Earlier post link was missing now it's there

 Original-mind Report on from Dharma Sangha including a short video with Zentatsu Richard Baker and his worthy accomplices in the project,  

thanks AM

Everyday Mind is Dao

If you understand what I say, there is no need for you to solve the koan. I am not trying to explain what is everyday mind or what is dao, but through this koan, I want to give you some suggestion how to practice shikantaza.      --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-10 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching

Original-mind Report

Original-mind Report on from Dharma Sangha including a short video with Zentatsu Richard Baker and his worthy accomplices in the project,  

RIP Lawrence Ferlinghetti

 Opened the gates to the Beats - NY Times

Born March 24, 1919, Bronxville, New York

Died February 22, 2021, San Francisco, California

Larry, as his friends called him, was a friend to all, to the SF Zen Center, and to many who passed through. He came to Tassajara during our first guest season. From Tassajara Stories: Alan Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Daniel Moore came in. They meditated in the zendo, walked to the narrows, and in the evening, read their poetry, sang, and chanted mantras with students joining in. Ginsberg played his harmonium with Ferlinghetti and Moore on Chinese horn and Hindu bells. He was always open to whatever I wanted to show him. He carried my books and would even come out to the car to listen to a tape of a song fresh from the studio. He'd occasionally go to Green Gulch, maybe walking up from the beach, and hang out in the meditation circle. I'd read his Coney Island of the Mind before coming to San Francisco and heard about him and his City Lights Books in San Miguel de Allende in 1965 from a long hair fellow who said you could hang out and read and that they even let him walk out with some books without paying. He was older than almost all the poets and writers whom he promoted. Who among them did he not outlive? Farewell Larry. Thanks for all! 

 

Koans

Why we talk about a koan is to give some suggestion about how you practice zazen. We don't talk about what the koan means directly. We give you just a suggestion, and you, according to the introduction or suggestion, you work on the koan. That is how we explain koans and how you listen to koans.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-10 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching

Remembering Arthur Okamura

Arthur would have 89 yesterday, February 24th. 

A page on cuke for Arthur

Thanks Phil Henderson

And a nod to Beth, Jonathan, Jane, and Ethan Okamura

And a fond memory of Liz, so many memories

A Cold opening to a lecture - first words lost

It was very, very cold. It was November? I don't remember exactly. I said, “Don't wear so much clothing. Even though you wear much clothing, you will not be so warm. And if your practice is sincere enough, even though you do not wear so much, you will not be so cold. If you are involved in intense practice, you know, actually you don't feel so cold.”

And so he appeared in zendo with only one thin shirt up top [laughs, laughter]. And he practiced. I said to him, “It may be too thin. You have to wear little bit more “ [laughs, laughter].

But he say, “It's all right.” And he sat with just one thin shirt on his body. 

Why I talk about his experience is because I want to talk about a koan: the famous koan of  what happened between Nansen and Joshu, Nansen's disciple. “Everyday Mind Is Dao.” I think you may know that koan.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-10 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching

Rick Wicks at Johanneshof and the Balkans

Rick Wicks' 2019 trip through the Balkans  - the first four pages (of 44) of this PDF are Rick's account with photos of his stay at Johanneshof, Richard Baker's Dharma Sangha practice center in the Black Forest.

Rick's cuke page

Conclusion of this Lecture

This kind of confidence within ourselves is important. When you have this kind of confidence in yourself, in your being, we can practice true zazen, which is beyond perfect or imperfect, good or bad.

Thank you very much.    --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching

Richard Jaffe has a new book out

 

Seeking Sakyamuni

SOUTH ASIA IN THE FORMATION OF MODERN JAPANESE BUDDHISM

Richard Jaffe cuke page

Attach

When our attachment reaches to non-attachment, that is real attachment. So if you attach to something, you should attached to something completely [laughs]. The sun-faced buddha, the moon-faced buddha! “I am here,” you know, “I am right here.”    --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching

Enjoy

So, “the sun-faced buddha, the moon-faced buddha” does not mean, “I don't care about the sun-faced buddha or the moon-faced buddha.” It means that the sun-faced [hits table with stick] buddha, the moon-faced [hits table with stick] buddha! We should enjoy the sun-faced buddha, the moon-faced buddha. It is not indifference. It is the more than attachment-- strong, strong [laughs] attachment to the moon-faced Buddha or the sun-faced buddha.  --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching.  

