Philosophy

Of course it is necessary to study our philosophy because by studying it you will have a firm conviction in your religion but our philosophy is not only philosophy of Buddhism. It is philosophy in general.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Cooler

It's cooled down here in Bali. These are the best months - May through September - but June through August is the best best and somewhere in July and Augest are the best of the best. Windy. Not too hot. It's getting dark earlier - sunset just after six. We're going to start playing tennis on the local Clay courts at four instead of five so we can play to six if we want like if there are more than four so that we have breaks in the rotation. In the hotest months five is best because it's cooler and shadier but now even four is okay. But it's still not as hot here as it gets in Fort Worth. Not so bad really. Hot is usually in the nineties. At least in Sanur. Sort of humid too. 

Study

So how to study Buddhism is how to sit, or how to join the practice or to live in good Buddhist is the way to study. It is much better than to read some book or to study some philosophy of Buddhism.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Happy Memorial Day

Unconscious

Usually religion develops itself in the realm of consciousness by beautiful building, by wonderful music, or by perfect organization. Those are religious activities in the conscious world. But Buddhism emphasizes the world of unconsciousness.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Greetings

Here in Bali one is frequently greeted by locals one passes. Hello. Where you going? A Balinese woman who married an Aussie says that she hates being in Australia. It's too lonely. She has a toddler she'd take walking every day. Then and at other times she said that in the course of a month, not one person said hello to her. Aussie's seem friendly to me. Maybe she should have been the one to initiate it but anyway it's not what she's used to.

Transcend

But if we have transcendental mind beyond the things as they are and the things as they should be there we have perfect, peaceful mind. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Too bad

Hope and hype of Hiroshima can’t conceal Obama’s dismal record on nuclear disarmament - Guardian

cuke page for Species Threat #1 - Nuclear War 

More should

So we should attain enlightenment. That is one thing. But as long as we are physical beings it is pretty hard in reality.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Local King to do time

The Sanur Weekly had an article on how the king of Denpasar is finally going to prison for fraud. Two and a half years. It was two but he's been hiding out since his sentence in 2012 and was caught trying to fly out so the judge added six months. His crime was defrauding Denpasar - selling them land he wasn't the only owner of. He should know to defraud foreigners and use local thugs to back him up. Then he'd be more likely to be enjoying that wealth.

Should?

 Moreover we always exist with two sides-- things as they are and things as they should be. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Bali temple sign

These to any temples here though many there's no one there to remind one.

Got our KITAS!

After waiting for over six months, our KITAS visas have finally been processed and delivered and our passports returned. KITAS is a residence visa to Indonesia. It's renewable yearly. No need to leave the country. Local prices especially at hospitals. And it's not like we just waited. We were in constant touch with the person in charge of processing it who told us repeatedly that it would be ready in a week and for the last month or so, that it would be ready tomorrow or in two days or later today. It was an excellent test of patience and sanity. Often we doubted, feared it was all bogus and we'd face huge fines because the foreigner here is always wrong or held responsible. Anyway, all that has vanished. We've got our KITAS.

Just to sit

So, when you sit, whether you attain enlightenment or not -- just to sit is enough. When you try to attain enlightenment, then you have big burden in your mind. So your mind will not be clear enough to see things as they are..  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Same as yesterday reworded

Just say, ‘this is delusion’. That is enough and don’t be bothered by it -- ‘Oh, this is just delusion’. When you see delusion you have your true mind -- calm, peaceful mind. When you start to cope with it you will be involved in delusion.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Blanch Hartman's funeral

It has been confirmed by Linda Cutts and Blanche's family that the funeral will be held at City Center on Sunday, July 10.  Sojoun Mel Weitsman will officiate.

Blanch Hartman cuke page

Vanish

If you realize the pure mind in your delusion, that is practice. If you have the pure mind, the essential mind, in your delusion - delusion will vanish. It cannot stay when you say, this is delusion.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Andrew Atkeison's new web site

Iron Flute Song

Andrew's cuke page

Pure

Even though you think you are in delusion, there is your pure mind.   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Emphasizing the Positive

Info Bali Facebook page - some good videos.

Mental Rest

You know how to take physical rest. You don’t know how to take mental rest. Even though you lie in your bed your mind is still busy. Even though you sleep your mind is pretty busy in dreaming something. Your mind is always in intense activity. This is not so good. So we should know how to give up thinking or busy mind and firmly believe in the perfect rest of our mind and resume to our pure mind. So we should know how to go beyond our thinking faculty.   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Bouquet of Weeds sprouts again

Compassion Crew Presents: Compassion Cuts, Tapes, and Acetates, a record album of obscure oldies which includes "Bouquet of Weeds" from Music for a Comic Book Video, a record album of bizarre sampled stuff I released in 1985 and which still I hear about from time to time. There's a link to a page for that album from the above link on my music site, Defuser Music dot com where all my music can be heard for free - "the mediocre, the bad, and the terrible." - dc

Almost forgot

Shunryu Suzuki's birthday - May 18, 1904.

