Covers

There is a clear difference between intellectual understanding and understanding through your practice. Through our practice we can fly without an airplane. It covers this much. We can understand about the various worlds in the same way. This is not magic. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Vanja Palmers

A page for Vanja, Austrian Zen teacher who opened a retreat in Austria with Brother David Steindl-rast, one above Lake Luzern, and more.  

Extend

You should extend your practice to where your usual understanding cannot reach. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Know

When you know completely you do not know - maybe in the sense that you do not know your eyes, do not see your eyes. But it does not mean that you have no eyes. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Taking form

Emptiness is always taking form. Do you understand? There is no emptiness which has no form. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Brother David Steindl-Rast

A page on cuke for the Benedictine monk who was at Tassajara's first practice period and that's just the beginning - for us. But he'd been involved with Zen for years before that. 

Do it

We say, whatever you do, do it. But that "do" is not "do" in the usual sense. Here practice is involved. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Rejoice!

Don't be ashamed of your practice or a frog will laugh at you. What are you doing? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Wishing you

[place appropriate image for your holiday greeting here]

Holiday greeting of your choice.

And many more.

dc

A Christmas Card from Nona Ransom

A woman named Angela Wright got hold of me asking if this is truly a card from Nona Ransom and wanting to compare handwriting and there's a link on her cuke page to her notes behind photos she'd given to Grahame Petchey and they matched pretty well. Here's the front - for more go to the bottom of her cuke page. Preparing this post on September 9th but hate Xmas stuff outside of December - told Kelly and Clay when they were little kids that that was against the law - so am predating it a few days before that jolly date. - dc

Complete

We must have a complete world; that is form. Because it is complete it is empty. But it actually exists right here and now. That is form. Do you understand? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Shunryu Suzuki, ZC, and the East Coast

Cuke page for Suzuki, ZC, and the East Coast

photo by Tim Buckley

Real

This is the world, the real world, at the same time every other world can become real. It is not a matter of what kinds of worlds exist somewhere besides this world - like the cat’s or the frog's. The point is whether this world is real or not, whether our practice is real or not. When our practice is real practice, this is our world. There is Shakyamuni Buddha who is taking care of us. This is the complete world moment after moment. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Nothing

When I am talking to you, there is nothing in my mind. I don't look around. Here there is the complete world. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Index page for DC Misc writing/posts

DC Misc Index --- Haven't been posting much personal or about Bali etc on Cuke Blog here because the personal stuff I'm putting on Facebook now under David Reich Chadwick and mainly there put on links to non political news cause writing and work wise been busy with major cuke work. So here's an index with link to past such posts on cuke and other stuff. - dc

Encouraging

We have no idea of good or bad, no idea of whether you are sleeping or listening to me. I don't mind at all! I am always encouraging myself at the same time I am encouraging you. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Noah!

Our Tassajara dog in the first years.

Read on.

photo by Donn DeAngelo who was Alain Crockin at the time as the photo credit reads.

Interested

We do not say this is good or bad. If you are interested in what is best, perhaps it is better for you to go to lectures somewhere else. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Around

Why may you not have understood? The reason is quite simple: because you look around. Our way is to see something directly and not to look around, that is all! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Remembering Marilyn (Doyle) McDonald

Marilyn came to Tassajara in the seventies and eighties and did exhaustive research on its history much of which is found on cuke.com now. Here's a remembrance of Marilyn written by her daughter Lee Doyle and son Larry Burns and edited by her close friend Rose Martinez.

Confuse

We do not say anything which we do not firmly believe in - sometimes we do not say anything. So you feel as if you have understood because we only say things we believe in and you confuse believing with understanding. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Directness

Our practice is for ourselves and for others too. Understanding our practice will lead us to understand an animal's practice also. It is not a matter of eggs first or hens first, enlightenment first or practice first. It is a matter of depth and directness of understanding, a directness which goes beyond intellectual, emotional, or physical attainment. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Chronology Update

Every few years add to this Chronology of Shunryu Suzuki's life. This time did so more thoroughy. - dc

Comprehension

This comprehension of teaching is wider and deeper than the teaching which is for guiding practice. Of course that guidance is teaching, but the enlightenment that you think you will attain after practice, the meaning of that enlightenment you think you see coming from practice, is quite different from the true understanding of enlightenment and practice. This much must be intellectually understood if you are to practice Buddhism in its true sense. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Immortal

The main point of my lecture this afternoon is that the usual understanding of practice as the guide to enlightenment is limited in our world and is not the true practice handed down to us from Buddha. It is not just a teaching told by someone. Even before Buddha our teaching was true. It is immortal and exists everywhere. So we call it original enlightenment or emptiness. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Privilege

When I practice with you my understanding of our way becomes deeper and deeper, more natural and active than ever. This is possible because we are practicing in this country, where people have few preconceived ideas about Buddhism. So your response to what you see and hear is quite genuine, and I can see Buddha's Way in your reactions to the teaching, in your relations to what you see and hear at Tassajara. This is my great privilege. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Understanding

My understanding of our Buddha's way has been improved a lot by the feeling you have expressed for me, whether you are aware of it or not. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Need Some Transcribing or other Typing done?

