Fooled

You may feel as if you are fooled by me, but it is not so [laughs, laughter]. It is not a laughing matter. You know, we are seriously confronting our selfish desires, and we are always observing things in a wrong way. When we come to this point, it is necessary for us to understand our practice of shikantaza.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Another Name of One Reality

Whatever you call it, that is another name of one reality. Even if you call it mountain or river, that is another name of one reality. So, we should not be fooled by words like “nature” or “result” or “buddhahood.” We should see things itself with a clear mind. In this way, we understand buddha-nature.

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

No Special Person

We say, “evil desires,” [laughs], but it is another name of buddha-nature. For Buddha that is buddha-nature. There is of course, layman and priest [laughs]. Usually you understand in that way, but actually there is no particular person to be a priest, you know. Each one of you can be a priest, and I could be a layman. Just because I wear a robe I am a priest. Maybe because I behave like a priest, I am a priest. That’s all. There is no special person for priest or layman.

Tim Ford with Shunryu Suzuki at City Center Buddha Hall, maybe lay ordination ceremony 1970

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Two Sides

So “nature” or “outlook of things” are two names of one thing, one reality. Sometimes we say buddha-nature. Sometimes we say enlightenment or bodhi or buddha or attainment. But those are two sides of one reality. So, not only do we call it from those two sides, but also we call it, sometimes, “evil desire.”

Art by Paul Reps

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Featured Cuke Archives page

This is a talk I gave with the All Beings Zen Sangha in Washington DC on October 19, 2024. Inryu Ponce-Barger is the teacher of this group currently focusing on the Sandokai, an ancient Chinese Zen poem that is chanted at the SF Zen Center. I talk about being at Tassajara when Shunryu Suzuki lectured on it. Also, see this page on cuke.com for the Sandokai - DC. Listen to the podcast here.

When Something Appears

You think we have buddha-nature within ourselves as innate nature, and because of this nature we do things. That is the usual understanding of nature [laughs]. But that is not Dogen’s understanding. It is not like a seed which is there before the plant comes out. That is not a correct understanding of nature…Only when something appears, there there is nature.

From A Flora of Tassajara by David Rogers

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Nature Appears

When we say “buddha-nature,” you may think buddha-nature is some innate nature. In Japanese we use the same word—nature—buddha-nature. But actually, it is not nature like the nature of human beings or plants or cats or dogs. Strictly speaking, it is not that kind of nature. “Nature” means something which is there whatever you do. Nature is not something which is there before you do something. When you do something, at the same time, nature appears. That is nature.

Photo by Alain Crockin (Donn Deangelo)

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-20 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Way-seeking Mind

I think Kitano Zenji [giving up smoking] is a good example. I’m not trying to convince you to give up smoking, or something like that. But we must have that kind of way-seeking mind. Then your practice will be pretty good.

After John King's shuso ceremony at Tassajara, Fall 2000

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-19 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

To Give Up

Kitano Zenji was the head monk at Eiheiji Monastery. He told us how he gave up smoking. He told us he was a very bad smoker. But when he was traveling, he came across Hakone Pass in misty weather. So, sitting on the rock at the top of the pass, he took out a pipe and started to smoke. It is very good, as you know, to smoke in damp, misty weather. It was so nice that he was struck by the taste of it, and he determined to give up smoking [laughs, laughter]. That was his last smoke. Wherever he goes, even resting on top of a mountain after climbing up maybe eight miles, he didn’t lose the conviction of practicing zazen. “Oh!” [Laughs, laughter.] “I must give up!”

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-19 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.

Accept

When you eat, for instance, you would rather eat something sweet and nice. But actually, whatever it is we should be ready to accept and eat, without saying, “This is delicious,” or “This is not so good.” When you want to have something more, you should come back to our conviction.

?, Sue Isaacson, Pam Chernoff, Georgette (Iva) Jones, Meg Gawler, David Cohn, Joe Cohen, Susan Wender, Terry Gragg

—cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the image. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-04-19 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.