That's Michael Katz, Jenny Wunderly and her boys at Muir Beach. Click to enlarge or go to the fledgling friends and family photo page which includes all names.Jenny's cuke page. Must start a page for Michael who sends many insightful comments and is a key cuke advisor though all shortcomings of the site are entirely someone else's fault. - dc

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Ocean Warming Speeds Up Cycle of Climate Change - posted in Climate Change

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Buddha Seed Etc.- today's excerpt from a Shunryu Suzuki lecture.

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Ben Hur made a big impression on me as a boy - the Charleston Heston version. And I read the book. The scene when he goes home and what was once palatial splendor has fallen to ruin made an impression, one of many early realizations that everything changes. That's a little bit how I see the hotel next door. - more in Saunters

Lama Anagarika Govinda and Shunryu Suzuki at Tassajara - SR0015 in the Shunryu Suzuki photo archive - Click on thumbnail to enlarge.

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I thought for a while about the meaning of the word worship. It's one of those terms with a lot of baggage from religious approaches I found unappealing. We never used it my home where the emphasis was on knowing that mind, as in big mind, is all and perfect. But I knew there had to be a meaning for the word that made sense to me. I determined that it could only mean something in the realm of to be aware and thus not lost in thought. Shunryu Suzuki said that we worship whatever it is we're doing. I liked that. Here are some comments from Suzuki using the phrase "object of worship." - DC

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It's best not to kiss in public here in Bali. Nobody will do anything. It's not like India where it's illegal. But they don't do it. I'm including just a little peck. When Katrinka's son Seth spent the night climbing Mt. Agung, the guide asked a couple of questions about Westerners. One was, why do we kiss in public? Everything's so loose here it's easy to forget but we don't forget anymore.  - posted in Saunters

As for the tooth found in McDonald's fries in Japan, I'd say that was the healthiest part of it. - posted in dc misc

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The Spirit of the Lotus Sutra - an excerpt from a Shunryu Suzuki lecture

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Not long after I started sitting at Sokoji, I recall a conversation with a long-haired, bead adorned truth seeker on the sidewalk around the corner from Sokoji on Laguna Street. The aroma of patchouli oil. This young guy said Suzuki Roshi can't be enlightened because he shaves his head. I asked why that is. He said that one who is enlightened is beyond thinking, in a constant state of bliss. To shave his head, he pointed out, Suzuki Roshi would have to have the thought of his head and then that there was hair growing there, and that he did now want to have hair there. He'd have to think of cutting it and so forth. He concluded that a truly enlightened person would just continue to bask in the clear light. He said he was more interested in finding a teacher from India. I wished him good luck. - DC  - posted in ZC Stories

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Katrinka and I both spent years living on the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco and now we've lived near the Indian Ocean in Bali for over a year (except a few months out) and one thing we've noticed so far is how mild and short the rains are here compared to there and no storms yet as we're used to there. No hurricanes or cyclones. There are hard rains but not for so long. I remember days of hard rains in California, high winds, fierce storms. But we have thunder and lightning more. - DC   - posted in Saunters

This morning I had this weird feeling. - more in Saunters

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 Zen Freethinker Issue 36 - 1991

from Ananda Claude Dalenberg's  Newsletters

in 2013 Scans from Cuke Archives

This is the last newsletter that Ananda published and concludes our featuring of this great series. We're happy to have been able to thus present 40 of the 44 issues.

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Breath Counting - After all, What is it? - an excerpt from a Shunryu Suzuki lecture

Suzuki and Dainin Katagii looking serious, not sure where but looks like a little zendo, maybe Los Altos - SR0143 in the Shunryu Suzuki photo archive - Click on thumbnail to enlarge. - DC

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In the interviews about his life Shunryu Suzuki's English gets worse. Reminds me of a study of George W. Bush's grammatical errors and fumbling use of English coming up mainly when he was talking about subjects he was uncomfortable with or not interested in, like taxes, peace, poverty, oh yes - and his past. And found that place mentioned yesterday where Suzuki totally disses the value of looking at him in terms of his life history. The "all will be lost" quote. I see it like we're out on a boat, everyone saying Suzuki did this and Suzuki said that and a storm comes up and we all go down with the ship screaming and flapping our arms. Oh darn. Missed the liferaft.

