Save Them All

Even though sentient beings are innumerable, we should save them all [laughs]. This is impossible, you know, because if the sentient beings are innumerable, it is impossible to save them all. Isn’t that so? Even though we know that it is impossible, we cannot help trying to save them all. That is the absolute of what I called inmost request.

Human Be-In, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Photo by Jim Marshall.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Cannot Help Doing So

We say even though Buddhism is impossible to attain, we should attain it. This is big patience, knowing that it is impossible. But with big patience we cannot help doing so. That is not patience even. That is to do something because you cannot help doing so.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Small Patience, Big Patience

Small patience is like even though you have physical suffering or mental suffering, to be patient is small patience. And big patience is something different from to be patient with your physical or mental distress or suffering. That is small patience, but big patience is to be patient about not knowing anything, or for not to achieve anything. This is big patience. Just to sit is big patience for not achieving anything [laughs]. Just to sit. And to repeat the same thing over and over again, day after day, just to repeat things over and over.

Image generated by ChatGPT

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Shobogenzo

As we are human beings, it is impossible to keep Dogen’s pure teaching always fresh and in use, but everyone agreed that his cover was the best cover, anyway. No dust [laughs] can enter the pan; it is so perfect a cover. So, we have to have some Soto priests who can understand what Shobogenzo is. And there must be many Zen masters who are actually practicing zazen. But those who practice zazen will make some mistakes, you know. So, we should have a cover. By mistake I mean dust [laughter]. Soon we will be dusty. There may be many, many misunderstandings of Zen. When we enter some dead end, we should find out what we are doing. That is Shobogenzo.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Still Exists

As he was writing, Dogen thought it was not the time to make Japanese people understand what Buddhism was right then. It was not possible. So, he trained several disciples, and he prepared a perfect cover [laughs], so that someday people would be able to use the pan of the Soto school. Before they could use the Soto way, it was necessary for him to make a cover for it. That is Shobogenzo. That is why the Soto school still exists seven hundred years later. It still exists because of the cover he made.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Jeff Broadbent's India trip

 

Jeff Broadbent sent a fascinating report on his recent trip to India with colorful photos

Jeff Broadbent Cuke page

Featured Cuke Archives page

John Liles | Podcast - John Liles is a long-time student of the Atlanta Zen Center. In this podcast we hear about it and its founder Soyu Matsuoka, and he talks about an inspiring time he had for a month at Tassajara this recent summer.

A Cover

The most important point is not to be one-sided. Practice and study are both important. But it is not possible for anyone to achieve everything. So, as I said, to have the same cover [laughs], is very important. The cover should not be used. When you do something, you should take off the cover [laughs]. If you want to boil something with a cover [laughs], you will get confusion. For us the cover is the Shobogenzo. This is perfect understanding of our way. But perfect understanding will not work [laughs]. It’s too perfect [laughs]. But it will keep dust from the pan [laughs], and if you put a cover on your pan, you can use it whenever you want to use your pan. So, it is very important to have a cover for it.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Right Understanding of Practice

Now here in Zen Center we are practicing a very rigid way after the example of the Japanese way, but it does not mean we are forcing our way on you. But it will give you some suggestions, and it will take, I think, a pretty long time before you establish your own way. So, for you, a pioneer [laughs] of Buddhism, it may be pretty difficult. But if you have right understanding of our way, you can explain why we have this kind of practice and why you should do this kind of practice.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Truth Is The Same

In the East and in the West, the truth is always the same, and we are coming to the same conclusions, I think. Although the way is different, but more and more your philosophy will become like the Shobogenzo, and our way will become more and more scientific. And in this way, I hope we will achieve something very good.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Inexplicable Actual Practice

In a logical or philosophical way, philosophers found what our true nature is. But no one had brought it into practice. That is why Buddhism has the practice of zazen. To bring something which is inexplicable to actual practice is Zen practice. This is one of the noble truths. That is why Zen is so important in Buddhism. Without Zen the teaching of Buddha cannot be understood by us.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Back from Germany - DC talks about the three weeks he and his wife Katrinka spent at Dharma Sangha's Zen Center in the Black Forest, a visit with Vanja Palmers at his home on Mt. Rigi in Switzerland just below Felsentor, the Zen practice center he founded. And more. Listen to the podcast.

