Big Mind

What you do should be well taken care of by big mind. So, our practice should be based on the big mind. So, the pain we have on our legs is the same, but how we handle it is quite different.                   --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

RIP Nonin Chowaney

Dear friend. We haven't been in touch for so long. I was just thinking of calling you but we'll have to communicate through other means now. Gya te gya te!

Nonin was a dharma heir of Dainin Katagiri and the abbot of the Nebraska Zen Center, founded by Katagiri in 1975, until 2016. Here's the history page of that center with a bunch of photos with Nonin.

cuke page for Nonin

Small Self

You should not try to make some particular effort based on your small self: “I have to—my practice should be better,” [laughs] “my practice.” Buddha’s practice would be better, but not yours. If your effort is based on big mind, you cannot get out of it. It is so big, so you cannot get out of it. But if your small self start to act without any care of big mind, that is not Zen.                   --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Difficulties

All those difficulties you have in zazen should not take place outside of your mind. It should be kept within your mind. In other words, you have to accept it [laughs].                   --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

James Lovelock Dies

 James Lovelock, known for his Gaia theory has departed this realm at 103. - BBC

Early he warned of ozone depletion but climate change was his great concern.

He saw the whole earth as an interconnected living entity. He wrote Gaia, later the Revenge of Gaia and more recently Rough Ride into the Future. 

Suzuki translates Tozan

A poem by Tozan translated by Shunryu Suzuki and given to Bill Kwong long ago. Bill gave his student Peter Levitt a copy. It came up in Peter's podcast. 

Peter Levitt cuke page

Difficult

When you practice Zen you have of course pain on your legs, and mentally you have some difficulty. You will find out it is rather difficult to be concentrated on your breathing only. And one after another various images will come into your mind. Or your mind will go out for a walk [laughs] wandering about [laughs]. It is rather difficult for me too, so I think you will find out it is rather difficult.                  --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Continued from Yesterday

This psychology is maybe pretty difficult for you to understand, but Buddhist psychology is concentrated on this point. What is our psychological activity within ourselves? Psychological activity which takes place outside of ourselves is delusion [laughs] according to Buddhist psychology. It is not true. It does not exist. So, deluded activity will not result in anything. But true activity, only true activity result good result.                 --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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: When he says "deluded activity will not result in anything" he means anything beneficial. I'd say there's no activity without a result.

A Sesshin with Dainin Katagiri

Wendy Pirsig’s Journal Account of her and husband Bob’s Sesshin with Dainin Katagiri Roshi on September 17-23, 1979

Wendy Pirsig cuke page

Dualistic

Of course, we have dualistic activity, but that activity take place within the big mind. So, this dualistic activity within ourselves is different from the dualistic activity which we usually take.                --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Within

For us to work on something or to help others is to do things within ourselves, not without. Our effort is concentrated within ourselves. According to the sixth patriarch it is the activity of our true nature within. In the realm of true nature we do things, not outside of our mind. All what we do is the activity of our mind, true mind, which is not dualistic. By mind he means the big mind, not selfish mind.                --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Ireland on Whalen

What I learned from Philip Whalen about writing. - from Koan Conversations

Idea of Self

if your life is based on the idea of self, what you do will not be successful in its true sense. You will be successful in one way, but on the other you are causing some conflict. So, to work without idea of self is very, very important point. It is much more important than to make a good decision. Even though you make a good decision, if that decision is based on a one-sided idea of self, what you do will create some difficulties for yourself and for others.               --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Test

To remain silent and calm is a kind of test we received. If you can remain silent and calm, it means you have no idea of self.              --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Podcast guests and Gender

Another woman has declined to be a Cuke podcast guest. I told her it's hard to get female podcast guests. It makes the oral history of this mainly Zen crowd look like it's mainly a male thing which isn't true. At least not like numbers show. I went to the Cuke Podcast Page which lists the guests (Life in Bali guests are on a separate page) and counted 20 women out of 99 so far. That's one in 5, exactly if you count me as the 80th male. Then I counted the posthumous podcast guests, the ones where I read their interviews and whatever and talked about them. Out of eight, six were women. Of the Life in Bali podcast guests, 29 have been male and 26 female. Of course I have my ideas about why these gender numbers are the way they are but they're just speculative. I wonder what a sociological study would come up with.

