Sun

Figuratively speaking, the Sambhogakaya Buddha may be like the sun. Instead of observing things objectively, he understands his Buddha Nature, which is always in activity within himself, figuratively speaking of course. So, like the sun, although he is not trying to illuminate everything objectively, he is actually illuminating everything. He is actually helping others without trying to help. He can illuminate everything because originally he has that kind of power or potentiality.    --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-00-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Barton Stone

Cuke Audio podcast with Barton Stone went up on Saturday. 

Barton Stone cuke page

Dharma Nature

   The Sambhogakaya Buddha is the Buddha who realized this dharma nature in activity, or as something which has a nature. And when we understand the reality which has various potentialities to act or to develop, that is called Dharmakaya Buddha.   --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-00-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Polishing a Tile to Make a Mirror

 A talk by Peter Schneider at Beginner's Mind Zen Center in Northridge, LA, CA. - thanks Elizabeth Sawyer

Jane and Peter Schneider cuke page

https://www.facebook.com/beginnersmindzencenter

Yvonne Rand's Cremation Ceremony

Got up at 2:30 yesterday morning to Zoom attend Yvonne's cremation ceremony at the Fernwood Funeral Home in Mill Valley. Behind her cardboard casket with flowers at the side and a simple temporary altar on top was a landscaped slope with a stream of white water cascading down over stones. Wendy Johnson presided quite nicely. Chris and Hilary Rand delivered touching statements. There were about thirteen masked people there chanting, keeping their distance - except for couples. I recognized Peter Rudnick by his walk. After that, the people left and the casket was rolled away but the carmera stayed focused on the falling water. A woman whose name I know but forget now recited "Gyate gyate, paragyate, parasam gyate, bodhis svaha!" for an hour while what we once thought of as Yvonne was being cremated. It was a good two hours of sitting, listening, watching. The Zoomers' mics were muted. It went smoothly. Shortly after the chanting ended the camera was returned to the office. On its way there we passed through a few rooms - I recognized a waiting room from the times I've been there. Then the camera was placed in a storage room. Then someone turned it off. Yvonne Rand cuke page

This ain't no "chop wood, carry water" type Zen teaching

The Dharmakaya Buddha is called the fundamental, undeveloped Buddhakaya. In Buddhism, when we say the undeveloped, or fundamental, body, it means that it is the original source itself. But there are two interpretations for one reality. When we understand it as something which is very calm, which is not in activity, we call it the Dharma Body. But the Dharma Body does not actually remain calm and inactive-- it is always active. When we understand it as activity, we call it Dharma Nature. “Dharma Nature” means something in action, and “Dharma Body” means something which is not in activity, or which is not developed. But the whole Nature exists in the Dharma Body as a potentiality. So we have two understandings of one reality: Dharmakaya [kaya = body] and dharma nature.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-00-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Sambhogakaya

The Sambhogakaya Buddha is the original source of the Nirmanakaya Buddha: it gives birth to the Nirmanakaya Buddha. In order to explain the Dharmakaya Buddha, it is necessary to explain the Sambhogakaya Buddha more. Then you will understand what the Dharmakaya Buddha is naturally.      --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-00-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Fall Issue of Buddhadharma Magazine

has an article entitled

THE ENDURING TEACHINGS OF SUZUKI ROSHI: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ZEN MIND, BEGINNER’S MIND

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi‘s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, we present two teachings from the book, alongside testimonials from Buddhist teachers who were influenced by it.

Beginning Another Lotus Sutra Lecture

The Nirmanakaya Buddha comes into this world with the vow that he will save all sentient beings. Not by karma, but by vow, he appears in this world, practices the Bodhisattva's way, attains enlightenment as Buddha did, and saves all human beings. So he is called an incarnated body. He changes his form in various ways, sometimes to a bodhisattva, sometimes to a buddha. He takes on various forms to help people, so in the widest sense of the word, everything is Nirmanakaya Buddha. But in the narrow sense, those who appear in this world by vow instead of by karma are called Nirmanakaya Buddhas.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-00-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Buddhanet Obit

 

for Yvonne Rand

Yvonne with Bill. He died Dec. 1, 2019. She August 19, 2020.

