Correct

The correct way to listen to my lecture is to listen with just the right amount of effort. Do not listen with a dualistic frame of mind. The correct way is just to listen with an accepting attitude. This is different from listening with the intent to ask questions. Asking questions is to merely develop your preconceived ideas. You must give up all preconceived ideas and all feelings of good or not good. If you listen to your teacher with the attitude of a disciple, you will learn about Buddhism in the right way.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-05 found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Do Balinese still believe in Black Magic?

The Kulture Kid answers the question. And where's the heart of this stuff - right where we live Banjar Sindhu, Sanur. Yikes! - dc 

Difference

If you realize the difference between listening as a students and as an audience member, you will know how to study Buddhism.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-05 found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Judy Roitman in Kansas writes

It will Never add Up  - The reference to Shunryu Suzuki in her article comes from this lecture:
Blue Cliff Records-73, Baso's Four Propositions, Nov 1964 [64-11-00] from the November, 1964 Wind Bell. An edited summary of a lecture. Page for this lecture on shunryusuzuki.com including link to the Wind Bell from which it comes.- thanks Tony Patchell (The Zen in the title online was added by Buddhadharma. She didn't write that. - publications make the titles usually)

Kansas Zen Center which Judy Roitman founded

More of Tony's lectures notes

Give up all preconceived ideas and feelings.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-05 found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

The Point

There is no point. - Kabumpkan

Patience

We should practice and live with patience. In this way we can control our lives-but control does not mean to gain or achieve something. It means to appreciate and constantly enjoy our life as it is.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02 found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

A Good Law

Met an American woman on the island of Lembongan who was there for a few days with her family. She and her husband are missionaries in Papua. Papua is an Indonesian province on the western part of New Guinea, the largest island after Greenland. Papua New Guinea on the east side is an independent nation. This couple has been dealing with a primitive tribe for fifteen years. She said that they were much happier and healthier now and women are no longer property. She said that when her husband first came he met a man who used to practice cannibalism. The man was friendly and kind, gave him a pineapple, and told him that human meat was even better than pig. He told how he'd butcher him if he were going to eat him, where he'd cut and so forth. But that, the man said, was long ago. Now days cannibalism is illegal - but the law and outsiders haven't reached everywhere.

Keep

We should just keep a beginner's mind and avoid being greedy and feeling that what we have is not enough.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02 found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Our dear friend the gentle, noble Huston Smith

From Huston Smith dot net - Huston's Health: His condition is very weak. He is in hospice care, awake briefly, unable to read, recognizes family and a few others with whom he has been close and whom he sees frequently.

Huston Smith cuke page  

got the photo off his Wikipedia page

Oh yes -

Happy Thanksgiving. Giving thanks all the time and thanks gives back - Thanksgiving. - dc

Good

We should not practice with the idea of gaining something good. In this world there is nothing which is just good; when we have a “good,” a “bad” is already there.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02 found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Lembongan continued

Riding in a Lembongan taxi on the way to the boat back to Bali proper, we met a woman from Iceland. Asked her what it's like there. "Cold," she replied.

"So how do you find Bali?" Katrinka asked.

"Hot," she said.

Lembongan

We just came back from six days at the nearby island of Lembongan, Katrinka's birthday getaway a thirty minute boat ride from here. No cars. Motor scooters and electric carts and small trucks for moving people and things. Lot of boats. More expensive than Bali proper cause everything has to be boated in. Kayaked for miles in the waves and waveless. Strenuous. Amazing to me that a body can keep going like that for hours. Water temperature was sometimes awfully warm in the shallower parts, seemed warmer than same time of year two years ago. It wasn't particularly hot either, lot of clouds. More tomorrow. 

