Oka Sotan

As a young monk, Shunryu Suzuki met the revered Oka Sotan (on the right) when Oka Sotan visited Zounin, Gyokujun So-on, Shunryu's master's temple. Later Shunryu praised Oka Sotan's teaching as the root teaching for him and many of the senior and contemporary priests that he respected. His master So-on had studied with Sotan and Sotan gave transmission to his teacher Kishizawa and the famous Kodo Sawaki (on the left in the photo).   

From the Ancestors and Heirs page

Illuminated

But the reason he was Buddha is that he was the Enlightened One. He was illuminated in his own nature, Dharma Nature, and everyone's nature, so he knew who he was. For him there was no disciple and no objective world. So he said all sentient beings are his sons, are part of him. That was Buddha. So only when we understand Buddha as the Sambhogakaya Buddha or the Dharmakaya Buddha does he become real.    --------------------------- 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

Ian Kishizawa

 

Shunryu Suzuki called Ian Kishizawa his teacher who refined his understanding of Buddhism.

Paper

What Buddha said was for him like a paper. [Suzuki makes motions of writing various prescriptions out on paper, saying, “Hai, hai, hai,” as he gives them out.] That is actually what he did and how he understood that he should help people.       --------------------------- 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

Prescriptions

Buddha did not stick to the words he said. He was like a doctor who gives his patients prescriptions. According to the people, he gave various prescriptions. He didn't have any idea of giving the same prescription to various patients.     --------------------------- 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

Gyakushitsu Sojun

Gyakushitsu Sojun was Shunryu Suzuki's father's master, whom his father received transmission from. Shunryu's master came from Gyokujun So-on who received his from Shunryu's father. So Gyakushitsu Sojun was Shunryu's master's master's master. 

Hero

The Nirmanakaya Buddha is just a hero. He has no eternal life. He is one of the great heroes of our history. But when we understand Shakyamuni Buddha as the Sambhogakaya Buddha or the Dharmakaya Buddha, for the first time, he has perpetual life. This is a more traditional understanding of Buddha. And actually, this kind of understanding was supported by Buddha when he was alive, although it took several hundred years before we understood who Shakyamuni Buddha was in reality. This kind of understanding, which was accomplished by his disciples, gave Buddha new life, made him a perpetual buddha. In this sense, he is called the Tathagata.    --------------------------- 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

Butsumon Sogaku Suzuki

Shunryu Suzuki's father - on the Ancestors and Heirs page

Why not?

But when we realize that our practice includes everything, why don't we include the Nirmanakaya Buddha? Shakyamuni Buddha is included in our practice. So all the Shakyamuni buddhas, and all the Nirmanakaya buddhas which were spoken of by Shakyamuni Buddha will attain enlightenment all at once when we practice zazen. Do you understand? The Nirmanakaya Buddha is within ourselves.    --------------------------- 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

Ancestors and Heirs

 

of Shunryu Suzuki (Link to the Ancestor's and Heirs page)

That's Gyokujun So-on, Shunryu Suzuki's master from whom he received transmission, a dharma heir of his father. Actually his older step brother as his father adopted So-on as a boy. Thus So-on's full name was Gyokujun So-0n Suzuki. 

Part

You are a part of me, you know. When we reach this kind of understanding, when we become Sambhogakaya Buddha, then when you practice zazen you have no “you” and no “others”; your practice includes everything. So everything will take place within yourself. There is no objective world anymore. Without trying to help others, you will help them anyway. That is the Sambhogakaya 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

Wind Bell Contents

In addition to the Wind Bell search page, there's now a Wind Bell contents page with a long list of 1128 articles and items - each followed by the blue word "read" which is a link to do just that.