Yvonne's cuke page

Yvonne Rand Wiki

 Yvonne Rand's Wikipedia page

Yvonne Rand cuke page

RiP Dear Dharma Sister Yvonne Rand who died on August 19th - See Thursday, August 20th post

Coffee Shop

Emotionally, we like coffee shops and big banana splits. But that is Hinayana, you know. Even though it is good, we should continue on our trip. This is the Mahayana way-- on, and on, and on. Usually people stopped at the coffee shop for many, many days-- one or two weeks. But we cannot stay that long, because the coffee shop will not stay open that long. If it is not the main current, it will die, eventually, and only the main current will continue. So we don't have time to stay at the coffee shop very long. Once in a while, when we become sleepy, we must have some coffee. That is our way. With this attitude we should continue our trip. And if we want to continue our trip, the four vows are necessary. At any rate, we should continue our trip as long as our car goes. This is our attitude and our practice.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC DC Comment - More dissing the way of the elders who he also says laid the foundation.

Podcast about Yvonne Rand

Saturday's podcast was Remembering Yvonne Rand. That's the Cuke Audio Podbean link.

Or take it from the Cuke Audio Spotify page

Or Cuke Audio Apple Podcasts 

Or YouTube Cuke Video - Podcast Playlist

Yvonne Rand cuke page

RiP Dear Dharma Sister Yvonne Rand who died on August 19th - See Thursday, August 20th post

That's Yvonne talking with Philip Whalen just in the courtyard at the SFZC. 
photo by Barbara Wenger - looks like the 70s.

Puzzling Saying

I always say that sectarianism is like having coffee in a coffee shop when you are going to San Francisco. You know, when you have a cup of coffee on the freeway, that is very good. But you shouldn't stay there. You should go on to San Francisco.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Tassajara Evacuated

 Keep up with fire in the Tassajara area and beyond at this SFZC page. - thanks Pat Phelan for reminding me.

Yvonne Rand: A Profile

The following profile of Yvonne Rand is an excerpt from Meetings with Remarkable Buddhist Women by Lenore Friedman

Yvonne Rand cuke page

RiP Dear Dharma Sister Yvonne Rand who died on August 19th - See Thursday, August 20th post here.

Mahayana Prejudice

 It is impossible for preBuddhistic teaching to be Hinayana teaching, so what was the bridge? The bridge was Buddha; Buddha made the bridge. When we realize this point, we see that the Hinayana understanding was not perfect enough. The Hinayana Buddhists made Buddha a preBuddhistic person. He was pushed backwards to a preBuddhistic character.    --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC [DC comment - Ouch - using the perjorajive term hinayana and saying their understanding is not Buddhist. How does this synch with his positive statements about early Buddhism and even saying he'd like to go study with great teachers in Theravada countries. Can't rush to judgement.]

An Interview with Yvonne Rand

 An Interview with Yvonne Rand by Dayna Macy of the Yoga Journal

Yvonne Rand cuke page

RiP Dear Dharma Sister Yvonne Rand - yesterday's post here

Point

The point is not whether this Lotus Sutra was told by the historical Buddha, or by some other person. As long as you attach to the historical Buddha too much, you cannot understand Buddhism.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

RiP Dear Dharma Sister Yvonne Rand

 

Yvonne Rand main cuke page

Yvonne has been in hospice care at her daughter Hillary's home for a month or so. Yvonne was a close student of and advisor to Shunryu Suzuki. I called her Zen Center's Den Mother, especially in the early Tassajara years. Her love of animals bordered on the humorous with the number she took on. She was particularly prone to animals and people who needed help. Psychic Anne Armstrong said that Yvonne astral traveled to accidents when she slept. She taught many students and many fellow students. She spent a good deal of time with hospice work and taught us how to sit with and care for the bodies of the departed. And now she has departed and her body is being cared for. Condolences to her Hillary and Chris on the loss of their mother. Farewell beloved Bodhisattva. - DC

Continued from Yesterday

The other point is to understand whether this kind of teaching will be effective enough to use right now. To arrange the teachings this way [moves hand horizontally] is not good; to arrange the teachings this way [moves hand vertically] is not good enough either. When you arrange the teachings this way [motions vertically], and choose one of them, and when you arrange the teachings this way [motions horizontally], the historical or traditional way, and understand the characteristic nature of various teachings, then you will find out what kind of teaching you should apply.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Fire in Tassajara Area

SFZC page for news about Fire in Monterey County, Big Sur, Carmel Valley area. All prayers for our friends around there and for everyone affected by fire in the Western US.

