Fran Thomson memorial to be March 28th

Celebrate and remember the amazing life of Fran Thompson. Join us in wishing her spirit good travels.

Date: Saturday, March 28
Time: 2pm
Place: Muir Woods Park Community Association Clubhouse, Mill Valley, California

Autumn Sky

Many people mistakenly believe that Zen Buddhism is mystical. The practice of zazen is not for gaining a mystical something. Zazen is for developing--or allowing a clear mind, as clear as a bright autumn sky.

Zen practice is to get to our true mind, the mind not accessible to thinking. This mind cannot be consciously known by ordinary efforts. An unusual effort is necessary. This effort is zazen.

- from 66-11-16 - another preserved by Tony Artino's notes. Edited by DC

This is a Cuke Blogger page

Hi. My dear little Zenbook is in the shop and so we are running cuke.com out of Blogger now cause I have to use Katrinka's Mac and need a web based way to do it.

Shunryu Suzuki lecture note

What I am speaking about this evening is the right attitude towards religion. True religion does not add to one's helplessness. But you should not expect to gain from a religion-- because it is not of things, i.e., worldly. For example, Buddha's wisdom does not produce anything. Wisdom sees the world and things as they are; but wisdom has no form or color. Hence wisdom is not something to rely on.

This is a third excerpt from Tony Artino's notes on the same Shunryu Suzuki lecture as the last two - 66-11-09. Go to shunryusuzuki.com to read the whole thing. - DC

Indonesian visa extension

Doing our visa extensions this month rather than hiring someone.

Shunryu Suzuki lecture quote - So-called Wisdom

Satisfaction with our present life is the true way of emancipation. “So-called wisdom is nothing but to be satisfied with what we have. That is Buddha's wisdom.” We should not be mixed up or over-concerned with right-and-wrong actions, etc.

Like yesterday's excerpt, this comes from 66-11-09 which is one of lectures that what we have is from Tony Artino's notes. Thanks Tony. Plan to put them altogether soon but not now. Am just barely learning how to post on Blogger. - dc

Shunryu Suzuki quote

For a while zazen will alleviate suffering, but zazen is not a complete remedy. 

- from 66-11-09 which can be found on shunryusuzuki.com

That's enough for today. Have to use Katrinka's Mac and am just figuring out how to use Blogger. - DC

First post using blogger

My computer hard drive got all screwed up.

My computer's going to be out another day. Possibly new posts will be here for now: cukenew.blogspot.com

All posts below here, moved from cuke.com's January What's New. - DC

There's nothing to do, there's nowhere to go. - Shunryu Suzuki to Richard Baker. This became a sort of mantra and koan for Baker in his early years of practice. - posted in Shunryu Suzuki quotes and excerpts

---

2014 Was The Hottest Year Since At Least 1880, Government Finds - BBC - More charts and graphs here - Dallas Morning News
Click here to see some of the photos from rallies against the Keystone Pipeline across the country and the petition delivery at the White House. - Good for them, vainly battling against the overwhelming forces enthusiastically working toward world suicide as far as us and many species are concerned but the world? It'll still be around and, I know it must be disappointing to so many of us doing everything possible to heat the globe, but life will survive and evolve as always and in the big big picture, nothing significant, the dream continues unstoppable. But must be really bad karma for those who let it happen. Now let's see, who would that be? That's all the time I can spare for this now. Time for a break. - DC

- posted in Climate Change

---

If you look at the world map from the Dallas Morning News article on 2014 being the hottest year recorded, you'll see that Bali was in one of the spots with the least temperature rise. Guess that means we don't have to worry about anything here.  - posted in Saunters