Faith

Pure faith includes our mental, physical, and verbal effort. It is not enough to just think something or say something superficial. So pure faith means, not just faith in something, but real action, reality, realized action. It is necessary to have real practice. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

A Refreshing Breeze

Two calligraphs done with Yucca leaves by Shunryu Suzuki for Bob Watkins at Tassajara in 1967 which have been featured before. But now have Shungo Suzuki (SR's grandson) basic meaning of characters For the top one it's Seifu （a refreshing breeze）and for the other, Shojoshin（pure body）with Suzuki's signiture.and the date - May 30th (my call - dc). 

Here's a link to these pieces on the Shunryu Suzuki calligraphy page with the story from Bob including what the aforemnentioned calligrapher told him they meant.-Bob died last December not long after having his friend Jack scan and send these to cuke. Jack just wrote and asked whta they meant so Shungo was emailed about that and answered right away..

Inmost Nature

It is quite easy to know our inmost nature if it is related to the right way. And if we express that inmost nature in an appropriate way, it will develop. But if our inmost nature is misled by a hasty idea, a person may go astray and even destroy himself. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Shunryu Suzuki with ZC board 1966

Shunryu Suzuki in the early SFZC board notes 1966.

Project

When we project our inmost nature into the objective world as Buddha, Dharma, or Sangha, it is nothing but our inmost desire to want to be someone whom you can accept. You strive for something acceptable in its true sense. So it is the same thing. You create God, and you strive for God. It means you are striving for yourself. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Who said?

in some form like "Enlightenment is an accident. Zazen makes one accident prone." - zazen or meditation or practice. It has been attributed to Shunryu Suzuki and ended up on Upaya blog four years ago but I doubted that and thought it was Aitken or Kornfield. Got hold of Joan Halifax who didn't recall where she'd gotten it.

Mentioned it to a long time Aitken friend and student who'd been in the SFZC for years and he said he definitely thought it was Aitken. Put it on the Dubious Quotes page of cuke in August 2013. I've seen it elsewhere since then attributed to Suzuki like here and here and here and here and elsewhere. Shambhala Publications had it attributed to Suzuki last week on their quote of the week coming from Nothing Holy about It. Got hold of author Tim Burkett and he'd studied with Aitken some too after Suzuki and agreed he'd gotten the wires crossed there.

A couple of days ago sent an email to Aitken's first dharma heir and cuke benefactor John Tarrant and asked him about it and he put the matter to rest saying that yes, Aiken said that now and then but he attributed it to Rajneesh. That sounds just right to me. And maybe Rajneesh got it from somewhere else. I would guess that teachers in the Shunryu Suzuki lineage will be giving lectures on it in the future as an excellent example of Suzuki's wisdom. - dc

Same

As Buddha attained enlightenment, we will attain enlightenment. What Buddha was striving for is the same thing we are striving for because we have the same inmost nature as any human being. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Medical Checkups

This is just a boring report but for those who are concerned about cost and quality of medical care it might be interesting. That photo is Sangla Hospitol.

Last week went to Indra hospital for local residents and got my eyes and ears checked for whatever they check for. Was happy didn't have to replace the long distance glasses I got at Costco five or so years ago. Only use them for driving which I don't do and TV and museums. Same with short range - 2.75 holding steady. They gave me another pair of those.

Impossible

If you repeat the name of some scripture, you are liable to be bound by some teaching which was told by Buddha. But actually, it is impossible to authorize some teaching as the absolute teaching because something which is told by some particular person could not be absolute, even though it was told by Buddha. It may be impossible to authorize the teaching for human beings. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Shunryu Suzuki with the ZC board - 65

Shunryu Suzuki in early SFZC board notes - 1965

Call

We are successors of Buddha. So, because we emphasize the practice of attaining enlightenment as Buddha did, we naturally put emphasis also on Sangha. By practice we will build our character as Buddha did. So that is why we call Shakyamuni Buddha's name. For us it is natural to repeat Shakyamuni Buddha's name rather than Amida Buddha's name or the name of a scripture. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Jane Hirshfield's On the Fifth Day powm getting international attention

One of the major German newspapers, Frankfurter Allgemeine, just published a piece about Jane's "On the Fifth Day" poem, which she read at the April 22nd March for Science (which should have been held earlier so that it could be the March March for science) In this article there's a framing of it as Buddhist,. It's of course in German but Google Translate seems to do a fairly reasonable job..That's Jane reading at the March. Here she is on Youtube at the DC March speaking and reading the poem.