Jack Weller's book

Come Walk in the Rain with Me: My Years with Suzuki Roshi 

Jack Weller cuke page

Should Know

I am not forcing you to follow our Japanese way at all, but you should know how Buddhism was extended from Buddha to us. This is a very important point.    --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Les Kaye

August 15 Saturday's guest on Cuke Audio Podcast was Les Kaye, abbot of Kannon-do in Mountain View and Shunryu Suzuki disciple. Les wrote out what he wanted to convey and I read it. Then I read from two interviews that were on his cuke page and from something I'd written. The content focuses on what he has to say about Zen at Work which was also the name of his first book. Les has been a steady dharma diver. He does not waver. 

Les Kaye Cuke page

Tea Bowl II

It is necessary to know how this tea bowl appeared here, in front of me. And at the same time, it is necessary for you to know whether this tea bowl is suitable for this season or not. Even though it is a very traditional and valuable one, a summer tea bowl cannot be used in winter. So you should know, at the same time, whether this is suitable for this season and suitable for the guest. And you should choose the tea bowl accordingly.   --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Tea Bowl

Without knowing who a person is, we cannot help him; without knowing what things are, we cannot treat them properly. When you know who made this tea bowl and what kind of history this tea bowl has, then you can treat the tea bowl properly. If you handle it without knowing who made it and what kind of tradition it has, it may be just a bowl.  --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

How find Light Edits

 

On shunryusuzuki.com, one of the menu links in Transcripts/Audio. In the dropdown from it are two links to minimum or light edits - the complete list and the list of the new ones this 2020. This lists are now growing.

Lotus Sutra lectures

 I've never been into the Lotus Sutra lectures like I am now. I got prejudiced against them because Suzuki's first attempt to lecture on them was so frustrating to listen to. But he gave three series. This as I recall is the 2nd series. I'm finding these first two lectures to be quite intriguing. He starts off with Buddha as superman and by now it's you are the super one and you're delivering this great teaching. My my. - dc

Stage

I have come to the conclusion already, but let us think more calmly and understand clearly what we have been studying in these two lectures. There are several things I want to point out. One is that when we read Buddhist scriptures, it is necessary for us to know at what kind of historical stage each sutra was told-- to know, in other words, who spoke the scripture.

Minimum Edits

We call them light edits or minimum edits. Yesterday posted a link to a page for the Shunryu Suzuki minimally edited lectures going up this year. Today featuring a page for all that we consider minimum edits. Among ourselves we actually just write LE and put an LE at the end of the file name with the initials of the person who worked on it. As more than one go over it we include that info at the bottom. Maybe minimum edit is a better name. That's what yesterday and today's charts call them. The hard work was done by noble followers of Cuke Archives. The first to do it was Gordon Geist and he did a ton of them back in the early days of cuke.com. Some of them just come that way such as the early Los Altos and SFZC lectures. Marian Derby and others who transcribed them, clearly did that basic editing as part of the transcribing or at least that's how they come to us. They weren't doing literary or consumer oriented edits like for the books and Wind Bells. But maybe something in between. We can't say for sure - if there's no audio to check it against. The purpose of the minimum edits is to make them easier to read and follow. Some people prefer to read the verbatim. I use the verbatim when I have that choice. But lots of folks would much more rather read the minimum edits which follow everything he said and smooth it out. The Suzuki lecture excerpts that I post I always minimally edit. --- thanks Peter Ford for making these two pages on shunryusuzuki.com.

Same

So, to study the Lotus Sutra and to listen to it are not two different things. To read it and to talk about it are the same thing. If there are various materials to talk about, then we can speak the Lotus Sutra. --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Light Edits

A light edit of a Shunryu Suzuki lecture is not an edit in the normal sense. It's as little editing as is needed to smooth the lecture out from the original verbatim which include every word and partial word. So if Suzuki said, "In Buddhism we... in Budhism we say" then only "In Buddhism we say" would remain. There are many other types of changes made. We're getting a number of new light edits of shunryu Suzuki lecture entered into the archive on shunryusuzzuki.com to add to the long list of those that have been done by others through the years. We're staring off with lectures that have no other version - just the verbatim. Here's a page with a list of them with links. The list will keep growing. Danny Parker did one but he's tied up looking at brief Suzuki lecture excerpts to be used in an up and coming App. Peter Ford is overseeing it and has done at least one, but mainly he's going over them and making other improvenets to shunrysuzuki.com. Many have been and are being churned out at a remarkable pace by Wendy Pirsig. When he thinks they're ready Peter uploads them onto shunryusuzuki.com. I'm on call to answer questions and review parts that I'm asked to. As I have time I'll check them more carefully. Mainly I'm involved in other areas. Thanks Peter, Wendy, Danny for all the careful attention and hard work. - dc

Who, little ole me?

