Student: Docho Roshi, what now?
SR: Now. Don't ask me. Now is now. You have now. I have my own now. That is why now is so important. It is beyond question and answer.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Too many thoughts is all right. That is not the point. I am not saying to stop your activity. I am not counting how many thoughts you have. All the thoughts you have are originally one thought. If it is one thought, that is no thought. So, don't be concerned about the thoughts you have. Don't be bothered by them. You should think. To think is all right, but to be bothered by them or to discriminate between good thoughts or bad thoughts is bad. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Student: Is the boss that is illumined by the mind's calmness only a small boss?
SR: There is actually no small or big boss. When you call any boss, that is your boss. Because you think this is big boss or great boss, your practice is not any more true practice. Don't be involved in good or bad, high or low. Just do what you should do at that moment.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives or cuke.com/ig
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Student: Docho Roshi, how is it possible to lose the fear of no nose, no mouth, no eyes, no world of eyes?
SR: Fear comes from your ego. So the way is to open up your mind so that there is no more ego.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
The question should not be about whether it is right or wrong. Right now, the most important thing is to find what is the most important thing. You are asking yourself for others, which is not important. The most important thing is to be involved in what you are doing now, without thinking “good” or “bad.” Stop asking—stop thinking, and devote yourself to your work. Whatever people say, or whatever you yourself say, you should not be concerned about it. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Got the following email today. Am posting this right away.
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I am writing to let you both know that we are offering a distinguished collection of 33 works by Arthur Okamura in our online auction on February 7.
These are all coming from the estate of Gail Feingarten Oppenheimer who represented your father at the Feingarten Galleries in the late 1950s through early 1970s.
Please find a link to the lots here: Bonhams : Coast to Coast Live Online American Art, including The Collection of Gail Feingarten Oppenheimer
Kathy Wong
Director, Business Development, Fine Arts
Specialist, Impressionist & Modern Art
Bonhams
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+1 415 370 0958 mobile
SR: Your thinking should not be based on unreal foundations.
Student: Docho Roshi, is it necessary—words, questions, or even thinking?
SR: For you it may not be necessary. Continue your practice.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Student: Docho Roshi, we can succeed in directing our effort inside. How can there be anything outside our effort?
SR: There is no inside or outside. We say our effort should be directed towards the inside, but we say it to suggest to you the direction. One arrow will get through past, present, and future: the three worlds. And the arrow will continuously go forward. Don't think the arrow is always going outward. To go outward, one thousand miles means to go back one thousand miles. So don't think there is outside or inside in our practice.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Student: Docho Roshi, what is the fundamental cause of the universe?
SR: Universe. Ah, we do not discuss about it because there is no beginning and no end for the universe.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Student: Docho Roshi, after four months' training and a seven-day sesshin, what am I doing here?
SR: You are doing nothing.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Student: Docho Roshi, in our practice should we try to overcome our weakness, or should we try to work through it?
SR: Why should you overcome? You should try to overcome when there is no big mind and no small mind.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Student E: Docho Roshi, I have two questions. Where is home? What is true strength?
SR: When you start wandering about, there is no home, there is no strength. But if you find your home in this moment at this place, you have enough strength to practice our way. And home is right here. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Jiryu's Roshibot - Roshibot knows all, sees all, ask Roshibot your deepest heartfelt query.
Student D: Docho Roshi, the fish is in the water. The water is in the fish. It is soundless, and you cannot hear it. It is clear, and you cannot see it. It has no smell. How can there possibly be a mistake?
SR: There is no mistake whatsoever.
—Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on
shunryusuzuki.com
edited by PF. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Student C: Docho Roshi, outside I see the trees, and the things that grow, and the rocks seem to do perfect zazen. And I see my own potentiality for this, yet still I feel great fear. Please tell me what is the true nature of fear?
SR: Fear has no reason why it arises. So, when the rocks and running water become a part of you, when you become truly their friend, there will be no fear. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Student A: My heart is full of joy. This zendo at Tassajara is like my own home. Sitting in zazen, eating with my fellow monks, trying to follow the way of my Roshi. Word by word, moment by moment, feeling by feeling, my delusion and my feeling is expressed in this moment.
