Good Stimulation

At some monasteries they bathe in cold water from December 1st until December 15th....I think, especially for people who live in San Francisco where the climate is always the same, it may be necessary to have some pool for Zen monks to take cold baths [laughs, laughter]. Maybe an exciting practice for us, and it will give pretty good stimulation for San Francisco people. It doesn’t mean to be involved in ascetic practice. The purpose of such practice is to renew your life physically and spiritually.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Great New Tassajara Photos

 David Silva's April 2024 Tassajara photos.

David Silva cuke page

Why We Practice Various Practices

So we say, “way as it is,” but actually when most people say that, it is not at all the way as it is. Without clearing your mind and without cleaning up your body physically, you will not have a chance to live in each moment. So, the big enemy for us is laziness [laughs]. If you are always lazy and drowsy, spiritually and physically lazy, you have no chance to live truthfully to yourself. That is why we practice various practices.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Renew

Moment after moment we should renew our life, we should not stick to an old idea or way of life. We should renew our life day by day. Especially at the end of the year, we should completely renew our feelings and completely renew our karma. If we stick to old ideas, it is rather difficult to renew our way of life. Some encouragement is necessary if you are always repeating the same thing over and over again. For instance, we use this kind of stick to renew our practice. If you become drowsy and you don’t receive it, you have no chance. But, if you receive the stick, you will have a chance to renew your practice. And in this way, you can live moment after moment.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-29 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

The Taste of Direct Experience

If we want to practice our way, we should free our minds of intellectual or conscious activity in terms of right or wrong, good or bad. Whatever it is we should try it, and we should have the taste of it through direct experience. Not just feeling or thinking, but direct experience. That is zazen practice.

Zenkei Blanche Hartman, Sojun Mel Weitsman, and Chuck Gould at breakfast in the Rinso-in family area, 2011.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Myo Denis Lahey is the abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco and has been since 2002. He first came to the SF Zen Center in 1970. Listen to our podcast and read more by and about him -  http://cuke.com/f

Seek for Something More

Because we are such intellectual beings it is necessary to be free from our reasoning or our intellect. And instead of being caught by our intellectual mind, we should seek for something more, and we have to rely on the way things goes. Here we are practicing, maybe you feel, the Indian way or Chinese way or Japanese way. But actually, there is no special way. Our way is not just for Japanese or Chinese or Indian people. This is for everyone. We sit in a cross-legged position, but if you think just the cross-legged position is Zen, that is a big mistake.

Oil portrait of Shunryu Suzuki, 1971

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

We Added more CO2 than last year

 Record-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere - Guardian

Practice with Right Understanding

We have various Buddhist philosophies, and we have a lot of teaching to study, but Buddhism is not actually philosophy or teaching. Buddhism is always within ourselves and always helping us. But when we don’t realize it, that is so-called suffering. Or when we live in the realm of good or bad, right or wrong, we lose the meaning of our life. Only when we do something, when we practice with right understanding, then whatever we do, that is our practice.

Sandy Hollister working on a rakusu in the Buddha Hall of the SFZC City Center 1970.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Buddha-nature Seeks for Buddha-nature

This kind of reason why you practice your way is—there is no other way to say it, so we say, “Your buddha-nature seeks for buddha.” Buddha seeks for buddha. But this is a very mystical way of putting it, but [laughs] there is no other way to say it. So, we say, buddha-nature seeks for buddha-nature.

Kannon statue at Eiheiji. Photo by Andrew Atkeison.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Memorial for Silas Hoadley

 

You are so warmly invited to celebrate the life of Silas with us 

Father’s Day
June 16,2024
3-7 pm
Mostly Natives Nursery
54 B st
Point Reyes Station
California

With Love,

Amber Hoadley
Drew Simon and Priscilla 
Silas Hoadley cuke page

Why you came here?

I ask you so many times [laughs] why you came here. I think you don’t know why you came here, but there is some reason, why you came here. You didn’t come just by curiosity. Why you came here is, I don’t think possible to figure out. But there must be some reason.

Still from the 1968 KQED film, Zen Mountain Center

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Ed Brown on Being Barred from Teaching at the SFZC

Cuke Podcast #3 with Ed Brown

In this podcast with Ed Brown, he discusses being barred from teaching at the SFZC six years ago which in his case means mainly Green Gulch Farm. He also talks about his prostate cancer and other subjects. At the end of the podcast listen to two brief recordings with what Ed said that offended someone who wrote a letter of complaint that led after some emails to his being barred. It's more complicated than that. Listen to the podcast. 

