The Foundation

By right practice we mean fundamental practice from which you can start—then various teachings will come out. If you have right practice, you have already right teaching there. Without a foundation, various practices will not work. Right practice is the foundation of all Buddhist activity.

Soko-ji group photo - 1964

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

Two Wheels

Our two important practices are zazen practice and listening to your teacher, or right teaching. This is just like two wheels of a vehicle. Without practice, you cannot understand teaching, you cannot listen to your teacher. And without listening to your teacher, your practice cannot be right practice.

Image generated by Google Gemini

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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

Wendy Pirsig was for thirty years an archivist and writer featuring extensive web-based history for the small Old Berwick Historical Society’s Counting House Museum in Maine. She’s a student of Myozen Joan Amaral at the Zen Center North Shore in Beverly, Massachusetts. She’s done extensive work for Cuke Archives on verbatim and minimum edit Shunryu Suzuki lectures and carefully scrutinizing DC writings and making sage suggestions. A few years ago she compiled and edited a posthumously published book of her late husband Robert Pirsig’s works: On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings. Listen to our podcast and read more about her including a long piece on her and Robert’s six weeks with the SFZC following the murder of her stepson Chris in the neighborhood.

The Shōbōgenzō

Just to practice zazen as your teacher, that is the only way. If you have some doubt on this point, you should read the ninety-five volumes of The Shobogenzo—over and over again [laughs]. Then you will find out how important the beginner’s mind is.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

To Practice Zazen As Your Teacher

For a teacher, try to be a good teacher is how to teach Buddhism. That’s all. It is very difficult for a teacher to be an example for students, and at least for me it is absolutely impossible [laughs, laughter]. But if I try very hard to be a good friend of you within my ability, I think that there is no other way for us to study Buddhism. So, beginner’s mind is very important. Just to practice zazen as your teacher, that is the only way.

Photo by Robert S. Boni

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

Walk Like Your Teacher Walks

A mother tiger doesn’t have so many things to teach for her children. Living with their children is how to teach [laughs]. Actually, there are not many things to tell you. With beginner’s mind, if you walk like your teacher walks, that is a way how to study Buddhism.

Drawing by Stan White

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

Way-seeking Mind

How to achieve, or how to acquire this kind of calmness of the mind is to have right way-seeking mind, which is beyond any gaining idea. When you have right way-seeking mind, you have right practice, and there you have nirvana. If I speak too much about it, it sounds more and more like something unusual and difficult to attain, but it is not so. If you always retain a beginner’s mind, that is way-seeking mind.

Drawing by Mike Lane

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

Unperturbable

If you do not know absolute serenity, even though you are in a calm, silent place, you will hear some noise, and you will feel scared even by a small mouse [laughs]. But if you have a stable, calm mind you will not be scared by even a thunderbolt. So, calmness is not something which exists outside of yourself. And it is not even a state of mind. It is something more than a state of mind. A state of mind is just temporal, but true calmness of your mind is unperturbable, and it exists forever.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

To See Two Sides

If you are not caught by the idea of calmness, you have calmness. If you are not caught by the idea of there is only one moon, the moon may be double. You will not be surprised to see double moon. So, oneness and duality is two sides of one coin. And serenity and noisy is dualistic, but it is not different.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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

“Ryuko Laura Burges - is a lay entrusted Dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, teaches classes and lectures and leads retreats in Northern California” – that’s from her SFZC bio. In this, her 3rd podcast, Laura tells a story from her latest book: Wisdom Stories of Tibet: Tales of Magic, Adventure, and Bravery. She also tells a Tassajara story and talks about her book on Recovery.

Double Moon

What is the double moon? Actually, the moon is one, so is the silence; silence is just one. But you say this place is calm and silent, and you compare silence with a noisy place. This is the double moon. But if you find calmness in a noisy place, that is to see the double moon as the opposite way of observing things.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

One Direction

The uneasiness is somewhere where you don’t know what to do. If you are directed in one direction, there is no uneasiness. When you don’t know what to do, there is some uneasy feeling. If you have too many things, too many choices, or too many chances, there you have worry. But if only one thing is left for you, there is no problem.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

Obtain Calmness

So, what you should do is to just obtain calmness within yourself—you can ignore the danger of being disturbed by someone else. There you have restfulness, and absolute reliance on yourself only. You can depend on your own effort.