A Poem

from Beverly Morris Armstrong (Horowitz)
lifted off her Facebook post of it
Other poems by Beverly on cuke with a link to her cuke page

Looking out

on the blue white world

that just appeared

the way snow appears

out of nowhere

gentling us

to our deaths

splashed for one instant

after another with streetlamp

glow orange and pale

pink purple

is this what the bardo

lights will look like?

another breath

and all the lights

are changing every

moment circling

the planet

so that here

is nowhere

and now is

a forever place

we are lured

into holding

don’t be afraid i tell

myself when no one

is listening

but fat raccoons

toe dancing when unseen

ice slipping through

our fingers

mine and trees

solid for its glory moment

sharp and shining

then gone without warning

without warning snow

appears though forecast

here it is itself

a blue white world

so full of colors

gentling us

and slipping

through our fingers

19 February 2021

Boulder, Colorado

More Limitation

Whatever it is, limitation has some meaning-- not some meaning-- it has absolute meaning in it. It is a most important point: for us to know limitation.   --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching.  

One Continuous Mistake

 Discussing the One Continuous Mistake thing today, found this on the columbia.edu site, Dogen and Suzuki: One Continuous Mistake - Appendix #19 from Philosophies Of Happiness. And in case that doesn't work at some point in the future, here it is on cuke.com.

thanks Matt Zepelin

Limitation

We can enjoy our life only with our limited body and limited life. This limitation is a vital element for us. Without limitation nothing exists, so we should enjoy the limitation. Weak body, strong body; man or woman. The only way to enjoy our life is to enjoy the limitation which was given to us.    --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching.  

Chris' Book is out

 

Available on Amazon at: Searching for the Path Within: From Poetry to Zen in the Sixties

 

Christopher Lennox is a pen name for Chris Miller who was a student of Shunryu Suzuki.

Maybe he doesn't know where babies come from

We can create robot, but we cannot create human being. Human being is human being.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching.  

Moon

 

We are almost reaching to the moon now, but we cannot, you know, create human being in its true sense.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching.  

Lew Richmond in Lion's Roar

 How Old Is This Moment?

BY LEWIS RICHMOND

an article about HIS new book on aging for men, EVERY BREATH, NEW CHANCES.

lEW'S CUKE PAGE

Limited

When I die, the moment I am dying, if I suffer, that is all right, you know. That is suffering buddha. [Laughs.] No confusion in it. Maybe everyone will struggle because of the physical agony or spiritual agony too. But that is all right. That is not  problem. We should be very grateful to have a limited body like me, you know, or like you. If you have limitless life, it will be a great problem for you. [Laughs.]        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching.  

Shunryu Suzuki gave a talk at Grace Cathedral in June, 1968

Received the following with an email today (message below). I cut and pasted the pertinent parts below from the publication.

Hi David, I hope this email finds you doing well (under the circumstances).  We met back in 2009 at the 50^th anniversary event for Suzuki Roshi coming to America, I was one of the speakers for the UC Berkeley academic side of the festivities.  My talk was on the transition of American Zen from counterculture into a successful subculture.

While going through some materials for a research project I’m conducting on Engaged Pure Land Buddhism, I came across a tidbit I thought you might not have, and when I searched at Cuke.com, I didn’t turn it up.  So, I’m attaching it here, in case it’s useful for your ongoing project..

Best wishes,

Jeff Wilson

Professor of Religious Studies and East Asian Studies
Renison University College, University of Waterloo

Thanks Jeff! - DC

put this on a misc SR Reflections page on cuke.com

No Trouble

So whatever you say, it is all right. If you say, “The sun-faced buddha, the moon-faced buddha”-- Nichimenbutsu gachimenbutsu-- no trouble. [Laughing.] Whether I am at Tassajara or Sokoji, should not be any trouble. Even though I die, with me it is all right, and with you it is all right. And if it is not all right, you know, you are not Zen student. [Laughs.] It is quite all right. That is buddha.         --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching.  