Thanks Katrinka who keeps up with Facebook daily. - dc

Mind

When you sit you will have the most pure, genuine experience of the state of mind that is not even a state of mind -- original or essence of mind which Buddha meant, or the 6th patriarch meant. Essence of mind or original mind or original face or Buddha nature, emptiness. Those words mean the absolute calmness of our mind.   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Katharine Cook new poem

Speaking of My Lovely Daughter

Counting

In Buddhist scripture we use some astrological description. We describe the empty mind in various ways. We calculate the big mind is some astrologically great number -- so great that we cannot count. It means to give up calculating. If it is so many you will lose your interest in counting it and you will eventually give up counting. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

David Schneider Upcoming Bay Area Readings

of Crowded By Beauty: The Life and Zen of Philip Whalen

Wednesday, 25 May, 7 pm

Diesel Books

5433 College Ave, Oakland, CA 94618

Friday 27 May 6 pm reception 7 pm reading

Davis Shambhala Meditation Center

133 D St, Davis, CA 95616

Wednesday 1 June (no time specified, but I imagine 7 or 7:30 pm)

San Francisco Shambhala Meditation Center

1231 Stevenson St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Thursday 2 June
Point Reyes Books

Point Reyes Station

reading at Pt Reyes Presbyterian Church--7pm- which is used a lot for community events--and are partially sponsored by the local sitting group--named after a local mtn. called Black's Mountain.

Friday 3 June 7:30 pm

San Francisco Zen Center (with Norman Fischer)

300 Page St

San Francisco, CA 94102

David Schneider cuke page

Empty

To have a firm conviction of empty mind in your practice is the most important thing.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Brian Victoria Strikes again

RELIGION AND WAR: THE WARTIME TRIBALIZATION OF UNIVERSAL RELIGIONS - on think.iafor dot org, "The Academic Platform" - Brian Victoria cuke page

Bali And The World – We Have A Problem!

From the Indonesia Expat - Lisa Barron

So true. - dc

thanks Katrinka

SF Zen Center Memorial announcement on Blanche's passing

Blanche Hartman / Shunbo Zenkei

Spring Moon Inconceivable Joy

May 8, 1926 – May 13, 2016

We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved teacher, abbess, and great friend Zenkei Blanche Hartman died peacefully at 12:30am this morning at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco surrounded by her family. She was 90 years and five days old. This morning at City Center, we rang the densho bell 108 times, and held a short ceremony to acknowledge her passing over. Blanche’s body will rest in the Buddha Hall at City Center for three days according to her wishes. You are warmly invited to come and sit with her during this time (best to come between 7 am and 9 pm, but do let us know if you need to come at another time).

Hartman Family statement on Blanche's passing

Our beloved mother, teacher, abbess, and friend Zenkei Blanche Hartman Roshi took her last breath at 12:30 this am. She was 90 years and 5 days old. She died at ease, peaceful and with joy. According to her wishes we chanted the full moon ceremony. She will be at Zen Center for three days so all may come and sit with her. More to follow as details are worked out.

Deep Bows

Great Gratitude

The Hartman Family

Blanche's cuke page with interview

Blanche main cuke page

RIP Blanche Hartman

Just got an email from Linda Ruth Cutts that Victoria Austin had called her from the hospital to say that Blanche Hartman just died. At 1:30am May 13th. [corrected to 12:30am]

Gyate gyate dear Blanche!

Had received this email today:

Today Blanche has begun the process of moving towards the end of her life. We are waiting for the family to all arrive which should be happening tomorrow later morning early afternoon. After everyone is here, they will remove treatment and Blanche will begin Palliative care. Blanche will stay where she is for now. She is very much at ease and peaceful.

Again we welcome chants, offerings and blessings in her honor, but request no visitors outside the family at this time.

Daigan will continue to let you know as things change.

Deep Bows
Great Gratitude

The Hartman Family
Daigan Gaither
Victoria Austin

Blanche Hartman cuke page

Don't Try

If you try to be beyond your conscious activity or if you try to stop your mind that will be another burden for your mind. “I have to stop my mind in our practice but I cannot. My practice is not so good.” That is also wrong way of practice. So don’t try to stop it but leave everything as it is. Then things will not stay in your mind so long.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Shindo's Way Seeking Mind Story

Read it on this cuke page for Shindo Gita Gayatri and about the role that Crooked Cucumber played in her coming to the SFZC and a DC note on how helpful she was to me, DC, in India.

No Shadow

The best way is not to retain any idea of things, whatever it is. To forget all about it, or not to leave any trace of thinking, or not to have any shadow of thinking, is the best way.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Nasi Campur

Komang is a driver I know. He speaks pretty good English but sticks with Indonesian with me, always teaching me and helping me with it. He's also positive and a nice guy. He drove me and two others to the Vipassana retreat last month and when we stopped to eat he ordered nasi campur, rice with a mix of other food, a very common dish here and usually quite inexpensive. He said he eats that three times a day seven days a week. He's got a lot of company.

