This is the Cuke Archives page for what’s being featured each day. Our other two Zen sites: shunryusuzuki.com - all the transcripts, audio, film, photo archive and ZMBM.net - for Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. New 2021: Audiobook for Crooked Cucumber & Zen Is Right Now: More Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki Youtube Cuke Archives - Posts from here also appear on Facebook Cuke Archives Core Books by and about Shunryu Suzuki -- People Index -- DC home -- DC Books Cuke Podcasts - Instagram Cuke Archives - - Donate For personal, environment, music, etc, go to Cuke nonZense Blog and cuke-annex
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Saturday, April 29, 2017
Ourselves
Religion is just to be ourselves. We can’t be really religious for
others. But neither can we help ourselves without helping others. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-11-30 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 seeSms okay.
Friday, April 28, 2017
Selflessness
The most important point is selflessness. That
is the most important thing to give or to attain. If selflessness is reached
everything else will follow naturally, “Everything will be taken care of.” ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Entrance
Enlightenment is only the entrance to the way ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Ten
Enlightenment is not the same for each
person-although it is similar from person to person. Ten enlightened people
have ten similar but different enlightenments. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
Tony Artino Shunryu Suzuki lecture notes
Here's a chart with a list of fifteen Suzuki lectures that Tony Artino took notes on in 1966 and 67 at the old Bush Street zendo, Sokoji. Some are long and some are short. We have no other record of any of these lectures. I edited them all a little bit though the pre-edit transcripts are also there. Many of the daily Suzuki lecture excerpts have come from them recently and will for a while as they're the result of going through the material chronologically and most of what he wrote down qualifies to go up. Good stuff. Thanks Tony. - DC
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
RIP Robert Pirsig
Condolences to his widow Wendy, son Ted, and daughter Nell. Pirsig was a sincere seeker of the truth, a supporter of Dainin Katagiri and the Minneapolis Zen Center for some time. He was supportive of Zen writers like Marian Mountain (Derby Wisberg) and me and others. The murder of his son Chris down the street from the SFZC City Center in 1979 was great sadness for him, his family, and those of us at ZC who knew and loved Chris. Farewell Robert and thanks for all. - dc
NY Times obit - Wikipedia -- Guardian obit
NY Times obit - Wikipedia -- Guardian obit
Together
If we live together there is actually not much
need to speak to one another. We will understand. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
Monday, April 24, 2017
New old entry in the Shunryu Suzuki lecture archive
Give up Gaining Ideas and Just Sit - one of the fifteen we have as notes from Tony Artino back in 66 and 67. (Spoiler alert) My favorite line in it is "Zazen is nothing." There are two places in the lecture archive where Suzuki says "zazen is nothing but our usual activity" and "nothing different from our monkey mind which looks lofty but it's not." But here in Tony's we have "zazen is nothing." Of course it's just a note and you're the final authority - so it's either nothing and/or no different from something.
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Sutra
In Soto Zen, there is no particular sutra upon
which the school rests. It is felt that Buddha's essential teaching was to see into our own true nature; and the best way to see into our own
nature is to practice zazen. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
American Poets, Refusing to Go Gentle, Rage Against the Right
front page NY Times today - featuring Jane Hirshfield. - thanks John Steiner
On the Fifth Day - Jane's poem on the Presidency published in the Washington Post
Friday, April 21, 2017
Mudra (which two?)
Soto Zen mainly uses two mudras, and considers
also that the whole body is a mudra when in the proper sitting position. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
Three Dharma Pals featured in Dead Documentary
Marin Independent Journal entertainment columnist of many years, Paul Liberatore, yesterday reviewed a new documentary on the Grateful Dead called Long Strange Trip. Katrinka read it and pointed out that it mentions Dennis McNally (see photo), their publicist, and Barbara "Brigid" Meier who was a high school sweetheart and later fiance of Garcia. They both have SFZC creds and have been cuke contributors. Brigid was a Suzuki then a Trungpa student. They come up toward the end of the review. Steve Silberman is not mentioned in the review but thanks Brigid for letting me know he "figures highly in the film, is also a Zen practitioner and that he was at Naropa as Allen Ginsberg's assistant one summer."
