After Buddha was acknowledged as truth itself, then as long as truth exists and as long as we care for truth, we can remain as Buddhists. This Buddha is called the Sambogakaya Buddha.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
We have to have some idea beyond the incarnated Buddha, or Shakyamuni Buddha, or the Nirmanakaya Buddha. That Buddha is the Sambogakaya Buddha. The Sambogakaya Buddha is the Perfect One, and truth itself. When he is seen by people as truth, he may be a teacher. Even plants and animals, mountains or rivers, can also be our teacher when we have eyes to see this. So when the historical Buddha has this kind of background, when he is elevated to this stage, he will be accepted as our teacher in the true sense.
The Church Creek Canyon as seen from the Pine Ridge Trail
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-10-21 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
You can describe his teaching [in the Lotus Sutra], if you understand it, as very simple and very fancy, including many things good and bad. So to exist in this way, like a lotus in muddy water, is not so easy. But without this kind of strict, profound, and rich understanding of life, we cannot be disciples of Buddha.
From the cover of The Zen Way of Recovery by Laura Burges
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-10-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
Q: Roshi, is there a vow of a bodhisattva not wishing to enter nirvana until all sentient beings have entered nirvana?
SR: Yeah. “Until all sentient beings enter Nirvana, I will not enter Nirvana.” Some bodhisattvas take this kind of vow. If you take that vow, at that time, you are Buddha himself.
Drawing by Jack Van Allen and Misha Merrill
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-10-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
Rhonda Johansen Karzag was at Tassajara with her parents for three summers when she was in elementary school. In our podcast she talks about what that was like for her and reads from an account of it she wrote for school when she was in the fourth grade. Rhonda talks about this picture in the podcast and writes about the ceremony in her 4th grade autobiography. - http://cuke.com/f
Which is realistic? I don't know. You have to think more. We are naturally pretty romantic beings. So, perhaps we are too romantic and too emotional. That we don’t want to be so romantic and emotional and want to be more realistic is our desire, but we are romantic and emotional beings. That is very true. So, I don’t argue about whether we are romantic or realistic. But the purpose of religion is to solve this kind of problem.
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-10-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
I tried o get hold of Gene Desmidt recently and failed. A note on Facebook yielded results. He came down with a rare neurological disease and is in a nursing home. He's had three strokes. Here's an article on this from the SF Chronicle's Season of Sharing which helped him out.
We usual people appear in this world, according to Buddhism, because of karma, and we die because of karma. But Buddha appeared in this world with a vow, the Mahayana vow. The first of the four vows we recite is to “save all beings.” He appeared in this world with this vow instead of karma. Karma and vow are actually the same thing, perhaps, but our attitude changes when our understanding changes. Karma changes into a vow. Instead of living by karma, we live with the vow to help people who live in karma. That is Buddha’s teaching.
The Four Vows, calligraphy by Dainin Katagiri-roshi
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-10-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.
Buddha was not God Himself, but was a human being. But for his followers, he was a kind of Perfect One. He attained enlightenment and reached to the bottom of our human nature. He was enlightened in human nature, which is universal, true nature. His human nature is universal to everyone and every being. And he subdued all the emotions and the thinking mind. He conquered all of this, and all of the world, and became a World Honored One. He had this confidence when he attained enlightenment, and his followers listened to him as to a teacher who is also the Perfect One.
Gandhara Buddha at SFZC
—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 68-10-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.