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DC medical update.  - in Saunters

An excerpt from Peter Schneider Interview one with Shunryu Suzuki - here talking about his English teacher Nona Ransom - with comments by DC beginning with the paragraph below and a link to the Shunryu on Shunryu page and a bit on what's there.

Check out Paul Rosenblum's artistic photos at Ryuten Photography dot com

The Mill Valley, CA, Gallery 291 website still features Paul's December show there. The photo to the left was snatched from their website and can be seen much larger on Paul's cuke page which has exciting links like to interviews with him and a neat excerpt about Suzuki from his Sweeping Zen interview.

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Katrinka said she heard the biawak, monitor lizard, this morning behind the sink. Around noon I was sitting on the setee (featured two days ago) reading a Shunryu Suzuki lecture and noticed there it was in front of me on the floor carefully walking toward the wide opening, three feet from freedom.  - more in Saunters

Thanks to Steve Meeks for scanning "the best picture I've seen of Marian, at home in the wilderness, on the back of her book jacket circa 1982 or so. The location is likely the Coast Ridge Road climbing up to the ridge leading eventually to Marble Peak." That would be in Big Sure I think. - dc

Click on thumbnail to enlarge.

Posted full size on Marian Derby Wisberg cuke page

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Running into a Wall - With this sort of title, one might imagine that in this excerpt Suzuki is going to talk about the problem of our practice running into a wall. Read on.

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Palm oil plantation crime drives illegal logging in Indonesia  - posted in Saunters

A question and answer to Suzuki about war and peace  -  excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture as presented on shunryusuzuki.com edited a little from the verbatim.

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I like what Katrinka calls our setee, like a sofa with a wooden back and arms - long enough to lie down on and deep enough to sit cross-legged and work, laptop on top of a cushion. Like the photo but bigger, with a soft thin mattress and thick rounded arms. I was sitting there the other day when a small biawak, monitor lizard, walked in. Maybe sixteen inches long. I yelled at it to go out but that just scared it to run straight ahead. I guess it's still here. Katrinka says she hears it behind the kitchen sink cabinet. Ketut, Wayan and I are going to try to shoo it out on Sunday when they're both working here. They aren't dangerous - the biawak. See Saunters post of 12-08-14.  - posted in Saunters

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A note about Joko Dave Haselwood with a poem at the bottom of us cuke page.

It's 1am in Bali on the first day of 2015 and just had time to look at email learning that Dave Haselwood, early Suzuki student and publisher of Beats, died last night. Not unexpected. Dear friend gya to gya te. More later. - DC - thanks Elizabeth Sawyer

Joko Dave Haselwood cuke page with links to 1999 cuke interview and much more.

Late afternoon the next day, preparing to upload for US time.

Dave, as I knew him, started studying  with Shunryu Suzuki in 1963 and left after a year and a half. He said that a lot of grief started coming up during that time and he finally went to Shunryu Suzuki to mention he needed to leave, that he could not take the grief anymore and was surprised that Suzuki didn't oppose his desire to leave and told him “you try and try and fail and fail and then you go deeper”. Later he studied with Jakusho Bill Kwong for 15 years, was ordained as a priest, and then with Jisho Carey Warner for the past 14 years from whom he got re-ordained and eventually received Dharma transmission. He lived in Sonoma County where I was for sixteen years and I'd frequently drop by his funky little sheep farm in Cotati to chat with him.  A son and a daughter lived with him there. There were two houses and a barn and over twenty sheep in the field. Continued seeing him after moving to San Rafael. Took Richard Baker by for a visit a couple of years ago. Saw him shortly before leaving for Asia a year ago.

Dave was a publisher in the fifties and sixties, the first to publish Michael McClure, whom he came to California with from the Midwest, and Philip Whalen. He'd been in close touch with McClure in recent years and said that McClure read and listened to his lectures. Dave was a soft-spoken, gentle, humble, insightful person. Farewell Dave. - DC

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Big Mind -  excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture as presented on shunryusuzuki.com though I edit them a little from the verbatim. - DC

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Blew it again. Katrinka and I were heading off to New Year's Eve dinner, a short walk, when she had to go back to put on other shoes as she was getting a blister, having walked about two miles back home earlier. Thank gosh she did cause as soon as we got back, it started pouring rain. - more in Saunters

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Oh yes - Happy New Year.