Here's the first listing: 1961-01 Wind Bell, by Dogen (Poem) - Poem read

thanks Peter Ford

Remembering the Sati Center Stanford Conference

on Shunryu Suzuki in May of 1998

Handy

The way to help others as Nirmanakaya Buddha is to take various forms and give them some handy help. But as the Sambhogakaya Buddha we should realize that there is no “I” or “you”-- it is all one being. When we realize this nature, which is universal, we can help others without trying to help them, because whatever we do, that is our activity.  --------------------------- 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

Podcast Report

Last Saturday, 9-19, our guest on Cuke Audio Podcast was Jack Elias, a Shunryu Suzuki and Chogyam Trungpa student. Jack was at the first practice period at Tassajara. If you look on the home page of cuke.com at the group photo taken in the fall of '67 just after the first practice period, you'll see him in there second from left 2nd row down. There's a link below that photo to a version of it with names if you wish to make sure. Sunday was our usual day off. Monday was a mini podcast, another vignette from Zen Is Right Here - #58. Wednesday will be #59, Friday #60. Tuesday today was the last post from Crooked Cucumber, which has been read chapter by chapter once a week since early April. Today's, as last week's, was an outtake from the book - A Visit to Massachusettes, about Suzuki's first East Coast trip to be with John and Elsie Mitchell, founder of the Cambridge Buddhist Asso. Thursday will be the weekly episode of Life in Bali, a diversion from all this Zen nonsesne. Check 'em out if you're of a mind. - dc

Ri and Ji

The Japanese term for truth is ri, and the Japanese term for various beings is ji. Ji and ri are very important, key technical words in Buddhism. When we realize ri in its true sense, we are Sambhogakaya Buddha. When we observe things as we observe the objective world, and when we want to help people involved in the objective or materialistic world, we are Nirmanakaya 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

China aims for 'carbon neutrality by 2060'

 Good climate news - BBC

this was meant for Cuke nonZense Blog but it slipped in here

Kokyo Henkel again!

 Posted a link to a piece by Kokyo in Lions Roar a few days ago and have since learned that Kokyo is no longer at the Santa Cruz ZC. He's now in Crestone coursing through the Prajna Paramita en solo for a Covid while. And here's his website.

Water

Ri means “truth,” and ji means “event” or “being,” something which exists, like a stone or like water. Ri means, not “water nature,” but how it becomes water from air. So another side of water is truth, and that truth is not something which we can see. You can see the nature of water: it flows from a higher place to a lower place.  --------------------------- 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

Photo Essay of Three Temples in Japan

The three Japanese temples where Shunryu Suzuki was born and lived  - photos by Bill Schwob

See yesterday's Cuke nonZense post on Bill's sculpture.  

Bill's website

xSometimes

 So sometimes “Dharma” means “teaching,” sometimes “reality,” and sometimes “being,” just “something,” just “there.” --------------------------- 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

Figure it out this way

 Buddhists figure it out in this way: because many people ask us, “What is Dharma Body?” we must say something about it, so we try to figure out what we should say. In this case, we give a very difficult explanation. If I don't say anything, you may say, “He doesn't know anything about the Dharma Body. He is not such a good teacher.” So I must make a narrow escape. The way to do it is to talk about some truth. Nature and truth are not exactly the same. Truth is nearer to the Dharma Body. The idea is also pretty close to the Dharma Nature, but it exists just in between the Dharma Nature and the Dharma Body.        --------------------------- 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

Tassajara area and fire

 Fire Updates from the SFZC 

Note that it reports: For information specific to the fires in the area of Tassajara, we have found the blog site Big Sur Kate to be very helpful.

thanks Linda Ruth Cutts and Ed Sattizahn

When We Give It All to Buddha

A Shunryu Suzuki story about Nona Ransom and him - by Kokyo Henkel in Lion's Roar

Nona Ransom cuke page

Kokyo Henkel is the teacher at the Santa Cruz Zen Center. Here/s the SCZC page for him.

Nature

When we say “nature” it is, of course, truth. But nature is something which includes what we see. In its strict sense, truth is not something which we can see.       --------------------------- 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

The Enduring Teachings of Suzuki Roshi

BY SHUNRYU SUZUKI AND BUDDHADHARMA

posted about this last week but there was no link to the article then

thanks Peter Ford

Accident

So nothing happens just by accident. When something happens, there should be some reason. It is caused by Dharma. In this sense, truth is close to the Dharma Nature. But we can understand it in some way, we can figure out some rules. In Buddhism, those rules, or that truth, is sometimes called the Dharma itself. That is the way in which we call it the Dharma Body. It is the source of all truth.     --------------------------- 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

Gravity

 I say there is no way to talk about the Dharma Body, but if you will allow me to say something about it, we can call it “Truth Itself.” Truth is something which you cannot see. You can see the apple, but you cannot see the theory of gravity. But there is some theory, some truth.    --------------------------- 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