The Washington Post's digital version of the poem is here:

Descendants

The Zen school repeats Buddha's name, but the emphasis is on Sangha, and they are not so concerned about the intellectual viewpoint or understanding. So we just repeat the founder's name and say namu Shakyamuni Butsu. When we say namu Shakyamuni Butsu, his scripture is included and his Sangha is also included; and we are a part of the Sangha. And even though we members of the Sangha are not direct disciples of Buddha, we are the descendants of Buddha. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Lew Richmond on Shunryu Suzuki

In Lion's Roar from Suzuki's birthday, May 18th (which I'd not thought of. One tiny error - he was born in 1904, not 1903 as printed also in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind till the 2000 edit. - dc) 
--------- Lew Richmond page on cuke - thanks Katrinka

School

Each school is based on some particular understanding or some standpoint. We do not take many standpoints in one school. In Japan, especially, we emphasize this point. This is not sectarianism. Once we take a standpoint, we should develop that standpoint through and through until we can understand various standpoints. At first, each way of understanding has its own insight. But if your understanding becomes higher and higher, you can see other standpoints with understanding at the same time. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

How Many Minds are there?

 "The total number of minds in the universe is one." - Erwin Schrödinger, a Nobel prize winning physcist whose forte was quantum mechanics. He was also into Advaita Vedanta..

There are three neat comments on this quote at Quara.

Continuing from yesterday's Sangha quote

Also truth itself is Dharma, and the truth which is not divided into various forms is called Buddha, which is another interpretation of the three treasures. That kind of understanding is called “one body three treasures.” ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Shunryu Suzuki with the ZC board

Shunryu Suzuki in ZC board notes 1964 - before it was the SFZC

fixed animal sacrifice link in yesterday's post

Animal Sacrifice

Katrinka and I were sitting at a table by the black sand and pebble and stone beach in Buitan. A small pura next door, a shrine. Local people had gathered for a ceremony - women in colorful sarongs, men in white with head wraps, kids sitting together near us. Katrinka said she wanted to leave now. The reason - she was anticipating they might start sacrificing some piglets. She'd seem them washed up on the beach after a ceremony there, their feet bound.  Our hostess says they throw them in the ocean that way during ceremonies. Just certain ceremonies. So we left. I've heard a lot about animal sacrifice here, about taking dogs, cats, cattle out in boats and coming back without them. Some have started the practice of not hobbling them so they have a good chance to get back. I read that Tannah Lot, one of the most famous temples here - and just below Trumps five or six star golf resort to be - has sacrifice with every ceremony..That photo's just off the web but it's just what the beach and kids looked like.

An article on Animal sacrifice in Bali - fixed this link

Harmony

People who join the practice with harmony and unity are called Sangha. So Sangha means not only Buddha's group, but also the state of harmony or unity. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Sangha

Whether Buddha appeared or not, there is truth. But if there is no one who realizes the truth, the truth means nothing to us. So in this sense we say the manifestation of truth is Sangha. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-11 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Shunryu Suzuki in early Board Notes

Suzuki and points of interest in ZC board notes - 1962-3 - Back then the SFZC was just ZC.

Soft

So sometimes we say soft mind. Soft mind is nyu nan shin. Nyu is soft feeling. Nan is not hard. Something which is not hard is nan. Nyu is smooth, natural -- mind. When you have that mind you have the joy of life. When you lose it you lose everything. You have nothing. Although you think you have or because you think you have -- you have nothing. When you think you have nothing you have nothing. Do you understand? That is what we mean by naturalness. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

We’re Edging Closer To Nuclear War

Experts are worried about India, Pakistan and North Korea. - from 538

Zazen

If you want to study Zen you should just practice zazen. That is naturalness. And see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness. Whatever you do this attitude is necessary. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Love

Some people insist on some idea. Recently the young generation talks about love. Love! Love! Love! Their minds are full of love. And when they study Zen, if what I say does not accord with the idea of love that they have, they will not accept it. They are pretty stubborn. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Styrofoam

Just stayed three nights in Buitan near Candidasa at hip Tania and Lempot's Lumbung Damuh where we've been a few times before. Walked down the black sand and pebble beach a few hundred yards to where it ends in rock and soil jutting out.  Past catamarans and beach shacks, a narrow stream running into the sea. When I got back I asked Tania where all that Styrofoam came from - and those big things - what are they? She explained. And this Facebook post explained it too. That photo is just one from that post. It's in Candidasa. Tania explained that those big things, as you see in the water to the left, are cement covered Styrofoam floats that they anchored out a ways to break the waves to impede shore erosion. Problem is they break loose and bust up. They were made at Buitan and floated up there and when that failed as in the picture they were returned to the water off Buitan where some broke loose and busted up. There are small and large pieces of Styrofoam littered along the beach and that's after the cleanup. The kids love playing on the beached float and were using large pieces of Styrofoam to float on in the pool in the stream.

Involved

When you do something you should be completely involved in it. You should devote yourself completely. Then you have nothing. If there is no true emptiness in your activity, that is not natural. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Momentary Collective Freak Out

Was at the morning market, Pasar Sindhu in Sanur, at the stand where I get spices and suddenly it seemed all the women in the room were whooping, hollering, no words. It was over in half a minute. I've experienced that there before. The spice woman said someone was under too much stress so I took it to mean that one person had to start screaming and then all her compatriots join in to show support. It's pretty neat.  