The excerpts are from recordings of him speaking during a one day sitting at at Green Gulch on July 18, 2018.

The link to Ed's podcast above is to Podbean, the Cuke Podcast host. It's at other platforms under Cuke Audio Podcast and is featured on the cuke.com podcast page.

Ed Brown cuke page (with a link to a section on his being barred)

Ed's Peaceful Sea Sangha

Digesting

I think you may not like zazen so much, but [laughs] you think it is good, so you practice. But you may not realize how much progress you’re making in your zazen practice. Some may, but most of you don’t, I’m afraid. But that is all right. This kind of experience is not just reading or listening to lectures but is something which you experience, both physically and spiritually, without thinking about it, without trying to find out the meaning of it. It is beyond our intellectual understanding, to practice our way without any gaining idea. To practice our way is valuable, and you will have real power of digesting things.

Farewell Party for Nanao Sakaki

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

A Novel that leads to Tassajara

Tim Ream writes:

Hello friends of Tassajara!

Please allow me to present:

Fallen Water: A novel of Zen and Earth
by Tim Ream

A desperate fugitive on the run in the drought-ravaged wildlands of the Big Sur Coast fakes his way into a remote Zen monastery where playing monk is his only hope for staying free. Constant friction with the idiosyncratic monastics and the enigmatic female Zen Master force him to confront what he’s really running from and what freedom truly means. His unexpected self-discovery is deeply intertwined with the mystery that landed him there and with the embattled wilderness he loves.

Amazon link

Tim Ream SFZC page

Deep

Recently I asked you and I want you to reflect on why you study Buddhism. Because I think if this point is not fully understood, it may be difficult to put our whole spiritual and physical power in our practice. Maybe in your practice without thinking about our life more deeply, if you have a problem, you will try to solve it by means of practice or teaching. Then you will not be sincere enough to practice our way because you are always fascinated by some teaching or chanting. We don’t realize that what we study in an intellectual way is very shallow, but what we actually experience is very deep.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Buddhism in Mill Valley - an excellent article

Roots and Branches of Buddhism in Mill Valley - PDF
by Natalie Snoyman

Reprinted from the Mill Valley Historical Society Review magazine, Spring 2024 issue

Featured Cuke Archives page

Ed Brown is the author of several books, including The Tassajara Bread Book, Tassajara Cooking, No Recipe: Cooking as Spiritual Practice, and he also edited the book of Suzuki Roshi lectures, Not Always So. Listen to our 3 podcasts and read more about him and his writing with the link to his cuke page - http://cuke.com/f. (Note: please wait for the page to load and auto-scroll to Ed Brown's 3 podcasts.)

Paradox

But a view of being and a view of non-being is not possible to accept. We can accept one of the two, but we cannot accept two of those viewpoints. So, here there is another problem for us. But when you face this second problem, you will be said to be a Buddhist. You will give up relying on your intellectual understanding of teaching, and you will start our practice of accepting this kind of paradox.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

View of Both Being and Non-being

We see there is constant electric light, but that light is always a current of back and forth. So, Buddhists call thinking everything exists constantly a kind of naive way of observing things which is an aspect of our being. And when you understand everything changes and everything is changing, like electric light or fire, we call this kind of view, a view of non-being. And if someone has a view of seeking for happiness, it means that he is seeking for something which is impossible. And if you have the view of non-being, you will not care for anything. If you accept things in that way, your way of life is very empty. So, our way of observing things is both—based on views of both being and non-being. We know that a view of being is too naive, and a view of non-being is too logical or too critical. A true view of life should be both. View of being and view of non-being. This is our way.

Steve Jobs meditating

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

What is the way as it is?

First of all, if we want to have composure of life, we have to change our view, our way of observing things. To observe things as it is, we say. But to observe things as it is in the usual sense and to observe things as it is in our way are not the same. This point is not truly realized by even a Buddhist. What is the way as it is? Usually things as it is means to observe things as if something exists in that way, constantly, forever. You say, “Here is an incense bowl.” But this is already mistaken. There is no such thing that exists. This is always changing.

Meg Gawler offering incense, 1970

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Everything Changes

Buddha taught us Four Noble Truths, and first of all he taught us this world is a world of suffering. When we seek for happiness, to say this world is a world of suffering, you may be very much disappointed with this teaching. He continues: Why we suffer is this world is a world of transiency, everything changes. But we want everything to be permanent. Especially when we have something good or when we see something beautiful, we want it to be always in that way. But actually, everything changes. So, that is why we suffer.

Kitchen Altar for Grahame Petchey

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-12-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.