Work

To work on something is not difficult, but not to work on anything is rather difficult. When we have idea of self, we cannot stay still. Because we have some idea of self we find some reason why we work on something. But if you do not have any idea of self, you can remain silent and calm as you work on something. You will not lose your composure whether you work or not.             --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

On Quality

On Quality - An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings

by Robert Pirsig and Wendy Pirsig

Harper Collins page for On Quality

Wendy Pirsig labors endlessly in the Cuke Archives sweatshop and for that she is praised and blessed

Wendy Pirsig cuke page

Sit

We always say, “just sit.” That’s all what we say. But if you sit, you will find out just to sit is not so easy. Just to sit may be the most difficult thing.            --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 65-12-11-A - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

More excerpts

A reminder that there's a daily Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpt daily on Instagram Cuke Archives - with a photo. This one is of the Basin Complex Fire that came through Tassajara which was defended there by the five fire monks. These posts also show up at Facebook Cuke Archives where posts from here also forward. Thanks Peter Ford. - dc 

and thanks David Silva for pointing out what fire it was smoke from.

Polished

 You should just say, “Yes, I will” [laughs]. That is the secret of observing our precepts, and that is, you know, how you follow our rules. Then you will be polished up. Day by day, your practice will be mature.               --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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 Message from Kazuaki Tanahashi about action on Climate Change

At this perilous time, you must be very concerned about the global situation that affects our lives visibly and invisibly. I have been searching for an effective way of working together with friends in different parts of the world to respond to the crisis of climate change. Please take a look at this new campaign to plant trees to restore the Amazon Rainforest at www.inochi-trees.org.

Continue below or at Kaz's cuke page

Perfection

Bodhidharma at first did not accept his disciple’s practice. But after trying very hard he gave up the practice of perfection. Then, okay he’s pretty good. His practice is mature enough. So he didn’t say anything.               --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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: "So he didn't say anything." Does he mean Bodhidharma didn't say anything because his disciple's practice was pretty good or that the disciple didn't? I'd say Bodhidharma but I wish he'd used a name rather than a pronoun.

Moon

The moon in the sky, the moon in the water. It has same quality. Although it is small, even a bodhisattva mind of the moon is there. Dogen Zenji made this point.               --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Separate

Bodhisattva mind will make effort to save life. And because it is almost impossible that bodhisattva mind will continue with our teaching forever, and it will not stop. It will be incessantly working on everything. So, that kind of mind of course is not our dualistic small mind. But the relationship between our mind and this mind is very, you know, close. You cannot separate.               --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Brush Mind strikes again

 

See an exhibition of Kazuaki Tanahashi's work at National Gallery of Modern Art Bangalore, India.

Kaz's cuke page

Zazen Posture

I got the following question: I was wondering, did Suzuki Roshi ever allow anyone to sit zazen in chairs?

Yes. It was rare back then. He said that if all one can do is lie down, then that's the best position for zazen. His close disciple Trudy Dixon had to lie down in the Tassajara zendo to do zazen. He even had her lie down next to him on the raised area. When Peter Schneider was head monk, he hurt his knee, he had to sit on the raised area with a leg hanging down. In the city there were occasional people who had to use chairs. In the new book of vignettes about Suzuki, Zen is Right Now we have, "Once Suzuki was asked what’s the difference between sitting zazen on the floor and in a chair and he said, "The only difference is the legs." [writing that from memory - not exact quote.] I have no trouble sitting lotus. I work sitting with my legs up, and sometimes I do zazen in a chair or couch sitting with legs down or one leg down. I'd say to be skeptical of any teaching that says you can't practice if there's some limitation that goes against the norm.