AI Generated Image

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

Real Calmness Is in Noisy Places

Nowadays, if you want some calmness in your life, some go to a mountain or retreat, or build a special home with a double wall. Even when you live in a calm place, if your mind becomes agitated and restless, there is no calmness. Real calmness is in noisy places. Where you are already disturbed enough [laughs], there is no mental danger for you to be disturbed by something else.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

True Calmness

Outside of the zendo cars are always running, and sometimes Honda motorcycles roar like a thunderstorm. “What are you doing there?” they ask. But still, we have deep calmness in here. I think this is rather unusual, and the ability to appreciate the calmness of our life in a noisy city is very precious. By calmness, we do not mean just a calm, silent, soundless place. When our mind is calm in its true sense, nothing can disturb us.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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

Andy Karr | Podcast - Andy Karr began his formal Buddhist practice in 1971 at the SF Zen Center with Shunryu Suzuki after having devoured Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind many times. In early 1972 he began studying with Chogyam Trungpa. He has written three books, the latest one being Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey Through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality. He has been teaching Tibetan Buddhism for years focusing on clearly understanding Mahamudra, Yogachara, Madhyamaka, and so forth. Learn more about him and his teaching at andykarrauthor.com - https://cuke.com/f.

Unique Feeling

What we do looks very rigid and formal, but if you repeat this kind of practice over and over, you will find some unique feeling in our rituals and formalities. When the tea ceremony started, there was not much cake or good tea to serve. Our life at that time was so hard that we tried to help each other by serving a cup of tea or a piece of cake. And preparing a piece of cake and cup of tea is pretty difficult. All of us knew that it was to help people, so we took it with great appreciation. If you take a small piece of cake as if you are eating a piece of bread [laughs], it doesn’t make any sense. So, we take even a cup of tea with great care and appreciation.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

Friendship

Our monthly one-day sesshin is not a matter of something unusual for us anymore; we are getting accustomed to it. But whenever we have this sesshin, we have some renewed feeling for zazen, and my talk may be different from what I said before. But my talks are always concentrated on several important points: way-seeking mind, right practice and attitude towards practice, discipline, or study of Buddhism. I am not so interested in what we will acquire by practice or philosophical answers to your questions. But I am trying to be more sympathetic and systematic in my answers because you will not understand what I am trying to say if my answer is not properly systematized. But for me, and for you too, systematic philosophical answers are not necessary, but the mutual understanding and friendship between us is more important.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 66-03-26-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.

Because of This or That

If you say, “I cannot practice anymore because of this or that,” that is the opposite of our way. Because of this or that, you have to practice! Because you are busy, you have to study. Because your mind is occupied by some particular thing, you have to practice. If you are interested in some particular thing recently, you have to practice our way or else you will be lost. Whatever you do, it doesn’t work; you are not you [laughs]. When you want to be you, you practice zazen. That is the most important thing for you.

Photo by Rowena Pattee (Kryder)

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 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.

Your Own Practice

I see many students who are very much afraid of their new experiences [laughs] that are so unusual. But there is no need to be afraid. And those people may not be able to see their teacher in many cases. Anyway, we should practice our way from beginning to end. As long as the practice follows your intellectual understanding and your emotional activities, whatever they are, it will be adjusted and will be your own in its true sense. Whatever it is, if your practice follows, it will be your own.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 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.

Four Ways

Shi, ge, gyo, sho—four stages. Shi is belief, ge is intellectual understanding, and gyo is practice—emotional activity followed by intellectual activity, we call gyo. And sho is enlightenment or proof, proved by various teachers. This is very important. Four ways. So, our practice includes those four. Our practice is not just one of the four—of entering our way.

Photographs by Judith Keenan

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-08-02 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.