Difficult To Choose

If we don’t mind about good or bad we will take either way. But for us it is rather difficult [laughs] to choose one of the two. When it is difficult, there is true nature. True nature makes it difficult for us to choose. Here we have bodhisattva-mind. When we have difficulty in an ethical sense there is bodhisattva-mind. When you say, “I am no good,” there is bodhisattva-mind. But we cannot explain why we have this kind of mind. It is impossible to explain why.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Which Way

When we stand at a fork in the road—which way to take? Here is our bodhisattva-mind. Which is better? Which way should we go? This “I” is not possible to explain, but anyway, we are always at a crossing or at a fork in the road, and we don’t know what to do. As long as we have our true nature, when we are conscientious enough, we sometimes wonder which way to take. That is a bodhisattva’s way.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

What Is Buddha-nature

For us even though you attain enlightenment, you are also a human being. And “buddha” is another name for a human being. Buddha and human being are same nature, same one quality, strictly speaking. It does not mean you become buddha, or buddha devalued to a human being. It is not so. Same quality. When you realize your true nature, you are called “buddha.” And what is buddha-nature is the point.

Image generated by ChatGPT

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Heaven?

A human being is always a human being. I don’t know what you will become after you die. What will become of you I don’t know. You go to heaven and [laughs] will you become a god or what? I don’t know exactly.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Human Beings

We treat human beings as human beings. Religion is not some particular thing. Religion is to find the true meaning of human nature. We do not try to change human beings to God. From beginning to end, we are human beings. We should be human beings. There is no need to be God [laughs].

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Our Everyday Life

The bodhisattva’s way of helping others is not some moral code or written conditions. To help others does not mean actually to give something or to lead someone in a special way. If you want to understand what the actual bodhisattva way is, you should practice our way. That is why Dogen Zenji was particular about our everyday life. He was very, very particular because he thought it was impossible to express what bodhisattva’s way does mean with words or philosophy.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Treated in the Right Way

The most important point in helping others is to actualize the bodhisattva’s way in its true sense. You can actualize the bodhisattva way in your management of a monastery or a temple. If you actualize his way, that is also dana-Prajnaparamita. That is to help others, to give most valuable things to society. If you actualize our way in your life, that is the most valuable contribution to society. Even though you give something, if you give it in the wrong way [laughs], it will create more trouble. So just to give something is not our way. Everything will be treated in the right way in the bodhisattva way.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Our Actual Practice

The way of a Bodhisattva in other schools is rather philosophical, so that is why they have their own system. But for the Zen school, our practice itself is the bodhisattva way. It’s not a philosophy—our actual practice is the bodhisattva’s way. Or management of the monastery is itself the bodhisattva’s way.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Comments on Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - Every day for many years, we at Cuke Archives have posted daily lecture excerpts. They’re all over the place in terms of representing Suzuki’s teaching, how much context is missing, or how appealing they are. I comment on all this. - DC

New Edition: The Tassajara Bread Book

The Tassajara Bread Book

A special 55th anniversary edition of “the bible for bread baking” (The Washington Post), edited and updated with a new foreword by Sourdough author Sarah Owens.

On Amazon | at Local Bookstore

All Edward's books on Amazon

Scholars and Zen Masters

You cannot be both a scholar and a Zen master [laughs]. It would be wonderful if it were possible, but we are not so capable. It is necessary for a scholar to understand the Shobogenzo and other cultures too, or else his teaching will not work. So, for a scholar it is necessary to read many, many books and to understand Eastern and Western culture. A Zen master should devote themselves to our own teaching and practice. But as both scholars’ and masters’ understanding is based on the Shobogenzo, mutual understanding will be easily attained.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

More Than a Philosophical Understanding

When you try to understand the way of a bodhisattva by thinking or philosophy, it is dualistic. Each school has its system of teaching, but Zen has no system of philosophy. Although the Soto school has the Shobogenzo, it’s not possible to understand it in just a philosophical way. That is why when a scholar writes something about Shobogenzo, he will submit it to a Zen master. He does not publish before a Zen master checks it. This is pretty strict for the Soto school because just a philosophical understanding is not good enough.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