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Note after prior excerpt
(Suzuki's teacher Ian Kishizawa bowed so often that an area on
his forehead became somewhat calloused. In his older age Kishizawa said,
“Before I was a lion; now I am a cat.”) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
The 2nd Sesshin at Sokoji
Here's a certificate for the first week long sesshin at Sokoji on August 22, 1960.
And here's the text from it, a new entry in the transcript archive.
And here's the text from it, a new entry in the transcript archive.
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Bowing
Bowing is a very important practice for
diminishing our arrogance and egotism. It is not to demonstrate complete
surrender to Buddha. This practice is to help get rid of our own selfishness. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
The 1st sesshins at Sokoji
Shunryu Suzuki's kanji for sesshin is on the cover of the certificate he gave to each participant in what he called The First Sesshin of Sokoji. It was two days in 1960 - February 20-21 - seven months after he'd arrived in the USA. A transcript of what he wrote has just been entered into the transcript archive with the filename 60-02-21. And here's a page for it on cuke - with a scan of the certificate. There's an overexposed Polaroid photo of the participants too.
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Particularness
Even
though Dogen's way is not based on a particular formal Buddha authority, it is
still very particular. But Dogen's particularness is not based on any
abstract religious or moral principles. His detailed teachings on behavior are
based on practical considerations in everyday life as learned from experience
by him and various Zen masters. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
Monday, April 17, 2017
Jean Ross in the Wind Bells
One of Shunryu Suzuki's first students who went to Japan in '62, to Eiheiji, a trailblazing Buddhist woman. Includes articles she wrote about her experience there. Check her out.
Soto
My school is the Soto School. The Soto School
does not depend upon any particular teaching or idea. It follows Dogen's way,
which is to resume our natural relationship with our essential mind. His way is
not to follow any particular teaching or practice-but still, his way itself is
very formal and deliberate. In his guidelines to disciples he even gives
specific directives as to conduct in the toilet. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Yourself
It is not possible for a true religion to be
limited to one school. When one school develops, it is at the same time the
beginning of further divisions. This is not surprising since each one of us is
unique. And religion strictly speaking is for yourself. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-05-17 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 seeSms okay.
Friday, April 14, 2017
Sotan Tatsugami
He came from 13 years as ino at Eiheiji in charge of the zendo, ceremonies, discipline - and led three practice periods at Tassajara in 70 and 71. Here is a page for him that includes Wind Bell and Tassajara 25 Year Book excerpts. There will be more on his page in time. - dc
This photo not from the Wind Bell
Differences
You may think that the various religions of the
world will, as a natural course of events, tend to become unified, until a
single religion answers to the whole world. But this is not so, because such a
tendency towards unity is not the natural way a religion develops. In Buddhism for example, there are many different sects or schools. These
differences arose from the same teachings because of the differences in the way
of life of those who studied the Buddha's
teaching. In this way the one religion of Buddhism of the Buddha's time
developed into the range of schools existing since then.
Thursday, April 13, 2017
First
Practice is first understanding comes afterward.
During zazen one's mind and body should be a unity. This includes keeping one's
mudra in its correct shape, not letting one's mouth slack open, etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Breathing
(In this lecture Suzuki told of four breathing methods.) Two are shallow
breathing and two are deep breathing. Of the two deep
abdominal breathing ways, one is forcing strength into the abdomen in accord
with its in and out movement. The second way is to put strength opposite to the
natural in and out movement of the lower abdomen. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Sacha Stevenson
I love this Canadian woman. Here's a video from her, longer than usual, that's for both Indonesians and non Indonesians, more-so the former but great to hear, so it's in both Indonesian and English though the subtitles stop half way through - still a bunch of English after that but you can stop there too. The English translation of the title - It's Nice being Indonesian leaves out "According to a Caucasian." Enak is better than nice and includes tasty. And the Indonesian in the bit below the video says "Are you Indonesian? This is an opportunity to be grateful." She's got a zillion more on You Tube. This is not the first mention of her here. - dc
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Dainin Katagiri in the SFZC Wind Bells
Click here to go there.
