Knees

At first, for everyone, for even most Japanese, it is difficult to sit in half-lotus position even. This is very difficult. And, in this case, your knee should touch to the floor [laughs]. Okay? This way. If it is difficult, you put something underneath, like this. And if you do it for one or two months every day, for more than thirty minutes, eventually your knees get closer to the floor. This is how you cross your legs.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-08-A 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.

Shunko's Three Year Memorial

Report and photos on Shunko's cuke page from ceremony for Shunko Mike Jamvold at Fukujoji in Kyoto where he lived and died. Thanks to the priest there and Shunko's good friend Jirai Reinhard Mehl.

Zazen

If you want to practice zazen, the most important thing is to do things – to practice it with your whole mind and body. You should be involved in that practice completely. [laughs]. You practice zazen just to practice zazen – not to attain something. You should be completely involved in it: in the posture you take, the way you take breathing, and with your calm, well-concentrated mind.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-08-A 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.

Study

You should study our teachings - like fundamental teaching. Like teaching of Four Noble Truths, or teaching of interdependency, or teaching of everything changes, or teaching of emptiness, or teaching of Middle Way. Those teachings will give you some intellectual understanding of our practice. So, practice is first, and intellectual study is next.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-08-A 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.

Activity

Zazen practice is not just to cross your legs and sit in in some certain posture. It is also your activity in your everyday life. Whatever you do, that activity should be Zen.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-08-A 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.

Ouch

Actually there is no rule, you know. There is rules, but the rules is not always observed in the same way [laughs]. Your practice mostly will be right when the practice is forced on you -- mostly it is pure. But if you practice by your own choice, there are many danger of having some wrong element in it-- in your motives. “I have to do it,” you know, “because someone told me. As long as I am here in this monastery, I have to observe in this way. So I do it.” This kind of practice will result in more  than if you practice by your own choice. This is very true. If you become more sincere about your practice, and if you become more conscientious about your practice, you will find it very true.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-08-A 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.

Eat

Even though you want to eat more, sometime you will hesitate to eat as much as you want. Without this kind of attitude, you cannot live.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-00-A 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.

Positive

If I say “sincerity” or “compassion,” you may think that is very positive statement, but it is not actually so. Just positive sincerity or positive compassion is not true compassion.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-00-A 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.

Negative

Student F: The word “negative” leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. It has very bad associations with me, and I think it does with a lot of people. 

SR: Mm-hmm.

Desires

We have various desires, you know. But by taking negative attitude towards your desire, you will realize your true nature, rather than to have positive attitude towards your desires. It does not mean to annihilate your desires.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-00-A 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.

Interview with Earl Hartman

Earl Hartman is the 2nd born, 2nd son too of Blanche and Lou Hartman. He's a master of Kyudo. This interview took place at Tassajara in 2005 and just got it transcribed. Enjoy. - dc

Cold

Student: How can we get our meditation back and our concentration through the tenseness of being cold?

SR: [Laughing.] I understand how you feel [laughter], but nevertheless, you know, we say, “Sick or cold will not kill you, but wrong practice will kill you.” [Laughter.] Even though it is cold, you know, you should do it. You see, it will be a chance to realize the truth. The cold weather or some difficulty in your practice will give you some chance to attain enlightenment or to practice real practice. When it is cold, you should practice because it is a good chance to practice. This is rather, I think, traditional way of realizing our true nature.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-00-A 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.

essential nature

Buddha for Mahayana Buddhist is someone who is like every one of us. So they put emphasis on buddha-nature. So Dharmakaya Buddha expresses the essential nature of every one of us. Because we have potentiality, after long practice it is possible for us to attain buddhahood. And every one of us is nothing but the embodiment of the Buddha.------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-00-A 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.

Original

You are, of course, interested in Zen. But Zen is also Buddhism, you know. So it is necessary for you to understand Buddhism in general. Although it will not help you-- my talk will not help you immediately, but it is necessary for you to have some understanding of original teaching of Buddha, and, at the same time, various understanding of original teaching of Buddha or else, I am afraid, you will miss the point. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-09-00-A 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.

Fundamental

So fundamental practice should be done in this kind of place (Tassajara). Then you can extend this spirit to city life. That is how I understand it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-24-C 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.

With Effortless Effort

Whatever effort you make, that is your effort. When the effort is yours, when the world is yours, there is no restriction. It goes as you want to go; because you want to do it you do it. That is effortless effort. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

Effort

When you are making an effort by following something, putting something as an example, or according to rules, that is effort, just effort. Effortless effort comes from your true understanding which comes before the teaching or rules. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

The First Tassajara Cook Book (that we know of)

Tassajara Springs Cook Book - that the Becks ( Robert and Anna) published in 1966 before the ZC bought Tassajara. Since they discovered it had a Sunset Magazine recipe for lemon chicken  they could only sell it at Tassajara and at Anna Beck's antique shop in Carmel. It's now listed on the In-house Publications page just after Bill Shurtleff's Tassajara Food Trip.  

