Talk about Mind Leading up to Yesterday's Suzuki Lecture Excerpt

Student: What does it mean to say, “Everything is mind?”

Sirzak our Soursop.

Great juice and fun to eat - over the compost bucket. Lots of seeds like a watermelon with lots of seeds. Sort of gooey inside. It comes apart easy so it's best to eat it at the market. One or two are enough. Scrape the inside of the rind with my upper teeth and pick them clean in my mouth and spit them out one by one. Obviously my mouth knows how to do stuff like this - to separate and not swallow what shouldn't be. I think it has its own little brain.   

Bill Schwobs Photos of Rinsoin, Zounin, and Shoganji

Bill Schwob and his Japanese wife Reiko live in Point Richmond, CA, and visited Rinsoin, Shunryu
Suzuki's home temple, when they were back in Japan to see her family. That was nineteen years ago. He took a bunch of black and white photos of  Rinsoin and Zounin, another temple in Suzuki's lineage, and Shoganji where he was born. Take a look at Bill's photos here. I'll try to get some more info written in below them soon. - DC

That's Hoitsu and Chitose Suzuki to the left. He's Shunryu's eldest son and abbot of Rinsoin.

Bill Schwob's Photo website

Coconut Review

I see I've mentioned coconut oil which we use a lot but not all the time cause it's strong. Love it though. Use it instead of butter or margarine too - Katrinka sticks mainly to olive oil for that. Also have mentioned coconut syrup - like maple syrup. Haven't mentioned eating coconut meat which we do without trying now and then. We drink coconut water every day - get it fresh from the market in the mornings from a woman who opens the coconuts when I arrive and fills four plastic glasses with snapping lids I bring in a backpack - a liter and a third - for 10,000 rupia - about 75 cents. We split one everyday, frequently after yoga. Great stuff. - dc

More on Mind

Student: When you become just mind, now there's nothing else. There's really nothing else but mind, and it covers everything. You can't even say it covers everything, there's nothing left to cover.

Widodo the Prez Next Door

Jokowi Widodo, the new sort of Obama like even in appearance president of Indonesia and thousands of other big shots are convening at the sprawling Bali Beach Hotel. We live at the back door. Lots of cars, taxis, and police and army - personnel carriers parked out front. The usually almost empty hotel next door is fully booked. We walk through the Bali Beach Hotel grounds a lot. Katrinka did so today and they let her - inquired where she lived and where she was going, were polite. She said there were tanks on the street on the other side. Looking forward to walking over there tomorrow morning to play tennis. If I don't come back, you'll know why. - dc  More pics of Widodo where that came from.

One pic from photo archive

Go to this photo on shunryusuzuki.com to see it bigger.

Summer '67 -Shunryu Suzuki + Dan Welch + Peter Schneider + Richard Baker + Chino-sensei (background?) at Tass [That's the note off the page for that photo (SR0049) if you access the photo from the site. I can't see Chino Sensei.

It's so much easier to post photos on cuke blogger than cuke.com. Must remember to do so. - dc

What is Mind?

Student: What is mind?

SR: Mind? When you say “mind,” of course you have an idea of mind and body, or big mind and small mind. So there are various meanings. We mean many things by mind. It was a big problem for us. It has been, and still it is big problem. What is mind and what is our body? Material or duality or mind and body is the same. But in Buddhism, mind and body is two faces of one reality.

Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-D as found on shunryusuzuki.com - Edited by DC 

[Left the "is" instead of "are" in those last sentences on purpose because he used that usage on purpose sometimes. - DC]

Just for Gags at Immigration Office

Local Indonesian Immigration Office installed a big screen TV in the foreigners waiting room and last two times I stood there laughing as Just for Grabs episodes played. It's a sight-gags silent hidden camera show out of Canada which, due to having no language, works anywhere people can laugh.

Have Your Own Mind

So just to have your own mind is the point. Then you will have everything. Then you can help others. Whatever you do, it's all right. How you have your own mind is the purpose of zazen.

Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 65-07-30-C as found on shunryusuzuki.com - Edited by DC