Took off every little mention of him because it shows how integral he was to Zen Center back then. It wasn't all Suzuki. It was Suzuki and Katagiri. - dc
Took off every little mention of him because it shows how integral he was to Zen Center back then. It wasn't all Suzuki. It was Suzuki and Katagiri. - dc
Rituals
Observing rituals is observing your own
position. It is knowing where you are and what you are to do. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Nothing
To find composure is to find ourselves in nothing, true nothing. This means forgetting about everything
including our ideas of nothing. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Element
Although the personal is the most important
element in religion, the social element is also evident and important. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Shunryu Suzuki in the SFZC Wind Bells
Greatly increased the amount of excerpts from the Wind Bells thanks to the tireless efforts of Peter Ford in Tennessee. I start these little upgrading tasks thinking I can do my part in a day and then he'll optimize it in a few hours and two weeks and a zillion emails later I can just see how much more could be done.
Here's a page of excerpts focusing on Shunryu Suzuki - rather extensive of course.
That image is from fall of 1966.
Here's a page of excerpts focusing on Shunryu Suzuki - rather extensive of course.
That image is from fall of 1966.
Friday, April 7, 2017
Wind Bell Suzuki transcript excerpts
Here's a Wind Bell that has three excerpts for the Shunryu Suzuki transcript archive. We just divided one entry into two because it came from two separate Suzuki lectures so that these could join those lectures' list of versions but also left it together as the Wind Bell excerpt.
Stable
Though it may seem that rationality is stable
and emotion is unstable, the reverse is the truth. Deep emotion is much more
stable than is rationality. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Fundamental
One fundamental emotion is our desire to support
our life. One should not try to create an intellectual excuse for an emotion
and its problems. Most people don't know what deep emotional powers or problems
are. Most people are conscious only of superficial emotions. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Shunryu Suzuki lectures and comments in the Wind Bells
A reminder - On the page with all SFZC Wind Bells, are links to Shunryu Suzuki's lectures and comments. In this example, the Winter 1970 Wind Bell, there are four such excerpts. Working with these Wind Bells recently have noticed a few excerpts that weren't included such as Suzuki's eulogy for Trudy Dixon listed below. All this material is also at shunryusuzuki.com.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Addition to Shunryu Suzuki transcript archive
Been going through the Wind Bells and making collections of excerpts that will be featuring here very soon. Also noticed a few entries that qualify as additions to the Shunryu Suzuki transcript archive. Here's one we're naming 62-02-00. It's a summary of some lectures that were recent at that time, probably I think done by Richard Baker. - dc
Remember these recent ones are Tony's notes, not direct quotes
There are two ways of considering the individual
regarding religion. He finds his place in the big religious world or he leaves the religious world and extends its truth and character into the
non-religious world. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Hermitage
Dogen said that it is useless to try to escape
from one's emotional problems. In a remote mountain hermitage,
such problems become worse instead of better. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Monday, April 3, 2017
Human
Dogen's religion is deeply rooted in emotional
problems and his teaching is full of true human sentiment. Dogen is different
from other Japanese and from Chinese Zen Masters. Some people even say that he
was not really enlightened because what he says is too human! But although his
teaching is very human, his life was very pure. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Happy Day!
St. Stupid's Day that is. If you're near the Bay Area, join it and tell 'em I miss 'em.
Official website page for today
cuke page for past Stupid events
Official website page for today
cuke page for past Stupid events
Balance
Buddhism as a religion of many sects is not
characterized by conflict among these sects.This is because Buddhism has
developed a balance and understanding toward the three elements of human life:
intellect, emotional, and will. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Tony Artino notes Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-04-26 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 seeSms okay.
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