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Bill Porter Interview

Video interview with John Kain on Lion's Roar, How translator Red Pine (aka Bill Porter) “Dances With the Dead”

Bill Porter's page on cuke.com

Each Teaching Is Independent

When there’s no need to say anything about a relationship, there is reality. But usually, we arrange teachings in some system. This teaching is for babies. This teaching is for boys, and this teaching is for girls. This teaching is for beginners; this teaching is for advanced students [laughter]. Arranging teaching in this way is not the true way. Each teaching is independent. You should not compare the teaching you have with someone else’s teaching. This is for me an advanced student [laughs], but this is the teaching for some beginners, not for me. This is a very poor kind of understanding. Whatever the teaching may be, the teaching you have heard is your teaching.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

“I”

So, when we say “form,” period, that is all. When we say “emptiness,” that is all. There is no comment. “I,” that’s all [laughs]. No “you.” When I say “you,” that’s all. No “I.” It is not after communicating “I” and “you,” true intimate understanding between us. When I become just “I,” you become “me.” When you become just “you,” I become “you.”

Photo by Paul Kagan

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Stone

You can get rid of the idea of emptiness too. So, it means to have direct experience of your life, without having an idea of “no” or “yes.” This point is very important. When you become you through and through—we say, when stone is stone through and through, that is real stone. That is not just stone.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

Persimmons

[Referring to the concept of detachment] If you put a notice on a persimmon tree, people will be interested in that tree, and they will try the fruit to see if it is sweet or not. So, the best way is not to say anything about the trees [laughs]. Then no one will come. No one will be interested [laughter]. If it’s said this is sweet or bitter, you will be interested in that.

Image by © Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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

https://cuke.com/f

Form Is Emptiness

When we say, “form is emptiness,” I think you understand that. You may understand form is emptiness, means detachment. If form is emptiness, we should not be attached to any certain form. That is true. But you have the idea of detachment, you know [laughs], so that bothers your true understanding of detachment.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.

At That Moment

In this sutra it says, “form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” And “sensation, thought, and our active substance, our consciousness also are emptiness.” It means we have to have actual understanding of our forms and sensations, and thought, and consciousness. It means we must have true practice, and we have to find the reality in the various activities of our mind, and in our physical activity. Whatever we do, at that moment, we should realize our way.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-01-21-BN 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.