Rejects

If bodhisattva mind rejects muddy, wavy water, that is not, you know, bodhisattva mind which is trying to save everything, whether it is good or bad.               --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Reflect

But, you know, even in our dualistic thinking mind, there is bodhisattva mind, like the moon on the water, the bodhisattva mind will reflect on our mind. That is so called  kanno doko.1 Or you may say inspiration for the future. Even in confused mind, Buddha is there. Even in muddy, wavy water, the moon will be there.               --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Forever

Someone may say, you know, “Sentient beings are innumerable, I vow to save them. If it is innumerable [laughs], how is it possible to save them?" But the bodhisattva way continues forever. So a bodhisattva will go with bodhisattva mind forever. This kind of mind is not, of course, our thinking mind. It is beyond our thinking mind.              --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Following from Yesterday

Suzuki said: So, all of us will get into trouble. He may be okay because he didn't kill anything, so he’s perfect [laughs]. But all the people because of that, will get into difficulties. That is not bodhisattva. That is not true spirit of precepts.

[Here's my take on it]

So, all of us will get into trouble. [trying to figure out what to do about the fact that we're faced with choices of to kill or not to kill all the time, the garden being the clearest example.=

He may be okay because he didn't kill anything, so he’s perfect [laughs]. [He's giving an example here of what someone may be thinking.]

But all the people because of that, will get into difficulties. That is not bodhisattva. That is not true spirit of precepts. [So simplistic ideas like his example above is not the true spirit of the precepts.]

             --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Killing and Saving

Gosh, this paragraph is so hard to edit so that it makes sense to someone not used to Suzuki's thinking. Here it is verbatim:

So, whether you kill fly or insect or not is up to the situation [laughs]. No one wants to kill anything, but to save other, you know, to fulfill your duty sometime you must. When you're at Tassajara, when—when you are taking care of your garden, you know, if you come back, when [laughs] when you see many insects [laughs] to zendo and practice zazen [laughs] we can know, we cannot save anything at Tassajara [laughs].

[Thinking about it.]

Observing

Because you want to be perfect Buddha, you know, instead of bodhisattva, you have problem [laughs, laughter]. This is bodhisattva precepts. So, when you receive precepts, first of all what you should know is everything is ending. And next point is by observing it, we will help others, first of all.           --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Insects

When you work on your garden, there may be various insects, you know, [laughs]. What will you do? [Laughter.] If you understand what you are doing is bodhisattva activity, then sometime you will kill. By killing insects, you know, you will go to hell [laughs, laughter]. But it doesn't matter [laughter, laughs]. You will go to hell with insects [laughter, laughs]. You will have many friends [laughter, laughs]. You are stealing our vegetables, you know, so I have to kill you. But because of killing you, I may go to hell. Because of stealing our vegetable you may go to hell [laughs, laughter]. Let’s go to hell [laughs, laughter]! That is bodhisattva precepts [laughter, laughs].           --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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: Please retain a sense of humor

The Heat is Killing Us

Lew Richmond's latest post for the Good Men Project is about global warming. 

Here's a link to it on his website.

Spoiler: the frog/boiling water thing is not true about frogs but it does seem to be true about people. Maybe frogs learned from people's constant suicidal myopia to notice the warning signs early and leap out of harm's way. Lew is one of many alert observers urging his fellow humans to notice the clear warning signs and do something about it.

Continuously

Continuously, moment after moment, if you said, “I will not,” then that is how you keep our precepts. So, in short, to have always bodhisattva mind is how you keep our precepts. And if you receive our precept in that way, that is bodhisattva precepts.          --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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

Kill

 You cannot say, “No. I will not kill,” you know. That is very true: you cannot kill. But it does not mean, you know, in its ordinary sense whether you will kill or not.         --------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki  lecture - 70-08-03 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com, from one of the newly discovered (2021) or recently significantly added to or changed 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