Your Own Effort

This kind of strength can be acquired by your own effort, not by any other’s effort. Even if I explain it one thousand times, it will not help you unless you yourself make an effort to be sure about yourself. Before you believe in yourself you cannot see the double moon. Actually, double or single doesn’t matter [laughs]. That is double moon.

Priest ordinations - January 11, 1975

—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.

Featured Cuke Archives page

https://cuke.com/f

Sure With Yourself

If someone says, “It is double,” I may say, “No, it is single.” [Laughter.] It doesn’t matter to me whether it is a double or single moon because I am quite sure about my eyes. When you are quite sure with yourself, when you own your eyes as your sense organ, then you can see the double moon. But as long as you are enslaved by your eyes, you cannot trust your eyes [laughs]. So, if someone says that is a double or single moon, you will wonder if you cannot trust your eyes.

—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.

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.

Featured Cuke Archives page

https://cuke.com/f

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.