Remembering Mel Weitsman

 

From SFZC dot org

Bow

To bow to buddha is “no buddha” for us. There is no buddha, so we bow to buddha. [Laughs, laughter.] If you bow to buddha because there is buddha, you know, that is not true understanding of buddha.         --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching.  

SR0090

That's the ID of this photo. Only a few faces left unidentified. All the names we know are listed below it on shunryusuzuki.com. And now there's a link from there to a page with the photo where you can see the names by putting the cursor over the person's visage. And here's the link to that, the interactive photo with names.

--thanks Peter Ford

Got this posted now with most names below and a link to an interactive page with names revealed by cursor over person. People not sure of have a ? Names not sure of: Paul Haley (36?), Ken Campbell, And where's Dan Welch?, Ken Campbell, Gail Mueler? Behind Bob Halpern is Rick Morton. or maybe Stanley White. Or maybe Stanley is not in it. who's that to the left of Peter Schneider far left 2nd row from bottom? Who's the woman to the right above frowning Mary Quagliata? Who's the small woman to the right above Bill Kwong? Who's mostly hidden between Katharine Thanas and Kathy Cook? Who would that be behind?

Continuing from Yesterday

And there is no Buddha, even. But usually when you say “no Buddha,” [laughs] it means that you stick to only one of the three understandings: that is, you know, “no buddha,” the opposite of “buddha.” [1] Buddha, [2] no buddha, and [3] no buddha and buddha. Whatever you say, it is all right. If you have complete, you know, understanding of it, whatever you say, it is all right. Only when you don't understand buddha, you know, you are concerned about if I say there is no-buddha. “You are a priest how you can say there is no buddha?! And why do you chant? Why do you bow to buddha?” [Laughs.]        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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 e,xcerpts daily provides another way to experience Suzuki's teaching.  

Good

The sun-faced buddha is good; the moon-faced buddha is good. So whatever it is, that is good-- all things are Buddha.        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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.  

Continuing from Yesterday

At first you should be able to accept things in two ways, but this is not enough. It is still dualistic. So you should be able to understand in one of the two ways without thinking, “This is one of the two understanding.” So here you come back from the starting point, but actually it is not starting point because you have freedom from one to the other. So you will not be bothered by it. And whatever you do, that is the great activity of the practice.      --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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.   

My Favorite Shunryu Suzuki Lecture Excerpt

 Thank you very much. - from just about every lecture. Verbatim.

Birthday post contains the sum of what I've learned in the last 76 years

Message

 See Cuke nonZense Post

Two Ways

At first, I think, you should observe, you should understand your own everyday activity in two ways. And-then you should be able to understand or react in one way without problem. One is to understand our life in a dualistic way: good or bad, right or wrong. We should try hard to understand things in term of good or bad. And sometime you should be able to ignore the understanding from the viewpoint of good or bad. “Good” or “bad” is just a superficial understanding. But when you understand things, everything is one. Everything is one. Or all things are one. Then that is the other understanding: understanding of oneness. The understanding of duality.      --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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.   

Achieve

Because we make our effort just to achieve something in its materialistic sense, or spiritual sense, we cannot achieve anything. We must achieve nothing [laughs], so that is the real meaning of nothingness.       --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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.   

Shunryu Suzuki lecture minimal Edits

 New Minimum Edits since July - There are 58 of them in that list.  Great work Wendy Pirsig and Peter Ford. That makes 143 minimum or minimal or light edits. There are other edited versions too. The dropdown menus lead one to various charts and lists. Working first on assuring that all Suzuki's lecture transcripts that have a verbatim version from audio, also have an edited version. The next goal will be to see that all of them have a minimal edit. - dc

Samurai

In Japan samurai practiced zazen to master martial art. Martial art is not just physical things. It is a matter of whether he losea or wins. So [laughs] as long as they are afraid of losing their life [laughs], they cannot act in with full ability. Only when he is free from “to kill or to be killed,” and only when he reacts to his enemy's activity, that is only way to win. If he tries to win, he may lose. [Laughs.] So, how he can act without this kind of fear, which will keep him in limited activity is the most important thing. Because they had this kind of problem, they practiced Zen very hard. It is matter of [ laughs], whether he can survive or he not in the battlefield. So he fought his fight in the zendo, not in battlefield [laughs].      --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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.   