My friend Alice does transcribing for Cuke Archives. She used to be a corporate secretary and does an excellent job. Efficient and economic, good for your budget - because we live a lot cheaper here in Bali than in 1st world countries.

Not only will transcribing work for Alice help to offset her on-the-cheap transcribing for cuke but will help her support her drug and alcohol recovery program - the Lighthouse which Katrinka and I, mainly Katrinka, have been involved with since shortly after we arrived four years ago..

Contact Alice at  ibualice@gmail.com. -  dc

Kingdom

Even Shakyamuni Buddha cannot fool us about our real practice, because our practice is independent. We live in our own kingdom. And continuing this kind of practice moment after moment, we will someday meet with Shakyamuni Buddha who attained perfect enlightenment. Even if we do not meet him we should be grateful to him for directing our true study here at Zen Mountain Center. As long as we know who is our real mother there is nothing to be afraid of, nothing to worry about. This is our belief in emptiness. Did you understand?------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Frog

 Have you seen the picture by the famous Zen master Sengai? He shows a frog looking just like he was sitting in zazen, as we are sitting in this lecture. How can a frog attain enlightenment? It is very interesting the more you think about it. A frog is faced by many things.

Junsei Jana Drakka’s Funeral

Funeral Ceremony – Friday, December 15, 2017, 4 pm at the SFZC City Center

details at SFZC.org where this photo came from

Jana's cuke page

Another Mother

Practice is the mother of all Buddhas; your practice is the mother of all beings and all worlds and all the people who live in those worlds. That is why we say if one attains enlightenment he understands that all sentient beings are enlightened. Do you understand? I’m not involved in some mystical thought. These are actual facts. In your practice, enlightenment and practice should be one, not two. It is not after you practice our way that you attain enlightenment. That is a wrong understanding. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Different

The usual understanding of the teaching as something told by Buddha is not direct enough. When you understand that Shakyamuni Buddha is emptiness, then you will find that innumerable worlds come out from emptiness, and that emptiness actually exists in each world or each moment, that each world and each moment exists in emptiness. When you practice zazen, this emptiness is there, and when you reach this understanding, you will find out the meaning of the teaching and you will practice in quite a different way. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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 Cuke Page for Bill Redican

Archivist who oversaw the project to create a verbatim set of Shunryu Suzuki lectures - and more.

Photo of Bill and DC standing before the bound set of verbatim transcriptions in the library of the SFZC City Center c.2002.

Mother

This Dharma of Prajna Paramita is the mother of Shakyamuni Buddha, and not only Shakyamuni but many Buddhas and worlds come out from this teaching. If the various forms are emptiness, from emptiness various teachings will appear; emptiness is the mother of everything, so the teaching of Buddha comes out of emptiness. You could say that emptiness is first and Buddha is second.. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

The Chronicles of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche posted

a message from DC yesterday, December 4th, the anniversary of Shunryu Suzuki's death.

Also on cuke.com 

Not just Verbal

The teaching that form is emptiness and emptiness is form is not just a verbal teaching of Buddha. It is more than that. If you are thinking of the time before the historical Buddha, born about 2500 years ago, you may say the teaching is something told by Buddha. But after Buddha attained enlightenment, practice and enlightenment were one within him. Where there is practice there is enlightenment. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Dalai Lama: Our Future Is Very Much in Our Hands

In the NYTimes reprinting from Turning Points
---thanks Gregory Johnson

A page for Al Tribe

Al started sitting at Sokoji and Berkeley ZC in 1967, received transmission from Lew Richmond in 2016, and was a teacher in the Mill Valley Vimala Sangha.

Al, Lew Richmond, and Peter Coyote at Al and Peter's transmission ceremony, one of three photos one may see larger on

Al Tribe cuke page

Form

Only when we understand our own way will each animal world, each world, be seen all at once, including our world with Shakyamuni Buddha. This understanding is that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. The animal is the form. You may say, "Form - that is only an animal, only a cat." But when you understand what a cat is through and through, that is the emptiness from which various teachings come and from which our practice follows. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.

Innumerable

When you understand how to practice your way with your whole body and mind, you will understand various practices and many Buddhas. Not only the 77,000 Buddhas under which Shakyamuni studied according to some scriptures, but innumerable Buddhas will be in your world. That is very true. Shakyamuni Buddha practiced through many lives as a Bodhisattva. That is not just a story. It is what we are seeing right now in our world. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-B 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.