 I said, “I am reading,” but actually, I meant, “I am telling the Lotus Sutra.” So the Sixth Patriarch said, “When we are in delusion, the Lotus Sutra will turn us, and people may be turned by the Lotus Sutra. But when our mind is clear, we will turn the Lotus Sutra, we will speak the Lotus Sutra instead of Buddha.” --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

ZMBM 50th featured

Inside the Fall 2020 Buddhadharma magazine

THE ENDURING TEACHINGS OF SUZUKI ROSHI: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ZEN MIND, BEGINNER’S MIND

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi‘s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, we present two teachings from the book, alongside testimonials from Buddhist teachers who were influenced by it.

from Lion's Roar - thanks Peter Ford

Lotus

When we understand the Lotus Sutra as the sutra which was spoken by the Sambhogakaya Buddha, or when we understand that, “I am now reading the Lotus Sutra,” then the Lotus Sutra makes sense to us. If we lose this point, we will be turned by the Lotus Sutra. If we realize this point, we will turn it. --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

RIP Harada Seiki Roshi

For a number of decades abbot of Hosshinji in Obama, Japan. One of the teachers of Peter and Jane Schneider when they lived in Japan. Gyate grate.

The Trikaya

So the true Buddha is the Sambhogakaya Buddha, and when the Sambhogakaya Buddha does some activity, or is observed by someone, he may be the Nirmanakaya Buddha. Before the Nirmanakaya Buddha, there must be a Sambhogakaya Buddha. And before a Bodhisattva appears to save others, there must be a Sambhogakaya Buddha as the strong background of the Bodhisattva. So every Bodhisattva and Buddha, and their activity of helping others, comes from this source, from this origin of the Sambhogakaya Buddha. And the Sambhogakaya Buddha is truth itself. So we have Dharmakaya Buddha, Sambhogakaya Buddha, and Nirmanakaya Buddha. --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

Help

To help others and to help ourselves is the same thing. To realize myself and to make others realize the truth is the same thing. --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC  - Going through Suzuki lectures and posting anything that can stand on its own. Not looking for zingers or "the best of." I find that following these excerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching. - DC

On Saturday's Three-wheeler Motorbike photo with Dan and Louise

-----------------------------------------

In the summer of 1967, I was on my way to Canada, due to a disagreement with the gummint regarding foreign policy. After a few days in the Haight Ashbury in San Francisco, we (my then-wife and I) were headed north on Highway 101 in our VW bus. 

Driving up that long grade in Marin County north of the Golden Gate Bridge, something caught my eye: On the other side of the highway, headed south, a fellow all in black, a leather flight cap with flapping straps on his head, on a classic three-wheeled motorcycle all painted black. Keen. As he went by I glanced in my mirror, and saw painted in white letters on the back of his trike's cargo box, the famous Tibetan Buddhist mantra Om Maṇi Padme Hūṁ: 

WOW! No way to learn who he was, but I've remembered the scene ever since. 

Of course I met Dan at ZC some five years later in 1972, but didn't know it was he on the motorcycle until about 1979, when fellow named Sanje Elliott showed up at ZC. He was an American artist who'd become a Tibetan Buddhist and a master of the art of thangka painting – and also apparently spent some time with Suzuki Roshi at Sokoji during the 1960s. He gave me a little photo of the XVI Karmapa's "rainbow body": 

And he also showed me a photo of Sokoji – with the very same three-wheel motorcycle parked at the curb in front, showing the mantra above in white on its rear end. "I saw that motorcycle!" I exclaimed, and recounted the story above. He told me it belonged to Dan Welch. 

I saw Sanje again in Santa Fe, ca. 1986, when he was working on the beautiful Kagyu Shenpen Kunchab Bodhi Stupa. It's still there on Airport Road, as the city has expanded around it; it's apparently still thriving as a practice center, and has been a resource also for the Santa Fe Tibetan community. 

In 2011 I found Sanje on the Internet (nice profile at YouTube), and asked him if he still had that photo of Dan's ride, and could I get a copy? Unfortunately, he didn't.  - Andrew Main