Sweeping

Here in Bali a common sight is to see people stooping and sweeping with their brooms made from coconut tree leaves. They don't seem to care about nearby trash strewn around though. Just the immediate area that's theirs to sweep.

Mischievous

Buddha says, ‘You should be like this. You ought to be like this.’ And to have what he says in your mind is not so good, but to have mischievous idea in your mind is sometimes very agreeable. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Forget It

The best way is to forget everything. Then your mind is calm and your mind always wide enough or clear enough to see things and to feel things as they are without any effort.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Three Additions I must share

to the Bali Vipassana Retreat Report

That's the Lumbini Grove in the photo. Didn't have the name before. Just spent some time with Romo Handy, the Buddhist priest who married us, and he told me.

There are two idealized murals in the Dharmasala. The one that was straight in front from where I sat was of Buddha's parinirvana which to a casual observer would be called death. What got me about it is in this mural he looked like he was about twenty. Buddha is said to have died at eighty. I don't recall any art showing Buddha as an old man - or dark skinned or bald as some Buddhist historians have claimed would have been the case.

The mural on the other side had a baby Buddha with a halo and people swooning over him. Made me think of all the todo over the baby Jesus. This sort of mythical deification is inevitable I guess.

Photo to the left is the main altar in the Dhamasala and the two mural I mention are to the right and left but obscured.

***

We ate lunch and sat around. There was some discussion about how well the retreat's approach worked. Some accepted the instruction on how to do sitting and walking meditation and were planning to continue it. Others were eager to get back to different practices. One man from Java was more interested in concentration type mediation with the focus being on the heart chakra or third eye or the early Buddhist meditation technique of concentrating on the breath going in and out at the upper lip. He did not want to be stuck in the abdomen. Personally, I was comfortable with the focus on the breath at the belly going forward and inward labeling the movements with rising-falling, rising-falling. To me it was quite compatible and maybe indistinguishable from Zen's emphasis on the hara with the breathing.

Continuing from yesterday's excerpt -

In other words we must firmly believe in our true nature. It is beyond our conscious realm -- conscious experience. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Fave Fruit

We keep hard shell purple mangosteens and hairy red rambutans in bowls on the porch. They're both in season right now. Mangosteens or mangis to them is one good reason to be here and golf ball sized rambutans another to my taste.  Mangosteens can get four times bigger than that. They're opened by holding in both hands and pressing hard between the heal of the hand - pops em open and the succulent juicy white fruit is there. If it's too hard to open it's gone bad and don't bother. Rambutan can be opened with a knife or teeth - the inside comes right out and is like lychee. Lychee (lici here) looks just like it without the hair. If it's juicy, if any liquid comes out, it's going bad.

What the?

We should establish our practice where there is no practice or no enlightenment. As long as we practice zazen in the area where there is practice and enlightenment there is no chance to make perfect peace for ourselves.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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.

Free Dental Floss ad

Ran out. And I only want Glide because my teeth are so close together. Can't find it anywhere here. I blew it. Since Guardian in Kuala Lumpur has it I figured that Guardian here would. Someone's bringing me some in a couple of weeks. Found the type with a short stretch of floss between two forks at the end of a plastic toothpick and the toothpick is excellent in that it's fine and curved at the end, but the floss on it is too thick for me. Will go check one last time in my storage area.

They is Right On!

‘They’: the singular pronoun that could solve sexism in English - from the Guardian
I posted this comment on this guardian article: Agreed. I've been using they this way in songs, books, articles for decades, on my web sites since 98 - to get rid of gender and because I preferred the sound (I disliked both he and she when we don't know). - dc (cuke dot com)

Preconceived

Ordinary people carry a preconceived idea of the self into living, changing circumstances.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Tony Artino's notes of a Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-20 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. 

Daydreaming myself in a spotlight

Hillary Clinton will be 69 this year. I'm two years older. She'll be asked obscure questions like how we should relate to the president of Turkey and she'll say that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a good friend and so on. I imagine if I had to answer all those questions all the time like her that I'd go, "Uh... uh... his name's on the tip of my tongue..." and so on like that - and I mean even if he was a good friend. So I guess a requirement for running for office in the US is not to have that nominal aphasia problem or to have a press that will help you along like Reagan had - or a receiving box on your back and earpiece for help from Rove et al like the Shrub. - dc 

Vice Versa

As long as we are alive we are attached to something-and vice versa. Complete detachment doesn't exist in this life. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Tony Artino's notes of a Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-16 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. 

Don't pet dogs or cats in Bali

That's right. Better not. They're not used to it here and might bite or scratch you and then you've got to get a rabies shot because there's rabies here and it's too late once there are symptoms and it's the most lethal virus there is. Almost no cases ever of recovery. But some dogs and cats are okay. 

Bali Vipassana Retreat Report

Here on cuke. - ten days away from Katrinka and computer and pool, tennis, sea. Maybe eleven. Let's see - left on the 13th at 2pm and came back on the 24th at 7pm.

But go on and sit alone too

[Roshi suggested practicing with others to avoid “selfish zazen”.] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt from Tony Artino's notes of a Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-16 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.