SR: Yes. “In this moment” is right. Don't live in the future or past. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-07 - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Without experiencing our way, to discuss our rules is not right because we put emphasis on our experience, not intellectual discussion, whether this is the Japanese way or American way. We have not much idea of the Japanese or American way. Whatever way may be good [laughs]. We should try to improve our way, and we should develop our way. This is a bodhisattva's mind or spirit. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-06-B - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
Ken came to ZC in 65. Has some good stories about shurnryu suzuki
Here at Tassajara, I think you will have a difficult time in observing our way, which is not familiar to you. But I want you to practice it first of all, and then you can discuss about our way. I think [laughs] your discussion will not result in the same ideas we have had. So, if you practice, and if you find some problems, I want you to discuss them. This kind of discussion is very important, I think. Especially because this kind of idea is quite new to me. By discussion you will have a chance to explain why you observe our way. So, others will be interested in our way. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-06-B - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
In our practice we do not like to be caught by rules. Nevertheless, we make our best effort to observe our way. When we make our best effort, there are no more rules. The rules are part of us. Whether the rules are part of you or not will be checked by your teacher [laughter]. Even if you are observing our way, if the rules are not a part of you, he will see it. The point is your sincerity, not form. We rather put emphasis on each one's own way. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-06-B - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
We find our teaching pretty difficult, especially when studied intellectually. The best way is just to practice until you understand it. This is a completely different method than to force some way on us. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-06-B - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
So universal value is something very vague and not distinctive, and not interesting at all. Only when you appreciate many kinds of different things, will you have a happy life. You will enjoy our life. This kind of thing is quite obvious. There is no need for any interpretation or philosophical discussion about it. It is actual truth. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-06-B - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
If you see many mountains in one view, you will enjoy seeing them, but the value of each mountain will be ignored. If I call you by the name human being, “Hi, human being!” [laughter], your character will be ignored. Everyone is a human being. We don't know whether you are a man or woman or young lady or old lady: any human being. It doesn't make any sense. If you are called by your name, you know, you will be happy. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-06-B - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
We emphasize validity more than universality. We appreciate differentiation rather than universality. Validity will be acknowledged when the absolute value reveals itself in some special thing which is different from others. When you emphasize universality, everything loses its own value. When you mix male and female and divide in two [laughs], you will lose your life. Man should be a man, and woman should be a woman because men and women are different. There is value in each being. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-06-B - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
so gen itteki sui
One drop of water from the fount of Ts'ao Ch'i.
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Shodo Harada, abbot of Sogenji in Okayama, Japan, gave this shikishi to my sister Susan when she visited us with my mother in 1991. Susan gave it to my niece Camille who inquired about it and took this photo of it and her finger.
Thanks to Chisan Storandt of Sogenji for confirming that the calligraphy is Shodo Haradas and Shohaku Okamura of the Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, Indiana for translating it.
This saying appear in Blue Cliff Record case 7
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When the Sixth Patriarch died, his disciples did not cremate
his body but buried it in the valley of Ts'ao-ch'i. In that place is
the main temple of the Sixth Patriarch, where he lived for quite a long time.
from: http://www.firstzen.org/ZenNotes/2001/2001-02_Vol_48_No_02_Spring_2001.pdf
Everything has absolute value because it is different from other things. If all things were the same, they would lose their value. They should be different. Because they are different, they have value. So, to mix up everything is to kill buddha-nature. So, when one is a teacher, he should be a teacher. When one is a student, he should be a student. But it does not mean a student cannot be a teacher. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-06-B - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
My Father and Me by Rick Wicks
Are the sins of the parents visited upon the children unto the seventh generation? (Or are the sins of the children visited upon the parents?)
How does Avalokitesvara,
The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion,
Use her myriad hands and eyes?
The entire body-mind is hands and eyes.
Arousing the wind,
Enormous waves billow
In the Ocean of Being.
Picking up a speck of dust,
The vast world is revealed
In Indra's jeweled net.
(An image with this poem was originally posted on Instagram in July 2022. Finally able to read the text from another version.)
—From Dan Welch at
first version and second version. Go to
instagram.com/cuke_archives
for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.