Stories Index
Memories of Shunryu Suzuki and other stories
There are Suzuki stories elsewhere on this site, mainly in the interviews.
There are more at Brief Memories of Shunryu Suzuki.
Go to Excerpts from Crooked Cucumber for even more stories about Suzuki.
Lectures and quotes and excerpts
San Francisco Stories (Zen Center and Green Gulch)
Outtakes from Zen Is Right Here and Zen Is Right Now - includes many memories of something Suzuki said in a lecture
Groups of stories or Groups telling stories
Outtakes from To Shine One Corner of the World
Mad Monkey Mind - Toni (Johansen) McCarty's notebook written for Shunryu Suzuki in 1966-7. A 38-page typed PDF version with additional narrative. Note: the typed version uses one font for what was in the original notebook and a different font for narrative and explanation written later.
A scanned PDF of the original handwritten notebook.
Handwritten Excerpts from 4th Grade Autobiography by Rhonda Johansen (Toni's daughter)
Haiku Zendo chronicles, Part II - memories of Suzuki (Part I is history of Haiku Zendo)
Memories of Suzuki Roshi from Wind Bell and ZC Files
Ed Brown - Excerpts from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings
Shunryu Suzuki in Thank You and OK
Shunryu Suzuki at Grace Cathedral, June 1968
Excerpts from the epilogue of Born in Tibet by Chogyam Trungpa on Shunryu Suzuki
Meeting with an ordinary monk - Kaz Tanahashi
Koshin Ogui on Suzuki (Bishop of Jodo Shin Buddhism) from 1998 Stanford Suzuki conference - Koshin Ogui
Henry Schaeffer with Sam Bercholz: Rinpoche and Roshi
Three stories from Daniel Abdal-Havy Moore.
March 2000 letter from Nick Phillips about Suzuki's last words to Katagiri.
Memories of Suzuki-roshi by Rick Fields (from October '75 New Age Journal) including the Bob Watkins hamburger story which I told Rick a decade after Bob told me.
From translator (Norwegian) Gordon Geist who's American
Two letters from Ken Spiker.
Zen is Right Here, Shambhala, fall 2007 - vignettes on Suzuki by DC
Shunryu and choosing the worst vegetables
Shunryu Suzuki had a radiation belt.
Remembering a Man of Wisdom by Lewis Richmond
9-05-14 - Remembering Suzuki Roshi - A talk given by Rev. Edward Brown, Rev. Peter Schneider, and Rev. Les Kaye in honor of the 50th anniversary of Suzuki Roshi's arrival in America, on Saturday, May 23, 2009, at City Center. (from the SFZC site)
- What's with them using the "Rev." ??? I searched the site and don't find that usual. Some people like Myo Lehey use it. It was used along with sensei for Shunryu Suzuki until Alan Watts' letter of 1966 said it wasn't right and that we should use "roshi" for him. Go to that story from Crooked Cucumber on the Alan Watts page.
Remembering Suzuki Roshi - A talk given by Sojun Mel Weitsman, Lew Richmond, and Yvonne Rand dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm, 5/24/2009.
Dwelling Place of Our Ancestors by David Schneider, posted Feb. 3, 2019.
Trungpa and Zen by David Schneider, posted 6-18-13.
6-06-13 - Philip Whalen overheard dis of Suzuki Shunryu - from Tensho David Schneider
2-12-13 - Shunryu Suzuki memories from SFZC Alumni retreat of April 2012
11-19-12 - Lloyd Kahn remembers Phillip Wilson which ends with a neat story about Shunryu Suzuki.
A FEW STORIES ABOUT SHUNRYU SUZUKI
This is the subject of my book of sayings by Suzuki Roshi, formerly a Broadway book called To Shine One Corner of the World: Moments with Shunryu Suzuki
which was re-published by Shambhala in October '07 as Zen Is Right Here, Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki, Author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Woah, that's a mouthful.
Here are a few examples. -DC
A young woman asked Suzuki-roshi in a Sokoji talk "Roshi, sometimes when I'm trying to decide what I should do, I ask myself, 'in this case, what would Roshi do?' Should I continue that practice?" Suzuki answered "Then should I ask myself, 'What would Roshi do?'"
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During the question and answer period after a lecture, someone said to Suzuki-roshi, "Here I sit near the end of this session energized and thinking, there is a lot of power in this practice." Suzuki replied, "Don't use it."
From Jack Van Allen (in the green text he sent it in)
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At a question session with Suzuki-roshi at Sokoji, a young man asked, "What should a Zen practitioner do with his spare time?"
Suzuki at first looked perplexed and repeated the phrase, "spare time?" He then began to smile and repeated again "spare time" and then began to laugh uproariously.
Edward Van Tassel (Off the internet)
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As Suzuki was walking out of the building to meet his ride to Los Altos, a woman, at the top of the steps, called out to the driver, "You be careful now; we don't want to lose our treasure!"
Suzuki turned, halfway down the steps, made a loud SMACK! with his hands, and called out, "No more!" He threw his head back and laughed and continued to laugh as the car drove off.
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A student remembers:
I had dokusan with Suzuki-roshi during sesshin I felt lost and far from home at that point in my life, and I asked him if Big Mind was lost in the dark too. He said, "No, not lost in the dark; working in the dark!" and he moved his arms about, demonstrating. He said it was like the many-armed statue of Avalokiteshvara, and he made the statue come to life for a moment.
1/27/03 - Tony Patchell's Zen dreams.
3/25/02 - Dennis Samson told me this story he remembered that Suzuki mentioned once in a lecture. I remember it too so I embellish on what Dennis told me. This happened when Suzuki was quite young, early teens I think.
He was out working with his master, Gyokujun So-on on a bitterly cold winter day. They were cutting firewood. Suzuki's mind was wandering and he didn't notice as So-on pulled back the thin steel blade of his saw so that it bent into a U shape and let it snap onto the unsuspecting face of poor little Crooked Cucumber. It was an extremely painful bit of shocking feedback that Suzuki would never forget.
I wanted to use that story in Crooked Cucumber and even wrote it up, but I wasn't sure if I'd heard it from Suzuki or Dainin Katagiri, his assistant teacher at Zen Center so I set it aside. It really points out the marked difference between what was permissible back then in Japan and in America today where it would be written up in Buddhist magazines and the general media as an example of abusiveness. Anyway, I'm glad teachers can't do that here now. Maybe we're limiting the scope of eye-opening teaching options but I think it just wouldn't work here. - DC
3/12/02 - from Dennis Samson: Once Suzuki Roshi was asked by someone, "How much ego do you need?" and that Suzuki said, "Just enough so that you don't step in front of a bus."
4-06-09 - Joan Halifax, teacher at Upaya ZC, with a story about Shunryu Suzuki and an interesting take on it all. A few tiny things are off - Sokoji wasn't a Victorian and I don't think he would have smiled when answering Okusan (Mrs. Suzuki). Thanks to Madeleine.
10-28-10 - Two stories from Mike Dosho Port's blog.
Suzuki quote on receipt at Palo Alto noodle bar