2nd thing to do

To correctly study Buddhism we should beware of dualism toward our practice and ourselves, etc, judgments of good or bad. Dogen said: “try to cut off the function of the small mind. If you do this you will surely see the Way.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02 found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Time to Stand Up:

 An Engaged Buddhist Manifesto for our Earth – The Buddha’s Life and Message through Feminine Eyes – Book Review- thanks John Steiner

Continuing with Tony Artino's notes on a Suzuki talk

To correctly study Buddhism we should believe in Buddhism, that fundamentally we have not lost our way, that we are not upside-down, that we still have our treasure. We should stand on this faith and practice by remaining aware of it.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

On a more positive note

“Those who study the way do not understand if the way is open or closed.” Dogen means that to study the way with the idea of gaining something we need as if we were poor beggars means that we don't know if the way is open or closed. But the truth is that we are not beggars and the way is always wide open. To seek for something special is to ignore what we have. Zen teaches us that our pockets are full of treasure right now and that Zen will not add anything to what we already have. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

From the Gaia man

James Lovelock: 'enjoy life while you can: in 20 years global warming will hit the fan' - in the Guardian.  

RIP

Leon Russell, great songwriter and performer.

Masquerade

Wikipedia

Thanks Oklahoma.

Hell again - he's reading Dogen

We should be very careful of half-baked enlightenment, especially of taking pride in our enlightenment. If we do make this error of pride, we lose our enlightenment and plunge straight to the bottom of hell. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

Altar Dedication for Steve Stucky

At Michael Stusser's Osmosis in Freestone on October 6th.

Steve in the early stages of creating this garden.

Steve Stucky cuke page

Beginner's

When we now practice, it should be with a beginner's real innocence - devoid of ideas of good or bad or gain or loss. As long as we have beginner's mind, we have Buddhism.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

Super Moon from Sanur Beach

On the 14th, Katrinka and I went to nearby Sindhu beach to have dinner and watch the super moon. It was overcast and we doubted we'd see any moon, but twenty minutes after it rose, just after sunset, it appeared through clouds. Here are some shots Katrinka and a woman eating next to us took. Not incidentally, it's only 7% bigger than usual and doubtful the difference is discernible with the unaided eye, but we wanted this on our resume and it happened to be especially butiful. - dc

Hell = super low bad painful states of mind

Our original nature being unchanged, we should believe in our innocent mind; at the same time we should beware of slipping into hell through attachment to this idea. (think he's riffing off Dogen - dc) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

New Addition to Cuke Video

Slide show with stills from the video on Shoganji, the temple where Shunryu Suzuki was born and raised, linked to from the page for that film on Shunryu Suzuki dot com. See it best on Youtube.

Careless

We all have lost our Buddha nature because we were so careless about it. This is the human predicament, existing during Buddha's time, and existing now.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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

Emma Bragdon

Read Emma's story and about her on her page at cuke.com

Continuing from yesterday's excerpt

We should not regard our innocence as good or special, because such a perspective is the same as attaching to Zen. If we attach to Zen, we go swiftly to hell even though we think we are good and innocent. Thus an innocent young person can become careless of his Buddha nature and attach to his own idea of his innocence-and create more problems for himself.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

How Trump could be the Greatest Hero Ever

Posted on cuke.com's Species Threats Nuclear

Not only in the Engaged but also the Cuke Archives label because this is the #1 threat to our spiritual practice, practice places, teachers, fellow students - as well as to everything else.

Innocent

When we were little boys, we were all Buddhas. Even when we were 16 or 17 years old we were still innocent and Buddha. But Zen can be dangerous to innocent minds. They easily tend to view Zen as something good or special by which they can gain. Such an attitude is misleading and can lead to trouble. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

Farewell America

Bill Moyers on the new order - thanks Gregory

History tells us what will happen next - thanks Katrinka

How to Restore Your Faith in Democracy - thanks Brit

So many good articles. Don't plan to make a habit of linking to them but here are a few to consider. - dc

Ourselves

Even though it is ourselves which allows Buddha nature to be meaningful, we should not become attached to ourselves.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