A Matter of Spirit

So, when you decide on a rule, you have to be very careful. If it is too strict, you will pay. And if it is too loose, it will not work. Our tradition was built up in this way. And this understanding should be followed. But I don’t mean mental understanding or logical understanding. There must be some good feeling in observing it. Not feeling, but the understanding should be pure understanding. That is why our monastic life is difficult to establish. It is not a matter of the building. It is a matter of spirit, and a matter of people who can be responsible for that.

Photo by Barbara Lubanski-Wenger - SFZC-1980

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-AN as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Duality and Oneness

In duality, actually, there is oneness. Oneness will be expressed by duality. Duality and oneness in a zendo it is one. But in your everyday life, duality and duality is one [laughs]; no oneness exists. In its true sense, duality and duality is one, and one and one is one. This formula is very important, but in the usual sense, duality is duality; it means nothing–it is just confusion. Form is emptiness; emptiness is form; form is form; emptiness is emptiness; we will understand this formula in the zendo. But in your everyday life, it doesn’t make any sense.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-AN as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Some Means

Without a medium it is impossible to get contact with pure mind, or even an inmost request. Without some means, it is impossible to express your inmost nature. Everyday life is also the expression of inmost nature, but our everyday life is too dualistic. So, in everyday life it is almost impossible to study inmost nature. Only in a zendo is it possible to study inmost nature. And if you get accustomed to this kind of life, you can apply this way in your everyday life, so that you may not be bothered by the duality of the world.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-AN as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Report from the Black Forest - At Dharma Sangha's Zen Buddhist Center in the Black Forest with Katrinka for three weeks. Talk about spending time with Zentatsu Richard Baker and Tatsudo Nicole Baden and some mundane stuff.

Without Any Discrimination

Just do it, good or bad [laughs]. Convenient or inconvenient is not the question. When we decide on some rules, it is important to know whether they are practical or not. So, the rules should be decided little by little, we cannot force anything, and the rules will be created by yourselves. But once you have decided on some rules, we should obey completely, until we change the rules. The important thing is how to obey our rules. Once decided, we should obey the rules without any discrimination. Good or bad is out of consideration. In this way, you will learn pure mind.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-AN as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Pure Practice

This idea is very important: all discrimination in your mind is not there, when you practice something. That is pure practice. Or else all that you do will be just dualistic. This way is very difficult to apply in your everyday life, but if you have this attitude in your inmost heart, you can do anything, and you will be pure and free from the duality of the world.

Image generated by ChatGPT

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-AN as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Pure Rules

SR: When you pass a monastery officer’s seat, you have to bow. 

Student: Do you bow even if he is not sitting there? 

SR: Even when he is not there, you should bow. We call them Pure Rules. Pure Rules are not dualistic rules. Pure Rules are absolute rules, and it is not a matter of to obey or not to obey, you have to just do it. As you practice zazen, you just sit, and that is zazen.

Image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-28-AN as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Medicine Walk

The Vision Walkers Collective says come walk with us on The Medicine Walk, Saturday, October 4, 2025.

or gather some friends, take a walk and share your gratitude

Jo Wunderly is one of the leaders. - thanks Jo

Intuition

You should always have intuition. Without trying to do something, your intuitive action should help others. If you actually have bodhisattva-mind, you can help others anyway. The bodhisattva-mind is to pursue good, and truth and beauty. To follow the way is bodhisattva-mind. If one person follows the right way, that one person will help hundreds of people.

Drawing by Michael Sawyer

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Audiobook Intro

Introduction to the Audiobook for Tassajara Stories 

It's missing temporarily in Audible—Preface is repeated twice—this glitch has been fixed but it takes time for a change to show up. If you've already bought yours, don't worry—they automatically update.

***

Welcome to the audiobook for Tassajara Stories, a Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist monastery in the West—The first year, 1967.

