No Dif

So there is no difference in one and many. This is his (Hui Neng) understanding, and this is true. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

A problem in Bali

Several times recently friends and I have come to this stumbling block in dealing with some issue. The problem is, that people here aren't inclined to solve problems. The piece of exercise equipment that Alice uses at the gym she has a one year membership for broke two months ago. The costly reptile park had no monitor lizard, a most interesting and common reptile in SE Asia. Oh - it died two years ago. Why not replace it. Smile. Trash all over left by festival. Landlords say won't help to complain. Forests being destroyed, water table sinking. That's development. Nothing can be done. Never did anything about their genocides and death squads. One of the death squad leaders wore a tee shirt with Apathy written on it in a film about that (The Art of Killing). There are local people here trying to get things done but they're up against a wall of complacency - and they can disappear. May the new year bring dynamic action. Good, friendly, kind people everywhere and great ceremonies anyway.

Mind Itself

Student is mind itself buddha. Teacher is mind itself buddha. And teaching we give is mind itself buddha. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

Loosing it?

Raining too much to use the clay courts near here so last couple of times have gone to nearby swank Segara Village court to hit on cement with Brit Scott cause Aussie Ian was running a marathon as in managing. Scott and I just hit but Ian likes to play games. On clay we are joined by an employee or two of the Grand Bali Beach Inna which is fun. Scoring in Indonesian.  

Change the Order

Sometime we study, “Mind itself is buddha.”  In Chinese it goes, “Itself mind is buddha.” So “itself mind is buddha,” We study it-- ”itself mind is buddha.” Sometime we study “mind itself is buddha.” Sometime we study “buddha itself is mind.” Sometime we study “is buddha [laughs] mind itself.” You know, change up the order -- just change up the order.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  [That last comment reminds me of Byron Katie. - dc

Reptiles

When Kelly was here he noted that there sure are a lot of lizards - tiny ones, small, mid-size, and he saw that giant monitor lizard right below him in the field looking down from top a temple wall. He saw a snake outside in the grass too. That's right. Not a rodent problem here though there was a rat in the open air restaurant running around above and beside us on the wall the other night. We like the lizards inside cause they eat bugs and are cute company. There's a little cicak in that photo off the web that could as well be here at home. - dc

No Creator

Things are always created without creation, you know. It is dynamic change itself. Dynamic change or dynamic creation without creation. Determination without determine. It takes various forms. This is the Buddhist understanding of creation. So here (reading Hui Neng I think - dc) it says no one created. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

Geography Lesson

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia.^[1] The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity. Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions:

1. Maritime Southeast Asia, comprising Indonesia, East Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, and Christmas Island.
2. Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as Indochina, comprising Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, and West Malaysia;

Plants and Water and the Gateless Gate

Bevan Suits Aquaponics site. 

Good going Bevan. Portland and Atlanta - even teaching it in prison.

Bevan's into Ramana, Ajahn Chah, Christianity, Zen.

Not a Wall

Mind is everything. Mind is a fence or wall, you say, but it is not this kind of mind. This mind is not something like water which is wanted when you make a wall with mud. It is not a matter of who creates or not creates. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

Boxing Day

We have friends from the British Commonwealth here who have a day for boxes.

Read all about it.

Rev. Steve Frost Mass Communication

Advemt homily - Steve's first video. Four minutes.

A Cuke Announcement

Merry Christmas to you in particular.

Day of rebirth. Be joyful.

Webcam image at kitchen table.

dc

Another old Tassajara Film

Tassajara Spring 68 is a 4.5 minute film made by Larry Cooper now also on the Cuke Video Youtube Channel with a new slide show of stills from the film and the page for it on shunryu suzuki dot com features the stills as well.

Flower and Truth

You can see the truth in a flower, but you shouldn’t pick it. When it is in the flower it is true, but if you pick it, a flower is not a flower anymore, truth is not truth anymore [laughs]. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

Holidays Begin

That's our tanenbaum. It's 1pm. My sister Susan and niece Camille arrive in a few hours, flying in from SFO with a hop at Hong Kong. Off to the airport with Ketut to get them in an hour and a half. Our Malaysian friend Lai Moon arrived yesterday. Ash (India) and Ken Ireland (California) move in up front this afternoon for two days. Friends dropping by for Xmas brunch tomorrow and the 26th to the nearby Island of Lembongan - all seven of us, Since Kelly left hardly have been to the beach or done anything but cuke it and write. Time for some RnR and more exercise - with a reduced work load. I say work but it's play - all play - even the part that hurts. 

Audio work on Suzuki lectures

Listed below are the audio file names of twenty Shunryu Suzuki lectures that speed correction has been done on. All are now uploaded onto shunryusuzuki.com. The speed problems were due mainly to dying batteries when the lectures were recorded, making Suzuki's voice get higher and higher, sometimes beyond being understandable. Thanks Peter Ford for doing this painstaking work. All of these are from the 2013 digitizing done by Charlie Wilson. 

