Marty Balin page

Marty Balin memorial page with photos and memories by Gene DeSmidt - including a good story with Shunryu Suzuki and Marty at Tassajara.

Photo of Gen on the left with Marty taking a break from working on the old new bathhouse in 1978.

RIP Marty Balin

Marty Balin, a Founder of Jefferson Airplane, Dies at 76 - NY Times

Marty and other members of the Jefferson Airplane came to Tassajara as soon as the first guest season opened May 1st (I think) 1967.  Marty was a close friend of good ZC friend Gene DeSmidt. That photo is from DeSmidt Design Build dot com in the pyramid atop Marty's Mill Valley Home Gene designed and built. 

Yosimite

the year before last year, I went to Yosemite and saw a waterfall. I was watching it. It was one sheet of, you know, white pearls hanging on the rock. Part of the water separated from the rock and falling down. When I saw it, I felt very sorry for the [laughs] separated water. It was almost going to be mist but still water. If it become completely mist, there will be no problem [laughs]. But they are not mist yet. So it has to travel one thousand feet all the way down to the bottom. If I didn't see that separated water, I wouldn't have that kind of feeling for the water. But separation from the original source creates some feeling for us.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from thee links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Venus

Nowadays we have very complicated life. But in this direction, as long as we are making effort to reach the moon or the Venus, if that is only way we know, there is no hope for us to attain liberation.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from thee links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Suzuki on Evolution

Evolution of living being is going on in the course of specializing the original nature. You know, something like our human life started from a kind of amoeba, you know, in the muddy pond [laughs] in which something was lived, and they divide their body in two and four and eight. In that way our life started. The more and more our life specialized as a human being or animal or plant-- the more our life is specialized, the more complicated our life activity become. So a human being has more complicated life. So to be divided or to be specialized means to evolve ourselves-- evolution of life going in this way.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from thee links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Tassajara Stories

Nuggets of Tassajara Stories pop up on Facebook now and then and I'm working in that very area these days so we started a Tassajara Stories page on Facebook to see if it attracts any tale or memory that someone wishes to share. I'm mainly interested in the Suzuki era but didn't mention that in the opening post. I linked to two story threads from elsewhere on FB already and posted a link to a small collection of tales on cuke called Pilfering - at the request of Elizabeth Sawyer - but I don't want to put material from cuke there. It's to see if we can attract anything new.  

If you have a Tassajara Story to share either go there or send it to dchad (at)  cuke.com. Thanks. - DC

Thanks Peter Ford for setting up that page. 

RIP Baba Hari Dass

Baba Hari Dass, a Hindu Guru who lived near Santa Cruz, died on the morning of September 25 at the age of 95. Just learned this from Elizabeth Sawyer who studied with Baba Hari Dass and took me to meet him years ago.

Memorial Page for Baba Hari Dass

Baba Hari Dass on Wikipedia

Continuing from yesterday

Attainment by this way of practice, something is missing, and it is only delusion for us. It is not real. So true understanding of zazen is necessary, whatever practice you apply. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from thee links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.

Groovin Reuven

Going through the Names page on cuke.com - looking for Tassajara stories - and spent a lot of time updating it, getting it in better order, making pages for more people as a hub to gather multiple links pertaining to them. The last one was Reuven Ben Yuhmin (AKA Roovane Ben Yuhmin Robert Front)who definitely needed a main cuke page. A great character he.

In Ancient Time

In ancient time, people applied various ways in our practice. Sometimes they meditated on a white skeleton; sometimes they meditated on water; or sometimes they practiced zazen to obtain detachment -- thinking filthy bag containing [laughs], you know, lung and stomach and many nasty things within it. Even the beautiful [laughs] person contains many things [laughs] in her. So we are all a bag of filthy [laughing] things [laughter]. Actually they did it. There are many kinds of practice for us. You are just laughing at them, but if you were in that situation, you would do it. But in America, this kind of thing will never happen [laughter]. All those practices, when it based on the true way of zazen,  work. But as long a practice is directed to one way only, it doesn't work.  --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-12-05-A as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture ex/cerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay.