Happy New Year!

 Yes indeed. May you have a new year happy, healthy, free from harm, and full of awakening. - dc

At tje End of the Year

And end of the year is the most busy days. We have to clean up our rooms, and if you have some debts you should pay. For someone to collect the money he lent, and for the most people it is time to pay the debt. And after cleaning up everything, spiritual and physical, we decorate New Year's decoration. Those should be done before twelve o'clock. And after twelve o'clock there is no need for you to pay back the money you owed.

So usually it is pretty exciting week. This kind of custom still in Japan and each one of us, rather we enjoy this kind of activity. We understand each other. We fool ourselves in some way and enjoy the last day of the year. This idea is based on Buddhist way of understanding life. Moment after moment we should renew our life, we should not stick old idea of life, or way of life, we should renew it, our life day by day, especially at the end of the year. Especially at the end of the year we should completely renew our feeling and completely renew our car. If we stick to old ideas always, or if you have no chance to renew it, it is rather difficult to renew your way of life. Some encouragement is necessary if you always repeating same thing over and over again, then even though you have no feeling of sticking to old way of life, actually you are confined in old way of life. Some excitement or some occasion is necessary.  -- from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29

Interview with Lew Richmond

Ted Howell has been helpful sending in errata with the podcasts and on cuke. He just noted there were a few bad links on Lew Richmond's page. I saw what I did wrong. I cut and pasted the links from a post here on Blogger but that doesn't work - it brings one inside the cuke Blogger account. Not good. So thery are now fixed. 

And here's one of the now fixed links to a March 2021 interview with Lew by Michael Kay on Michael Kay's blog

focusing on Lew's latest book (I am pretty sure)

 Every Breath, New Chances: How to Age with Honor and Dignity—A Guide for Men

That's an Amazon link

Here's Lew's cuke page.

Thanks Ted.

Beyond

You first way you think, that is how. That is the unthinkable. But you have no notion of thinking about anything. That is our practice. "How do you think the unthinkable? Think beyond thinking and unthinking." Think beyond thinking and unthinking. Your thinking should be beyond I think or I don’t think. It must be right there always.                --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Deep

What it means is very deep. How do you think the unthinkable? This is not just, you know, a question. It is a strong statement. How do you think the unthinkable. This is not interrogative. It is strong affirmative sentence. How do you think the unthinkable. Unthinkable thinking is how.                --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

An old Dharma Bro shares

Ron Browning wrote:  A friend shared this WONDERFUL virtual Dhamma Retreat (via YouTube) offered by Ajahn Brahm and Venerable Ayya Chanda Bhikkhuni! 

💓☸️💓🙏🙏🙏

Cuke Interview with Ron Browning

How?

So how do you think the unthinkable? There is no way. How? How is the way. Because we don't know how. You know, how? So there you can put anything, you know. How? This way is how. That way is how. All the way is how. This is how. This is how.                --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Neglected to edit Friday's Suzuki lecture excerpt

So here it is with a DC edit.

The sun is not, you know, shining, only on the earth. If the earth happens to be here, the sun will [laughs] shine on our earth. To think the unthinkable, your mind must be like the sun. It is shining, but it is not shining on some particular thing. It is more than thinking about something.               --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Micah Hugs

An article in Santa Rosa CA Press Democrat on Micah's Hugs, founded by Micah and Michelle Sawyer to help those afflicted with addiction, founded after Micah Jr. died of an overdose.

Micah's Hugs dot com

Micah's Hugs Facebook 

Micah's Hugs winner of North Bay Spirit Award for fight against addiction - There's a link to a video on this in the Press Democrat article. Here it is on YouTube.

Micah Jr was the grandson of Ken and Elizabeth Sawyer. I loved it that there were three generations of Sawyers working for Sawyer construction: Ken, Micah, and Micah Jr. It was so sad when Micah died. Micah Hugs not only helps others Micah and Michelle and Micah's mother Denise grieve for the truly tragic loss of Micah Jr., it helps all of us. - DC

Merry Christmas

 Hope you are having and will continue to have a most merry Christmas. 

Trying to upload a Christmas podcast on Cuke Podcast but I guess cyberspace is full of people connecting. Anyway, at some point will upload a podcast wherein I read the brief chapters four and five of Pseudo Dionysius' Mystical Theology. Here it is on cuke. That's my Christmas message to you and yours. - DC

Ah - finally it uploaded. Here it is. Today's Christmas podcast.

The Sun

The sun is not, you know, shining, only on the earth. The earth—if the earth it happen to be here, the sun will [laughs] shine on our earth. Think unthinkable is—is—your mind is—must be like the sun. It is shining, but it is not shining some particular thing. It is more than thinking about it something.         --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Vocha Fiske White

Created a cuke page for Vocha Fiske White today. A great woman whom we loved. Check her out.

"Don't push too hard. It doesn't need to be pushed too hard."

Commenting on Dogen's Fukanzazengi

Think the unthinkable. Think unthinkable. You must think unthinkable, means think, you know, think not about something, you know. Usually when you think, you think about something. But if your thinking mind is directed opposite way, that is to think unthinkable. Your mind is still clear, but there is no object.        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Link Fixed

 The link to Brother David's Xmas message is now fixed. One can also get to it via his cuke page.

Getting close to the big day.

Brother David's

2021 Christmas message

Brother David's cuke page 

x

The mind which would be understood before you explain about it, this kind of mind is true mind. But you know, many people misunderstand this mind for the supernatural power. To some extent you can develop your power of hara so that you can show the power to others. But by hara we do not mean this kind of hara. The power which you will obtain by true practice is the mind of hara we need. Here again, it is necessary to switch over your usual way of understanding to the opposite way of usual understanding. Without working toward outside, to work inward without trying to achieve something—to forget—to stop our mind which is working always outward. This is the most important point in Zen.         --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Hara

There have been many misunderstandings with the power of hara. The power of hara is not some supernatural power. The power of hara is not something which you can be proud of—which you can obtain by hard practice or, you know, the effort directed or through dualistic effort. This mind is beyond our dualistic mind, so you cannot explain it, what it is, by words.        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Zen Mind

If your mind is always caught by big or small, then that mind cannot catch anything. Ours is the subtle mind. You may say, mind which is soft and tender. By tender I don’t mean some emotional feeling but some, you know, subtle feeling that will be obtained by our practice. And so the mind we will obtain by our practice is something which is very subtle and at the same time it is very great. This kind of mind is Zen mind.        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Shines

So Dogen said, "Think unthinkable. How do you think the unthinkable?" How do you think the unthinkable? And these are very interesting words. How do you think the unthinkable? The sun is not shining on some particular thing. So the sun is just the sun. It is not trying to shine anything. It is right there. Just there. But someone happens to appear near the sun, it will shine them. That is, you know, how the sun shines everything.         --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Subtle

What we will acquire by our practice or function of our tanden is sometimes very subtle. With the smallest sound, sometimes the mind will pervade in the great universe. Actually, because it is such subtle and fine activity, because it is so subtle, it can cover the whole world. To appreciate the smallest trivial thing is actually how to appreciate, how to make our life in a cosmic scale.         --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

A Profile of Shunryu Suzuki

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi by Amertat Cohn who made the film Sunseed, one of seven profiles of gurus he's sending out in emails right now.

Shambhala Interview with DC

 Shambhala Publications interview with DC

Someone sent me this today. I have no memory of doing it. - dc

Yuben

And if you practice our way in its true sense, even though you and your teacher are in sesshin, we can communicate with each other. I think you say—the yuben3 [eloquence] is silver, silence is gold. In Zen we say the silent talk of Vimalakirti.4 His silence is more than yuben talk.

3 This is a translation of the English proverb: Speech is silver, silence is golden. Suzuki Roshi translated the Japanese version into English again. Yuben is eloquence. -Shohaku Okumura

4 Suzuki Roshi is talking about the story of entering the dharma gate of non-duality from the Vimalakirti Sutra. There is a famous phrase from the story: Yuima no ichimoku rai no gotoshi means Vimalakirti's silence is like a thunderclap. Probably he is saying, Vimalakirti's silence is louder than Manjushri's talk. -Shohaku Okumura

DC Comment - A few of us spent time getting the verbatim down on these sentences - get it down as well as we could. Shohaku Okumura of the Sanshin Zen Community lent a good deal of assistance. The above is not verbatim but edited by DC.

        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Rock

Yesterday I said I would rather be a rock on top of the mountain than to be a lion or tiger in the mountain, or bird. You may say, a rock is motionless and a rock has no feelings, but if you if you see the rock, directly, it is very many things. Even a rock on the top of mountain, there will be moss on it. Even though there is no moss the natural color of the wood will tell you the story of many kalpas of time. Even though you smooth a stone by machine, you cannot make a rock on the top of mountain. You cannot make it. It is more than a living being.        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

I Do it all by Myself

To study something is to find out what you have learned before. To hear something is to hear what you have studied. And in this way your mind always develop itself by itself. Nothing from outside comes into your mind. All the activity is the self-activity of your own mind.        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Bell

If you hear the bell from outside, that sound at the same time arise from your hara or tanden. So sound does not come from outside. It comes rather from inside, and you hear your own sound. Nothing exists outside of yourself because your mind covers everything. So whatever you do, that is your own activity. There is no duality in your activity.        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

He's not saying steel as was posted a few days ago

The Friday lecture excerpt included some hard to understand words. We thought Suzuki was saying "steel." Now it seems that word was "sea." We sent the transcript and audio for that part of the lecture to long time cuke Japan expert and translator Fred Harriman who, with help from his wife Takaya came up with a different reading which we include here:

In this sesshin especially we concentrate to have more power in your tanden or hara. We say, kikai2 tanden. Ki means maybe spirit. Kai means sea. Tanden is here [belly]. So [hits stick on tatami or something] our power, or hara should be like sea. This is the most important practice for oriental arts even. All the oriental arts is function of our tanden, hara.

And here's Fred's comment noted at the bottom of the lecture.

2 Shunryu is saying “kikai tanden." While “tanden” 丹田 in the vernacular is often used in place of “hara” 腹, in Chinese medicine there are potentially other “tanden”. Shunryu appears to be getting technical by specifying “kikai tanden" 気海丹田 in identifying a location of the body that is not only important for identifying one’s most “original” thoughts (one’s most “honest” or “true” thoughts), but it is also important in centering one’s self for physical and spiritual strength when practicing the martial arts such as kendo. There is only one “kikai” 気海, and it is in the hara 腹, below the navel. So he is trying to be more technically precise in identifying the tanden that he wants the practitioners to pay attention to. He explains the meaning of “kikai” 気海 as 気 = spirit, and 海 = sea (ocean). Perhaps he sensed that he might be getting a little technical, and he left the subject with a cursory description of the kanji, and he brings the attention back to the word “hara” 腹, which is more colloquial but not as precise as “kikai tanden”気海丹田. - Fred Harriman

        --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Inward

When your mind is directed to outward you lose your power in your tanden. When your effort is concentrated inward, you have power within yourself, and everything becomes a part of your hara.       --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

DC Comment: Other times he'd say there's no outward or inward, especially if someone asked about outward or inward.

Got this Yesterday

Thomas Merton Remembrance.  - He died on December 10th, 1968.

Diane DiPrima article link restored

 http://www.cuke.com/others/diane-dp-dream-east-village-article-nation.htm

Diane DiPrima article from the Nation

Diane di Prima and the Dream of the East Village Avant-Garde - from the Nation, Nov. 24, 2021

We think he's saying "steel"

In this sesshin especially we concentrate to have more power in our tanden or hara. Tanden is here [belly]. So [hits stick on tatami or something] power, or hara should be like steel. This is the most important practice for oriental arts even. All the oriental arts are a function of our tanden, hara.      (but it turns out we were wrong - See post for 21-12-13) --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Gary Gach strikes again

 A Life in Buddhism podcast from the guy who brought us the monk and dog gassho photo yesterday.

Tanden

The way is quite different so you should not mix up zazen practice with some other practice. In that—in Zen there are many functions, as you know, to use, to give a sound like kaaaa!!! [laughs] like a thunder. Or to whack it, or to see it. This kind of way—there are many kinds of way. But those activities are based on the power of tanden or hara which you get by our usual practice.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Rohatsu Lecture

Shunryu Suzuki gave one lecture on December 8th that I could find - in 1966 in Los Altos. It's one of his short morning talks there. This one was not included in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. It's about Buddha's Enlightenment Day. So you can go to this link to read it on shunryusuzuki.com and this one to hear me read it on today's Cuke Podcast. 

DC Note: It's a good one.

Happy Rohatsu

Passing on this excellent expression of Buddha's enlightenment received today from Gary Gach. Buddha's enlightenment is celebrated on this 8th day of the 12th month (rohatsu) in Japan and China. Not sure where else. Vesak in the spring is a more important holiday in Tibet, Mongolia, South and Southeast Asia and it covers birth, enlightenment, and nirvana. 

SFZC Shunryu Suzuki lecture class

Awakening the Archive: The Lost Talks of Suzuki Roshi (class), Online 1/8 - 1/29

This class will be led by Rinso Ed Sattizahn and Shundo David Haye and focuses on thirty Suzuki lecture tapes that have been recently discovered. 