Mirror or Not

The ultimate truth is so simple and so near at hand-- actually within ourselves. It is pretty difficult to see it-- as difficult as to see our own face. The only way is to look into the mirror. But Dogen Zenji says, it is not like looking in a mirror. But sometimes he says you should look into the mirror [laughter]. Both are true. You know, this is our teaching.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

Finally

Wrote yesterday - Rain rain rain, lots of rain. For a week or so. My sister Susan and niece Camille arrive in two days which means they leave in one. I just wrote them and said congrats on all the recent rain in the Bay Area and that it's same here. Told them to be prepared to walk in ankle deep water to get to their door. We're flooded all around now. Had to bring the sandals up to the porch. I've seen it get to porch level but not yet. Bali needs it too.  I love it. My favorite season. Love to sit on the porch and work while it rains, especially when it rains hard. And on just about any rainy day there's enough sun or not rain to go to the beach for a while. - dc

From Blanch's book

Good Evening, Bodhisattvas - In this excerpt from her new book, Seeds from a Boundless Life, Zenkei Blanche Hartman reflects on “The Great Matter” that has driven and sustained her. - from Lion's Roar - thanks Peter Ford

Blanch Hartman cuke interview plus links

Not True

Vimalakirti said that true dharma is beyond our seeing or hearing or thinking. If you  take the meaning of true dharma to be in terms of seeing or hearing or consciousness or thinking, this is the teaching of seeing or hearing or consciousness or thinking and is not true dharma. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

Selamat Hari Ibu - Happy Mother's Day

Today is called Mother's Day here in Indonesia but it's actually a woman's day. Read about it here. I must congratulate Rini, new mom neighbor in the pool with Mary who's not yet one. I've never seen Rini in the pool Her blind Brit hubby, Philip, is in it a lot, drinking beer. I went over and told her how great I thought that was but now, thanks to Katrinka who forwarded Alice's Facebook message, I've got something else that's great to tell her and her helper Ilu - that they're women and thanks and Selamat Hari Ibu!  

Summer Solstice

They don't really have a summer here, just rainy and dry seasons, but today is the solstice in the southern hemisphere and will be the longest day of the year. Sunrise 5:58. Sunset 6:36. So there will be 38 minutes more official daytime than nighttime.

Contradiction

One may say Buddhism is the teaching of contradiction, absolute contradiction of opposites, and we treat things as a unity of opposites. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

Snake Fall

Jason was sitting at an outside table eating lunch at Luhtu's on the beach here in Sanur. That's a small, popular shady place for tourists and local bule foreigners mainly.  His meal was interrupted when a brown snake fell out of the tree he was sitting under onto his head. He quickly brushed it off - into the open purse of a lady at the next table. Looking it up, wasn't poisonous, called it a garden snake. I think it might have been the Painted Brownback, the most common snake in Bali. - dc

Mother of All

This Dharma of Prajna Paramita is the mother of Shakyamuni Buddha, and not only Shakyamuni but many Buddhas and worlds come out from this teaching. If the various forms are emptiness, from emptiness various teachings will appear; emptiness is the mother of everything, so the teaching of Buddha comes out of emptiness. You could say that emptiness is first and Buddha is second.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24C as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Only version from Wind Bell. Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

I was writing about the first practice period sesshin and referred to this lecture given then. - dc

Insuring a Gang War free holiday season

Laskar boss apologizes to Bali, Indonesia, and the world. The bosses aren't bad, the group isn't bad, it's just a few bad apples. - that's the line. Maybe they should have Zimbardo analyze the situation. 

Psychological

We do not discuss something neglecting our consciousness. Buddhism is very much psychological.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-19-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.  

Dog Poop

There are dogs here on streets and the beach in Sanur. Some with collars and some without. Not too too many but sometimes a pain. But not much dog poop I've noticed. More of that on the sidewalks in San Francisco, San Rafael. - dc

Deeper

There is no wrong view of life. Not wrong, but maybe one-sided or not deep enough. So we should make our understanding deeper and deeper and deeper. That is how we practice zazen, Buddhism.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-18-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.

Chapter 2 - Thank You and OK!

Sulphur in the Air

Repairing a Damaged Island

from Bali Update 12-15-15 - thanks Katrinka

Head of Provincial Environmental Agency Lays Out Five Principles of Development that Must be Applied to Save the Island of Bali

Beritabali.com reports that the environment, particularly as it applies to Bali, was a main topic at Speakers’ Corner (PB3AS) at the Puputan Margarana Niti Mandala Field in Denpasar on Sunday, December 6, 2015.

No Exit

We have practiced sesshin for four days already [laughs], but I don’t know what you gain [laughs, laughter]. That is quite all right, you know, because you are already in the room here. You cannot get out of it [laughs, laughter]. Don’t say, “I did not get anything here, so I must [laughs] get out.” Wherever you go you will have the same [laughs] trouble [laughter]. Wherever you go, you will not get anything [laughs] because you are already in the room [laughs].   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-08-18-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. - Go to cuke.com What's New [now at blogger] to see more daily posts.

More Silas clock news or rather olds

Check out this photo of Silas Hoadley's great great grandfather - not sure how many greats to use there - with one of his famous Silas Hoadley clocks.  See it much larger with his description at the bottom of his cuke interview.

Bali Plastic recycling expanding

Image from article on promising new Bali recycling project which will focus on recycling plastic not currently being done as mentioned below.

Walking to the Sanur morning market passed a walled in lot where a hotel has been razed. A guy with a heavy black jacket and motorcycle helmet still on walked out of the entrance as I passed. I wondered what he could have been doing in there. Just concrete and tile rubble left now. He had an empty plastic Aqua drinking water bottle in his hand and pushed it into a box on the back his motorcycle, one of two good sized boxes that hung like saddle bags on either side of the rear wheel. They were full of plastic bottles. Not just the most common Aqua bottles but some other types with heavier and colored plastic. Obviously he's going to sell this stuff and he must have to do this over and over to make any sort of profit. And that means he can cover his gas and other vehicle costs too. He probably is using the motorbike for other profit making ventures like delivering things. Ge Jek is big here.