photo by Lisa Law Brief Memories
DC remembers a lecture series Suzuki didn't give 11-26-09 - With him and on my own I was studying the subject of Shunryu Suzuki's talks the next to last year of his life - talks on the Sandokai [book on Suzuki lectures on Sandokai] and the Eko (the dedications of the merit of the sutra chanting at services). Next he was planning to lecture on the Sixth Patriarch's Sutra which he indicated to me was about as good as it gets - I can't remember his words, just my impression. Not that he might not have said the same thing about another text the next day. He never did though. He went to Japan after that summer of '70 and got sick pretty soon after he came back and I think he knew he was dying the next summer and so gave lectures of another sort. You can see Suzuki's last lectures on cuke here. Or of course you can go to shunryusuzuki.com. I don't think it matters that he didn't give them - just knowing he pointed to this great text is enough. We can study it and give our own lectures. I've got all these little notes like that about Suzuki that aren't recorded anywhere so I thought I should start getting them down and here's one. Filed in Brief Memories. Thanks. - dc |