Opposite Way

The point I have told you is not to mix up true zazen practice with some other practice like something intellectual —because the way we study is quite different. Intellectual study or a physical or emotional friend—a special friend also. In those activity or in those study, our effort is directed to attain something. But in zazen practice, our effort is directed to opposite way. To forget or to stop all the thinking and to resume our original mind, the most, inmost content of our mind, before thinking—before we feel something.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) lecture tapes. 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Buddhism 2021 on Peter Coyote's channel

 

A conversation with David Brazier, Paul Shippee, and Peter Coyote, hosted by Richard Laubly L to R top = Coyote, Lauby - L to R bottom - Brazier, Shippee

Peter Coyote cuke page Paul Shippee cuke page

On the Youtube channel of

Hosho Peter Coyote

from a recently discovered Suzuki lecture tape

To talk about merit of zen for beginners is like to count other’s treasure. So we do not talk about the merit of Zen. The only way is to devote ourselves to simple practice with hard effort.     --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 67-12-04-A - 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Chronicles of CTR Memorial tribute to Shunryu Suzuki

From the Chronicles of CTR (Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche)

on December 4, 2021

Fifty Years Since his Passing

Today, December 4, 2021, marks the 50th anniversary of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi's passing. With much appreciation and love, we offer the following tributes to Roshi from Trungpa Rinpoche, Bill Kwong Roshi, and David Chadwick.

A Recollection of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha

A Tribute to Suzuki Roshi from Trungpa Rinpoche

Like a Pearl Rolling Across a Table 

Kwong Roshi talking about Suzuki Roshi

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi Connections

By David Chadiwck

They took something I wrote four years ago for them, so it starts off, "Forty-six years ago today, December fourth, 1971, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi died early in the morning..."  - DC 

Shunryu Suzuki died 50 years ago Today

Thank you Suzuki Roshi for coming to America and being our great teacher. - dc

From the lecture Richard Baker Roshi gave on December 4, 1971, the day Shunryu Suzuki died. It was the first day of a sesshin.

Today's Cuke Podcast will be the audio for this portion the lecture 

Audiobook for Crooked Cucumber is now ready

 

The unabridged audiobook for Crooked Cucumber read by DC is finally all in good order and ready to be consumed. Dish it up at Audible/Amazon.

It's 2nd edition, available only on audiobook. Go to CC21 at cuke.com to see what the changes are and a bunch of other supporting material that's slowly growing.

Conclusion of Shunryu Suzuki's 65th birthday lecture

So we must, you know, step by step, we must make mule step [laughs]. Better than horse, maybe. The cow step is best for us, but that is too slow for American people [laughs, laughter]. Let's make our, you know, practice sure, you know. Sure and steady. Thank you very much.    --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-05-18 - 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Cuke Podcast with Shohaku Okumura

 

He's a good man. Check it out.

Here's his cuke page

Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, Indiana

So we can forget everything he's said up to now in this lecture

But before I think we talk about or worry about those things, we should do-- do it, you know. We should practice real practice, without counting others' treasure, you know. It doesn't, you know, mean anything to count someone's treasure.   --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-05-18 - 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Continuing on from previous posts

In Japan, scholars and teachers study Zen and Buddhism from various angle. But if they ignore those points, it may be like counting sands of Ganges. It doesn't work at all [laughs]. They will create more problems [laughs]. So Buddhism will be lost. I think this is very serious problem.  --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-05-18 - 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

DC Comment: Gosh - ignore what points I'd wonder when hearing him say this in a lecture. What points was he making a minute ago? If I don't remember and figure out what not to ignore, nothing will work, I'll create more problems, even Buddhism itself will be lost. A serious problme indeed.

Sex, Gossip, Religion

Ken Ireland's Jesus Koan blog hits on a thorny subject. He's a former Jesuit Zennie living these days in Dharamsala near the Dalai Lama's place there. 

Ignore

If you are in Tassajara, you are comparatively in good situation. Although those things [difficulties in breath counting and following] look like very minor problemz, but actually, if we ignore them, even though we try to achieve something great, we will not be able to do it.                    --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-05-18 - 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Correction

 The part of the video featured today with Reuven Ben Yuhmin starts at 33:40, not 38:40. My bad. - DC

Reuven in a Video

Reuven (Roovane) Ben Yuhmin, Robert Front, has a segment in this 2017 video called Spiritual Journeys of Monks at 33:40. Reuven went in 2010 to Bodhinyana Monastery, a Theravada monastery near Perth. - thanks Koji Acquaviva Dreher

Reuven's cuke page 

More on Counting Breaths

If you find out some physical or some other reason why you cannot count your breaths, you will notice the reason why, and you can organize your everyday life more.                   --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-05-18 - 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.

Taking Care

 If you count your breathing, you will easily notice that you are not taking care of your everyday life.                  --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 69-05-18 - 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. Go to https://www.instagram.com/cuke_archives/ for more daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.