From the SFZC Facebook page:
New Suzuki Roshi Book: Becoming Yourself
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From the SFZC Facebook page:
New Suzuki Roshi Book: Becoming Yourself
First of all, you should know that with ordinary effort you cannot practice our way.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-09 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
To attain enlightenment means to have a kind of complete composure in our life, without any discrimination. But, at the same time, if we stick to this kind of attitude of non-discrimination, that is also a kind of discrimination. So, how we practice zazen—how we attain this kind of complete composure—is the point to have when you start our practice.
The Soto Approach to Zen, Reiho Masunaga
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-09 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
For those unaware, Hozan Alan Senauke was in a coma not that long ago and has been gradually recovering. Here's his Caring Bridge page. This is a bit of a miracle. - dc
The difference between Baso and we ordinary people is for Baso whatever happens to him, he can accept things as it is, as it happens. But we cannot accept everything. Something which you think is good, you may accept it. But something which you do not like you don’t accept it. And you compare one to the other. You may say, “this is the truth; that is not true.” And “he is a good Zen student; but I am not.” That is a quite usual way of understanding. With this kind of understanding you cannot figure out what kind of idea we can sit with every day.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-09 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
When I am sick, I may be the moon-faced buddha [laughs]. When I am healthy, I am the sun-faced buddha. But “the sun-faced buddha” or “the moon-faced buddha” has no special meaning. It means that whether I am ill or healthy, still I am practicing zazen. There is no difference. Even if I am in bed, you know, I am buddha. So don’t worry about me.
Shunryu Suzuki at last public event. L to R: Ed Brown, Shunryu Suzuki, Hoitsu Suzuki.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-09 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
Zen master Baso was big; physically he was very strong and a man of great physique. And when he spoke, his tongue covered his nose. Maybe he was a very fluent speaker [laughs, laughter]. But once he was ill, so the temple master, who took care of the temple, asked him, “How are you, recently? Are you well or not?” And Baso said, “The sun-faced buddha and the moon-faced buddha. The sun-faced buddha and the moon-faced buddha.”
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-09 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
Amber Hoadley was the first baby at Tassajara in the Zen era. In our podcast she talks about growing up at Zen Center, mainly Green Gulch, and her parents, Kathy and Silas Hoadley who were a significant presence in Zen Center in those formative days. Listen to our podcast and read more about her - http://cuke.com/f.
The purpose of zazen is to make ourselves physically strong, maybe to make our mind healthy and body healthy. But healthy mind is not just “healthy mind” in its usual sense, and weak body is not weak body in its usual sense. Whether it is weak or strong, when that weakness and that strength is based on so-called truth or buddha-nature, that is a healthy mind and healthy body.
Photo of Dr. Richard Levine by Sophie Gehan
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-09 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
My voice may not be so good yet [after being sick], but today I’m testing. If I speak or not, is not such a big problem for us. Whatever happens to us, it is something which should happen. So, the purpose of our practice is to have this kind of complete composure in our everyday life.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-09 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
When Dogen left China, receiving transmission from Nyojo Zenji, Nyojo Zenji said to him: “After you go back to Japan, you should practice your way in remote country with few students and always keep our practice fresh and new, and take good care of your students.” ...Even though we are many people now, we should not forget this spirit.
Drawing by Stan White
—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.
by Helen Tworkov
An original work—timely, well written, knowledgeable observations on teachers and practice and our American culture, and a refreshing, if careful, honesty in her reflections, often introspective. several chapters could well become books in themselves, and the prodigious name checking almost demands an index. recommended reading! - Tano Maida
Helen Tworkov cuke page
My master didn’t give us any idea of what we would do the next day or next week. He didn’t talk about tomorrow, and he was very unpredictable. Monks and priests were very much afraid of him. They couldn’t guess what he had in his mind. Maybe he himself didn’t have any idea, but he was always concentrated on what he was doing. That is, I think, too much, but it is necessary for us to practice our way moment after moment, with our best effort and a fresh mind.
Suzuki's master, Gyokujun So-on
—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.
Liz Horowitz wrote:
Doug died at home in early February of kidney cancer. I went for a walk with him a month or two before that, and his condition was stable then. I was shocked that he declined so fast after that. I’ll forward you an email I sent to the Berkeley sangha after he died.
One of the things I loved about Doug Greiner was that besides being a Zen student for many decades, he was a nuclear physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Doug was also a devoted family man. And he loved the eastern Sierra and Mono Lake area. I have fond memories of going on some wonderful hikes with him there. Mel and Doug were great friends, and they used to go for a walk every Tuesday morning after zazen. For many years they went hiking up in the hills, and then as they both aged they did their walks down by the bay, and continued right up until not long before Mel died. Doug was such a dear friend. I miss him and his lighthearted spirit. Here are a couple photos. One shows Doug as physicist, the other as Zen student.
When you go to a Rinzai temple, you should be a new Rinzai student. And if you go to Japan, you should be a new student from America. You should forget all about what you have studied in America. Even though the fundamental practice is the same, we should practice the essential practice with a renewed feeling. This is important. To practice always with a new fresh feeling is rather difficult. So, it is necessary for us to change some part of our practice.
Shokokuji, Kyoto
—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.
After I had stayed at Sojiji more than a year, one day my master appeared, and after talking with me for ten minutes: “Maybe it’s time for you to leave Sojiji” [laughter]. And he always put emphasis on Dogen Zenji’s beginner’s mind. You should always be a beginner, your whole life you should be a beginner. It means you should not stick to an old type of practice, or any kind of practice, and you should always be a new student.
Suzuki’s master, Gyokujun So-on
—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.
Dan Kaplan came to the SF Zen Center in the mid-seventies and plugged away there for ten years. He still lives in the neighborhood and has been a student of David Weinstein in the Yamada/Aitkin lineage for years. Listen to our podcast and read more about him - http://cuke.com/f.
My master always told us: “You stinky boys, wash your underwear!” [Laughs, laughter.] What he meant is not just underwear, you know. My master’s way of training his disciples was pretty different from usual masters. He did not allow me to stay at Eiheiji too long. “Two years is enough! You will become a stinky Eiheiji student! That’s enough, you should go to Sojiji.”
Shunryu Suzuki at Eihei-ji leaving for takuhatsu. He is in monk’s pilgrimage robes.
—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.
If we are caught even by the idea of Zen, we call it stinky zazen [laughs, laughter]. He is not fresh enough—old stinky Zen student! But if we do not have a chance to renew our practice, soon we will be stinky students. As if you wear the same underwear one week or two weeks [laughs]. What will happen to us, it’s obvious.
—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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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 HoadleyDrew Simon and PriscillaSilas Hoadley cuke page
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.
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
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.
Hello friends of Tassajara!
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.
Reprinted from the Mill Valley Historical Society Review magazine, Spring 2024 issue
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.