A Chat with Lew Richmond

 

Lew Richmond Chat on Cuke Audio Podcasts 

Cuke Audio page

Lew Richmond page

Lotus sutra

Did you understand? The Nirmanakaya Buddha is the form of dharma, the Sambhogakaya Buddha is the nature of dharma, and the Dharmakaya Buddha is the dharma body, which is beyond words, which we cannot describe. So this sutra tells what the Dharma Nature is, and when we listen to it, we will understand what the Dharmakaya Buddha is and who the Nirmanakaya Buddha Shakyamuni was.    --------------------------- 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

A Wanna Be Green Gulch Story

 Does anyone remember the Korean monk who came to Green Gulch to visit and claimed to have had sex with 1000 people and 1000 animals? I'd love to get more details on that story. He did have an unusual practice. - dc

A Green Gulch Story

 Dear David,

Do you remember helping Aimee Diller & me late one evening.  We'd "borrowed " a GGF vehicle and jumped the culvert on our way back from the  Pelican Inn.... mmmmhaha.

You got us out AND covered the tracks. I was all of 17yo.

Thanks David.

Be well. 🌿

Only Love,

Donna Harvey

Dear Donna,

Pleased to be of service, ma'am.

d

Continuing from Yesterday as all these recent posts are

That is the dharma body, the dharma nature, and the dharma attribute, or form and color. That is the outlook of dharma, nature of dharma, and dharma itself. And the Nirmanakaya Buddha, the Sambhogakaya Buddha, and the 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

Epilogue

Yesterday posted the last podcast for Crooked Cucumber, the Epilogue. Following it read a good deal of what's called the Back Matter. I found that listing hundreds of names of those who contributed to the story in one way or another was a fit ending, and like the book itself, was not complete. Next with the help of Bill Redican will asure that both the revised transcript and the spoken word do not have any major glitches, missing sentences, paragraphs, words, other mistakes, etc. Will surely want to redo some of the early chatpter audio for the podcast when I was getting a feel for reading it. Then will make it into an audio book and the transcript into a new edition of Crooked Cucumber whih I hope to get published. We will see how that goes. Epilgou of Crooked Cucumber --- Cuke Audio Podcast page

Something

If I talk about something, that is already the dharma nature, how dharma goes, what it is like. When I say what it is like, that is the Nirmanakaya Buddha. Objectively speaking, that is form. More subjectively speaking, it is its nature. But what the source of that Nature is, no one knows. We know it, but we cannot say anything about it. If you say something, it is not the Body, it is the Nature, or it is an attribute of the Body. So we do not talk about what the Dharma Body is, but we understand that there must be some source.   --------------------------- 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

Barbara on Della from 28 years ago

1992 Wind Bell Vol. 26-2 - Della Goertz - Learning and Staying Young by Barbara Lubanski Wenger 

Della Goertz cuke page

Remembering Della Goertz podcast

No Such Thing

There is something which is not in activity. That is the Body. But actually, there is no such thing. Whatever it is, it has some activity. Even a stone has some activity. So there is no such thing. We cannot talk about the Body itself, so what shall I do?   --------------------------- 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

Source

When we say “body,” it is a source of activity, but not activity itself. But without the source, there is no activity. So when there is activity, there should be a source. But the source does not always have any activity. You can have the idea of source or body without activity.   --------------------------- 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

Abiding

 I asked Bill Shurtleff if there was anything he'd like to add to what we've already got on him on his Cuke page. He didn't want to do a podcast so I told him I'd just read stuff about and from him like I did for Les Kaye and do for the departed like Yvonne Rand and Della Goertz whose podcast just went up on Saturday. He sent this:

Aging as a Spiritual Practice

 Lew Richmond online course at Tricycle

When asked why we meditate Suzuki Roshi answered, "So we can enjoy our old age." Join the author and Zen teacher Lewis Richmond for an exploration of how meditation and inquiry can bring ease to growing older. We will learn about the four stages of aging, how to work with fear, how to cultivate gratitude, our role as elders, and the sacred presence inherent when we rest in awareness. Aging is a reality of life. It can be challenging but it can also be something we enjoy. 