Listen

When you listen to a lecture, you should not have any idea of yourself. You shouldn’t compare -- you should not have your own idea when you listen to others. You have to forget all what you have in your mind and listen to it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Nothingness or Emptyness

Everyone comes out from nothingness. Moment after moment we have true joy of life. So we say, “From true emptiness the wondrous being appears - shin ku myo mu. Shin is true, ku is emptiness, myo is wondrous, mu is being. From true emptiness wondrous being. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

David Padwa on Gary Snyder

Posting a PDF of Sanskrit Coyote. Padwa writes: at the end of the 80s the sierra club decided to produce a festschrift to celebrate gary snyder's life/work. the editor asked me to contribute something for a dharma section. the book was published in 1991, never reprinted.

David Padwa page

Gary Snyder page

Joy

This naturalness is very difficult to explain. But if you can just sit and have nothingness in your practice, whatever you do, coming out of the nothingness, that is the naturalness and that is true activity, because you have true joy of practice, true joy of life in it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Nap

So when you are very, very sleepy, to take a nap is natural. Even though you are not sleepy, to take a nap just because you are lazy, as if it is the privilege for human being to take a nap That is not naturalness. When we have this kind of idea or feeling -- when everyone is not working why should I work so hard? I must take a rest too. When they have a lot of money, why don’t I have some money. This is not naturalness. Our mind is entangled with some other's idea when it is not necessary. That is not naturalness. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,

Water

We practice zazen as when we take water when we are thirsty. That is true practice. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,

Naturalness

Some feeling -- some quite new feeling -- when you just come out from nothingness for instance when you are quite hungry, to take some food is naturalness. You feel natural. But when you are expecting too much food is not natural. You have no new feeling. You have no appreciation for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

A Stan White Drawing

Dokusan - on page five of Stan's Zen ink drawings. - thanks Rick Levine

Natural

For a plant or stone to be natural is no problem. But for us there is some problem, or big problem even. So to be natural is a kind of problem which we must work on. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Burton Watson, 91, Influential Translator of Classical Asian Literature, Dies

NY Times - thanks Howie Klein and John Steiner

RIP Henry Schaeffer

Just learned of Henry's passing from a nephew of his. No details yet. Early Suzuki and later close Trungpa student, soft-spoken, modest. Check out his interviews here at his cuke page. - dc

Heretic

There is big misunderstanding about the idea of naturalness. Most people who come to us believe in some freedom or naturalness, but their understanding of naturalness is so-called heretic naturalness - some idea that there is no need to be formal or to be rigid, just a kind of ‘let-alone-policy’, or sloppiness. That is naturalness for most people. But that is not the naturalness we mean. It is rather difficult to explain what it is, but naturalness is, I think, some feeling which is independent from everything. That is naturalness. Or some activity which is based on nothingness. Something which comes out of nothing is naturalness. Like a seed or plant comes out from the ground. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-01 as 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, not just the super cool ones,.

Impossible

You are doing something impossible, like trying to become a Buddha. Buddha is Buddha and you are you. You cannot become what you are not. You can’t escape yourself. If you give up all conscious deliberations, then you are left with your true self. It can’t be otherwise since one can’t escape from himself.  ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.

Real

Real zazen is always with you. It is to give up the idea of attaining enlightenment. Real zazen is nothing. Correct practice is action when you give up the idea of enlightenment. Give up gaining ideas and just sit– enlightenment will come.  ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.

A Matter of Local Concern

TRUMP’S INDONESIAN ALLIES IN BED WITH ISIS-BACKED MILITIA SEEKING TO OUST ELECTED PRESIDENT 

The president here, Jokowi, is like Indonesia's Obama - not perfect but admirable

thanks Camille, my niece in Oakland for passing this along. - It's a good site related to Glen Greenwald and Snowden's leaks etc. - DC 

Stan White's Zen Ink Drawings

A collection

Training

Zen practice is not training in the ordinary sense. Ordinary training is to improve ourselves; zen practice is to be ourselves. The practice of stopping our minds is not an end– an aim in itself. It is a precondition for perceiving reality. When the mind is stopped, reality is there. It is impossible, however, to completely give up yourself. Even when you consciously give up everything, something is left. What is it?  ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.

RIP Stanley White

There was a memorial on April 30th for Stanley White and Bob Watkins at Hokoji. Barbara Meier sent me photos and that's how I learned Stan had died in Taos - at 96!. What a character. Read more and see photos at Stan's cuke page.

Beyond

The point is to go beyond merely deliberate conscious behavior. To consciously help others is a self-centered activity. Correct helping is an activity without self-centered purpose, without self-conscious aim. Similarly, self-conscious zazen will lead to problems– self-created problems. Such problems are natural for beginners, but because they arise naturally is no reason to be acquiescent about them.  ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.