Got a Good Email Message Today

 Hakuin's Song of Zazen 

Translated by Norman Waddell

All beings by nature are Buddha,
As ice by nature is water.
Apart from water there is no ice;
Apart from beings, no Buddha.

How sad that people ignore the near
And search for truth afar:
Like someone in the midst of water
Crying out in thirst,
Like a child of a wealthy home
Wandering among the poor.

Lost on dark paths of ignorance,
We wander through the Six Worlds,
From dark path to dark path--
When shall we be freed from birth and death?

Oh, the zazen of the Mahayana!
To this the highest praise!
Devotion, repentance, training,
The many paramitas—

All have their source in zazen.

Those who try zazen even once
Wipe away beginning-less crimes.
Where are all the dark paths then?
The Pure Land itself is near.
Those who hear this truth even once
And listen with a grateful heart,
Treasuring it, revering it,
Gain blessings without end.

Much more, those who turn about
And bear witness to self-nature,
Self-nature that is no-nature,
Go far beyond mere doctrine.

Here effect and cause are the same,
The Way is neither two nor three.
With form that is no-form,
Going and coming, we are never astray,
With thought that is no-thought,
Singing and dancing are the voice of the Law.

Boundless and free is the sky of Samádhi!
Bright the full moon of wisdom!
Truly, is anything missing now?
Nirvana is right here, before our eyes,
This very place is the Lotus Land,
This very body, the Buddha

thanks Barton Stone for sending this out today.

x

Of course it is difficult. That difficulty is not some difficulty like to carry some heavy things, or to work on mathematics. That difficulty wants some special effort. How you can do it is to be concentrated on your posture, or breathing, or perfect physical practice. That is the only way to have right reaction.      --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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. 

Gagaku

 When I was new to Zen, I lived with Loring Palmer. After zazen at Sokoji and service, we'd walk home, clean the house and make a macrobiotic breakfast, eat, drink tea and then we'd break our silence. One morning Loring played an album of Gagaku, ancient Japanese music from before Kabuki and Noh. Loring had various ways to invite calm to stay a while.

Gagaku

Bothered

In zazen you should just, hear the big noise or small noise, and you should not be bothered by it. It looks like it's impossible, for you, especially for a beginner, because the moment you hear, you know, some reaction follows. But if you practice zazen-- if you try-- if you continuously try not to do so, just accept “things as it is,” you can do it eventually     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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. 

A Great Photo

 Ken Ireland sent this photo taken by Allen Ginzberg at City Lights Bookstore in 1988. The folks in that photo that are in cuke.com are Philip Whalen, Michael McClure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Nanao Sakaki. 

Special

When I was in Japan, I also had some Zen students. Some of them are very rich, and some of them are very influential people. And some of them just, you know, students. Some of them were carpenters, and some of them were other workers. In Japan, still we have some not class, but still, we treat someone, mayor or teachers, in some different way. We have some special way of addressing them and we have some special way to talk with him. And we have also special manner to them. As you say, “Yes, sir.” [Laughs.] That is a kind of thing you have. But nowadays I don't think you have this kind of difference in your way of communication. But I always told them, “If you are Zen students, you should forget all about your position, or work, or title, and you should be just Zen students, or else we cannot practice zazen in its true sense.”      --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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. 

Congratulations Hozan Alan Senauke

Hozan Alan Senauke stepped up to the Mountain Seat yesterday and is now the official new abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Hoitsu Suzuki had a role in the ceremony from Rinsoin in Yaizu, Japan.  Supporting statements came from Gengo Akiba, with Yoshi at his side, Sokan (Bishop) of Soto-shu in North America, Josu Mary Duryee, Berkeley Zen Center President, representing the BZC sangha, Joanna Macy, representing the personal friends of the new Abbot. There were lots of congratulations such as from Shodo Harada from Sogenji in Okayama, translated by Chisan Priscilla Storandt and Ed Sattizahn. The ceremony went on for three hours and there were something like 370 people on Zoom attending. Congratulations Alan!

Ordinary

First of all, you should know that with ordinary, you know, effort you cannot practice our way.      --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-03-09 - 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.