Body

This sutra was told by the Sambhogakaya Buddha, with his wisdom, to save all sentient beings. It verbally tells us what dharma nature is, not with a substantial idea, but rather in a dramatic, figurative way.

And this sutra especially puts emphasis on dharma nature instead of on the dharma body, because the dharma body is inexplicable. You cannot talk about the dharma body because it is something beyond our world, beyond our wisdom, beyond our understanding. That is why we say the dharma body does not talk. My mouth talks, but my body doesn't talk.     --------------------------- 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

Dramatic

the Lotus Sutra is the sutra which describes this kind of reality, the world of tathata. That is why it is told on a big, cosmic scale. We say in Japanese jisso, the way everything exists in the realm of reality or the realm of tathata. In this sutra, everything presumes this world of tathata. Of course, it is described in a very dramatic way, but what it means to show is how things exist in this world, in this dharma world or world of tathata. The purpose of this sutra is to give a dramatic version of tathata This is an important point.     --------------------------- 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

Arnie Kotler Editing Service

 

Arnie is an old Zen dharma brother who came to the SFZC in 1971. He's got decades of publishing and editing experience with his Paralax Press and other ventures. 

Arnie Kotler Editing Services Facebook page and website. - Check out all the books he's edited - impressive.

Source

So the Sambhogakaya Buddha or the Dharmakaya Buddha is the source of all buddhas, which exists before Buddha. In this sense, Buddha is eternal, perpetual being. So we call it tathata in Sanskrit [suchness, thusness], or shinnyo in Japanese.    --------------------------- 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

Light Edits Abound

 Look at all the new light or minimum edits - Which is a better term for them. Each term gives an idea of what they are. Maybe minimum is the most accurate. I'll try to stick with that - and that's what's used on shunryusuzuki.com where they reside. So it shall be. And nine bows to Wendy Pirsig and Peter Ford for all their hard work in bringing these more readable edits to this forum. - dc 

Aging is Reality

 The following article is excerpted from a talk given by Lewis Richmond in his upcoming Tricycle online course, Aging as a Spiritual Practice. Find out more about this six-week exploration of growing older as a pathway to insight and psychological growth at learn.tricycle.org

Lew Richmond cuke page

Everything

So in this sense, our practice includes everything. When we sit, we are just sitting. Each one of us is sitting, and each one of us is Dharmakaya Buddha. But within ourselves, even though we are sitting, we take breaths and our heart is beating, so we are also Sambhogakaya Buddha. We understand reality in this way.   --------------------------- 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

Potentiality

Our way of understanding things is exactly the same as our zazen. We say, “Just sit!” What does this mean? When we say, “Just sit,” it includes all the potential activity which we have. We remain in an inactive state, but we have 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

2020 04 27 Rutinitas Kegiatan BHIKKHU & SAYALAY @PATVDH Tamansari - BOGOR

April, 27-2020 - My buddyy Bhikkhu Moneyya just went to retreat at this monastery. A video on The routine activity of monks and female renunciates (in the Burmese Buddhist tradition) at Pa Auk Tawya Vipassana Dhura Hermitage at Tamansari, Ciapus - Bogor, Indonesia

Here's a little something on it

Limitless

His world is limitless. It includes the sun and stars and everything. So his virtue and wisdom are also limitless. He is the Omniscient One, who knows everything as being within himself. For him there is nothing outside his being. That is the Sambhogakaya Buddha. When we understand reality in this way, our understanding includes everything. And the reality which includes everything as an undeveloped reality is the Dharmakaya Buddha itself, Dharma itself, Being itself.      --------------------------- 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

Rick Levine writes on Yvonne Rand

 

A note on Yvonne with excerpts from Edward Conze letters on her.

Rick Levine page

He's talking about us all, not some mythical figure way out there

The most important thing for the Sambhogakaya Buddha is to attain enlightenment inwardly, or to illuminate himself, instead of illuminating the objective world. Instead of observing each thing respectively, one by one, he observes his nature within himself. When he observes his inside world, as the sun does, he finds himself as earth. That earth nature is universal. This earth is also earth, and the sun is also earth. Everything is earth, so there is no difference between the objective world and the subjective world. To be enlightened in his inward nature is to be enlightened outside in the objective world. So for him the whole world is his inside or subjective world. When he reaches this kind of world, we call him Sambhogakaya 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