Hi, I'm David Chadwick. I wrote Tassajara Stories and I narrate the audiobook, which is published by Monkfish Book Publishing Company. This audiobook is a production of Rumah Putih Studio, located upstairs in our home in Sanur, on the island of Bali. The final EQ and mastering were done by Tude Artasedana of Kubuku Studio, Bali. The audiobook does not include the end matter from the book, acknowledgments and some notes, or the images. You can find all that and a great deal more—extensive notes and background at cuke.com/ts. The musical segue between the parts of the audiobook is Kim Patra on harmonica playing a tiny snippet From Walkin' Down Dusty Road, a song I sing midway through the book. Oh yeah, one other thing. This is just the first book of Tassajara stories. There will be books and audiobooks to come with more Tassajara stories. That's enough. Let's go. I'll be your guide through Tassajara stories. 

MP3 

To Be Natural

Just to respond to some outward stimulation is not right. That is to behave like just animal-like [laughs]. That is not what we mean by “to be natural.” To be natural means to follow the pattern of human life, not animal life. We make a clear distinction from animal life, natural as a human being, or natural as an animal. If someone hits you, to hit back is an animal-like response. You should remember your true inmost nature.

Image generated by Leonardo.ai

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

@JerryBrownGov on X

https://x.com/JerryBrownGov/status/1973100878400987357

---

Tassajara Stories

A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West
The First Year—1967

---

A Great Help

Before attaining perfect enlightenment, just to seek enlightenment is a great help for others. That is what I’m talking about. Even though you haven’t attained enlightenment, but to try to attain enlightenment is good enough to help others.

August 25, 1970, Jukai lay ordination ceremony at City Center

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Brave Enough Observing Your Way

Actually, to help others is to help yourself. And to help yourself without paying any attention to others [laughs] is also to help others. If you are observing your way carefully, that will help others. When almost all people are discouraged, if you are brave enough or good enough to observe your way, that will be great encouragement for others.

Photo from SF Chronicle by Jim Marshall

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Help Others – Help Yourself

Actually, to help others and to help yourself is the same, not different. To try not to have regrets in life is to help myself and to help others. It is true that we feel better when we help others more than when we help ourselves because we are so selfish [laughs]. Actually, we are pretty selfish. And we know to be selfish is not so good, so we always try not to be selfish. Your voice of conscience will tell you, “Don’t be selfish. That’s too much. You are too selfish.” So usually, we try not to be selfish.

First Page St. Gardeners, 1977 – Photo from Ginny Baker, uploaded to Barbara Lubanski-Wenger’s Flickr

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

Barrie Mottishaw is a landscape artist who spent years at the Jones Farm on Quadra Island, a Zen community that was started by students at the San Francisco Zen Center. Learn about that and more in our podcast and see some of her work.

Save Others

Bodhisattva-mind is universal to everyone. There is no difference between a priest or layman. There is no difference for a wise man. When we have way-seeking mind we are all bodhisattvas. Enlightenment, or way-seeking mind, or to help others before we attain enlightenment is bodhisattva spirit. Before you save yourself, you should save others. This is also bodhisattva-mind.

Sign made by Sally Baker-Photo from Ginny Baker, uploaded to Barbara Lubanski-Wenger’s Flickr

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Failing with True Spirit

So, it is not only enlightenment that is valuable. Failing with true spirit is also valuable. It has the same meaning. That is why even when your zazen is not perfect, it has the same meaning if you have way-seeking mind. If you do not have way-seeking mind, even when you attain enlightenment, that is so-called “dry enlightenment” [laughter]. Dry enlightenment. No meaning in it.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Hit or Miss

Dogen Zenji said when you hit the mark, that is the same effort you have been making. Suppose after failing ninety-nine times, you hit the mark at the one-hundredth time. The meaning of “hit the mark” and the meaning of “missing the mark” should be the same. The difference is, now you hit the mark [laughs]. From a materialistic viewpoint, to miss the mark is not good at all. You should hit the mark. But from the meaning of actual practice, even though you miss it, the meaning of the practice is the same: to hit the mark or miss the mark is not different. That is our enlightenment.