Publications

A new Publications section on cuke.com gathering links to some in house publications that were already on cuke here and there - like the Wind Bells, and adding a new one, a cook book, the Tassajara Food Trip, created by Bill Shurtleff in 1968 and handed out to fellow students at Tassajara before Christmas. Available no where else I know of except the SFZC Page St. library. Thanks Bill. - dc 

Sunshine

When we are Buddhas, we manifest the sunshine.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

This Won't Happen because it would cause too much trouble

What about this movement to get the electors to vote for the candidate who won the most votes regardless of how their state voted? That could start now. The founders created a republic with representatives to be a buffer between the public and decisions. Electors were created somewhat to be a last check on an election. They could choose the winner of the popular vote. And then there'd be a civil war so nevermind. So even though there will surely be irreparable long lasting harm and suffering, I think the greatest blow to this menace will come from letting it play out.

Leonard Cohen

RIP - glad he got that last album out. A great career and an inspiration. - dc

Rolling Stone obit

thanks Gregory

Transparency

When we retain our transparency, we are Buddhas. When we attach to something, we are ordinary people.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

New Addition to Cuke Video

Slide show with stills from the KQED film, Zen Mt. Center linked to from near the bottom of the page for that film in Shunryu Suzuki dot com. See it best on Youtube.

New Photo Section

On Shunryu Suzuki dot com

The old one of 400 plus photos featuring Shunryu Suzuki is still there - and hundreds of new ones added. 

Pasting

Dogen says we originally were and are Buddha nature. But the instant we attach something, we lose our nature. As analogy, consider the transparent nature of my eyeglasses. Attachment is like pasting images on them. In such a case they cannot function according to their true and original nature.------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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.

Obama said

the sun will still rise.

Louis CK

on this election - Youtube video - on Conan

Treasure

Our pockets are full of treasure right now.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-02. 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. [Suzuki talked about Dogen in this lecture so this might be a quote from Dogen, but either way, cool thing to say.. - dc]

These are the last notes Tony took at this lecture

True religion is revealed by those who like something bad. Once we see the truth, it is hard not to be the Buddha. We have to be so. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-03-26. 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.

Recent Review of Crooked Cucumber

In the Japan Times (#1 English language newspaper in Japan) in

BOOKS / REVIEWS | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES 

Crooked Cucumber reviews - and check Amazon and other places on web - I think those are the best reviews.

thanks Peter Ford

100

Ninety nine percent of common life is bad for us. No, I would say that one hundred percent is bad - when you are looking for something unusual and wonderful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-03-26. 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.

And just the next island over

Indonesian Pres Jokowi blames politicians for fundamentalist furor

Bad

When we are always looking for something very good, our minds constantly wander. But having our religion is when we are willing to accept something common or bad or very bad. When our minds are open to what is bad, then they are really open. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-03-26. 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.

Hand

A person close to me recently stayed in the room of someone who had died not long ago, someone she'd known for years. Out of respect she lit incense and retorically asked the deceased for permission to stay in his room. A few hours later she went to sleep. As she was entering into that half wake half sleep state she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder. She asked herself if she just felt a hand on her shouldner and realized that yes she had for sure. Then she went to sleep feeling most welcome.

On the koan Mu, Suzuki paraphrased Dogen with, "How can you measure or grasp mu? There is no way. Try to just let go for a while." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-03-26. 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.

Interview with a Values Voter

A DRC video expose.

Way

Some people have a very difficult time with our way while some find it easy. But we cannot say which of these circumstances is good. So everyone should just try to practice as he can.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-03-26. 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.

Sandokai Lecture Slide Show

Finally made the slide show from the film of Shunryu Suzuki talking on the Sandokai film.

It's on the Sandokai page in the shunryusuzuki.com video section.  The stills used for the slideshow are also on that page.

The easiest way to see it is on Youtube:
Youtube Cuke Video Sandokai Slide Show

Good

People who are very good often are very egoistic. This big ego is not good. Hence “people who are very good, often are not good.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpt from Tony Artino notes from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-03-26. 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.

Mooji's advice for the day

Nothing nothing nothing


thanks Katrinka