Obituary for Daigan David Lueck published in the Sangha News.
Norman will do Daigan's funeral at Green Gulch Farm on June 7th at 4pm.
Photo Daigan and Arlene Lueck at Tassajara 1995
- from SFZC Sangha News
This obit contains a piece Daigan wrote about himself also sent to cuke by Don Brewer today. Posting it and Don's note here.
Don Brewer: I found this introduction to
Daigan on the San Francisco Zen Center webste this morning. It was
written in 2011, and is mostly in his words. He had begun his retirement
by then, and this was just about the time that I began to get to know
him during my residency at Green Gulch. It captures his heart and the
feeling of what being with him was like. I will treasure my memories of
him coming over to the dining hall and joining us at the breakfast
table; young students
eager to hear what this old man with the young heart would have to say.
His stories, his saltiness, the way he wore his robes and sat in his
place in the zendo, and the way he shared coffee and conversation, all
made me love zen practice. I think it's important to tell these stories
as long as we remember them, so that they aren't forgotten, and this is
how we can help to keep his heart alive:
Daigan Lueck, a Zen
Buddhist priest, poet, and painter, has been a long-time resident
practitioner, having lived at all three San Francisco Zen Center
locations and currently at Green Gulch Farm.
2011
"Everyone has a story, a million of them. Odd lots and short pieces sewn
together, a tapestry narrative that testifies to a mytho-poetic version
of the past. I was this and did that. Or else as statistics, places
& dates. I began as a resident work student at Green Gulch Farm in
the late summer of 1984, having before that time sat at different times
at both GGF and City Center as a guest student, and after a few years
took priest ordination and some years later Dharma Transmission from
former abbot Norman Fischer. Spent eight years at Tassajara, married
Arlene, maybe the smartest thing I ever did. Am in general tolerated if
not outright loved for my grouchy side by many. Will turn 81 next month,
January 2012. Thus it can be said with some truth that I bide my time
or much of it being witness and observer in exquisite detail of the
condition known as being old seen in the light of that everlasting
question, namely, what does it mean, if meaning there be, to be a human
being? In any case, I still teach classes, give talks and meet with the
new students here at Green Gulch when called upon."