Image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Supported by Way-seeking Mind

Enlightenment is not only a kind of psychological state of mind. When the psychological state of mind is supported by right wisdom, we call it enlightenment. When it is supported by way-seeking mind, that is called enlightenment. If you obtain the same psychological state of mind by LSD [laughter], if you lack the way-seeking mind, we do not call it enlightenment. That is a quite different matter. It should be based on a way-seeking mind.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Featured Cuke Archives page

DC reads the Preface to Tassajara Stories. Full title - Tassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year, 1967. Publishing date for the book/audio book/ebook is September 23, 2025. Go to cuke.com to read reviews and so forth.

Way-seeking Mind

In morality you have freedom of choice. You can take bad instead of good [laughs]. But in religion we have no alternative way. But it is our choice. Which way to go is up to us. And yet for us there is no other way than to take good. This is way-seeking mind. To pursue truth and beauty is also our way-seeking mind. There is some difference from ethics. This mind is the traditional mind transmitted from Buddha to us, and for Zen students this spirit is most important.

Drawing by Stan White

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

No Alternative Way

I’m going to talk now about the problem of choosing one of the two: good or bad. Refraining from bad to take good is way-seeking mind, not from a moral viewpoint but from a religious viewpoint. When we take a religious viewpoint, there is no alternative way. We choose good, and we refrain from bad. There is no alternative way. But if you have no way-seeking mind, or if you have no idea of religion, you will wonder which to choose.

Image generated by Leonardo.AI

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Opposite Viewpoint

When you take a religious viewpoint, everything becomes opposite [laughs]. If you are talking from a scientific standpoint, and we are talking from a religious standpoint, the same statement makes a big difference. When we say, “Zen is wonderful. Whatever you do, that is Zen. Even though you are doing something wrong, that is Zen. Whatever you do is Zen. That is why I like Zen.” [Laughter] I think you will have this kind of misunderstanding about Zen. But what we actually mean is quite opposite.

Image generated by ChatGPT

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Way It Should Be

When we say, “to observe things as it is” it means “to see things as it should be” [laughs]. For you, these are opposites. For you, “as it should be” and “as it is” are quite different. “As it should be” means “it is not so, but it should be so.” It means you want to be moral. But human beings are not always moral. When you are not religious, when you are not good, that is how you are. So “way it should be” means morality or religion. And “way as it is” is science. But for us, “things as it is” is morality, not science. So, to observe “things as it is” means to be moral and to be religious. It’s what I mean by “way it should be” [laughs]. So, the statement is the same, but what we mean is not the same.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.

Suzuki Flower Buddhism and Science

Yesterday's Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpt implied that seeing things in a scientific way was to see a flower as static, not something always changing like Buddhism. I'm confident to say Suzuki was wrong and didn't understand that science for a long time has seen phenomena as ever changing too. 

I was in a class on the scientific method and the professor pointed out that from a scientific point of view "this chair isn't a chair" and explained how it's made up of atoms etc. always moving and it would be more accurate to call it - I forget what he said - something like chairness or chairing. At that point I said, "Oh - like Buddhism." "No!" he exploded and said a bunch of ignorant stuff about Buddhism. I got him together with Reb and they got along quite well and he changed his mind about Buddhism as Suzuki would have about science if someone had talked to him about it at that time which might have happened at a later date. He wasn't attached to his views so it wouldn't have been hard for him to see his error. Or he might have known better at the time but used the word science carelessly. - DC

Yesterday's post:

You think “there is a flower.” But the actual flower is changing. But you see the flower— “there is a flower, and this flower is always like this.” This is, perhaps, your understanding of the flower. But actually, the flower is changing. When you see something in a scientific way, actually, you do not see “things as it is.”

Understanding a Flower

You think “there is a flower.” But the actual flower is changing. But you see the flower— “there is a flower, and this flower is always like this.” This is, perhaps, your understanding of the flower. But actually, the flower is changing. When you see something in a scientific way, actually, you do not see “things as it is.”

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-27-B as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. These posts are also on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. We are continually working on improving the quality of transcriptions of Suzuki's lectures. After a new "verbatim transcript" is made, we create a minimally edited version which is more readable. See the most recently completed transcripts at shunryusuzuki.com/n.