Thanks Adam Beck for sending and Clare Hollander for scanning.

saving Others

Saving others does not mean just alms-giving or kind words. To give strength or to make someone's life strong or, you may say, to make his ego stronger is actually to save him. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

The City again

But the city is more complicated and busy, and in some sense it is more formal [than Tassajara]. There is not much freedom. It looks like there is freedom there, but not actually. Anyway, it is mixed up, but you have to accept it, realize it. That is what the city is like. But try not to understand it completely. It is impossible! Just enjoy it! ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

The City

The city is too mixed up and complicated and is difficult to live in. You can’t find your own home even in the city. But this does not mean there is no life in the city. If you understand our way you can establish your life in the city too. The river is running but the bridge will stay. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

Always

Always realize this point: your practice, your world is your own practice. Some others will practice in some other way; that is practice also. When we devote ourselves completely with mind and body, this is the important force, the most important point. When you concentrate on your practice, the practice itself is the most important point. Concentration is a part of practice but not all of it. So if you think that just to be concentrated on something is Zen, that is not true understanding. You have to accept your practice and at the same time the practice of others. Then you will not be so attached to your own practice. Here you will have true freedom from your practice, and will accept many worlds in the same way and develop your practice to the innumerable worlds until you can sit in your own position in your own way with your whole mind and body. There is your true zazen. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

14 Great Photos from Del Carlson's memorabilia

at the bottom of Del's cuke page - thanks Frazer Bradshaw

Continuing from yesterday

Student E: Well, what I meant was that it seems I am so involved in them, it doesn’t seem like I was practicing.
Roshi: Yes, I understand how you feel and what you mean. We just say: let them come in, let them go out, without being disturbed by them. Don't entertain them. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

Green Gulch Farm New Han and Bell

photo by Donny DeAngelo

Illusions

Student E: In my zazen many illusions come to mind which interfere with my concentration on sitting, on just sitting, if I become involved in them. What should I do?

 Roshi: If you understand that many images that look like they come from outside your practice really exist inside also, that is also a part of your practice. Nothing comes from outside. Whatever you hear or see, that is within yourself, that is your own world. Why are you disturbed by that? If you have pain in your legs do you cut them off and then practice zazen? No, you don't. This is the same thing, you know. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

Tassajara 25 Year Book

Now on cuke as text file with links to images of each page - text easier to search than the PDF here for the last few year and images better resolution. Thanks Neil Rubenking for the painstaking work. And to Peter Ford for doing the thumbnails and images so that one can go forwards and backwards with them by clicking on the arrows right and left. - dc

Dog

To keep a dog in your house is not always to love the dog. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

Jack Novcich

Memories of Old Jack - by Laura Burges - on the most senior Tassajara guest who came first in 1914 and continued well into the 1980s.

That token made from pure aluminum was worth five cents in trade at Jack's Watsonville cigar store. 

Mercy

To strengthen your ego means to have your own practice, to live in your own world and let everything live in its own world, and let everything have its own position. That is true mercy. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

Time

When we talk about ego, the concept of time is involved and time is continuous and discontinuous. We say time is continuous; but when I say nine o'clock, that is the idea of discontinuity. So even time is continuous and discontinuous. So is the self; it is continuous and discontinuous, it appears and disappears. And yet it is continuous in some way. But it changes. And as long as it changes, the same ego does not exist. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

Ego again

No ego. But still something exists moment after moment. You can understand the same thing in two ways. One is successive ego; the other is discontinuous ego which changes. Even the smallest particle of time imaginable exists because it appears. So something which does not disappear actually does not exist. Whatever it is, what appears should disappear. This is true. So ego is something which should disappear and which should appear. Ego has two meanings. Sometimes we say ego exists and to strengthen your ego is to have your own world, to have your own practice. That is to stress your ego. But if you attach to some particular state of mind, that is delusion because it does not actually exist. So the ego exists because it disappears, isn't that true? ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

DC note: Suzuki often used "should" in ways where normally another word would express the idea better. In this case "will."  

Vera Dalenberg

A page for Vera who was married to Claude Dalenberg with an interview.

No Ego

Strictly speaking, ego does not exist. By stressing it you put emphasis on some point, on a stream of successive activity of yourself. But it is not just a continuous ego; it is changing moment after moment. Here, here, here. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.

And to all who check out cuke

thanks Gregory

New Year's Day

Especially when New Year's Day comes we feel we start our practice right now or we must start some practice today. We always feel in this way. That is I think very good. And that is so called beginner’s mind. We should be always beginners.  ------------------------------------------------------------------ Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-02-00-G 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.