Outtakes from

To Shine One Corner of the World:
Moments with Shunryu Suzuki

Shine main page            return to What's New

Once at the Oakland Museum, Suzuki Roshi was admiring a densho, a hanging bell used in Zen temples. He asked a guard if he could hit it to see what it sounded like but, after some further inquiry, was told he could not. Later, on his way out he bumped into the bell, as if by accident, and was quite pleased with the sound it made. After that, futile efforts were made to get the bell as a long term loan to the Zen Center. - Lanier Grahame

[I just got this story - since To Shine was finished. - DC]

I remember he used to say that every teaching of every Buddha was really for that moment at that place for those people or that person and that it's imperfect. It's even imperfect at that moment - but it's close to perfect. - Toni McCarty (formerly Johansen)

One day he invited me into his office to have some tea and asked me what I was doing. I said I'm building a subway between SF and Berkeley. He burst out laughing and said, "That's a long way to go by hammer. - Larry Hansen

"I don't ever want to be alone," he said. - Richard Baker

He then replied, "Because you don't know who you are." - Sue Satermo

He said, looking shocked, "Even me?!" - Sue Satermo

Once in a lecture Suzuki Roshi said, "There is double difficulty for new students. Older students should help new students, make practice easier for beginners. There is also double difficulty for older students." - Rick Levine

"Good, bring him over," he told her. "I want to make sure he's right for you." - Mitsu Suzuki

- DC

During one of Suzuki Roshi's last visits to Tassajara in 1971, he gave a very intense short talk in which he stood up from sitting on his zafu and even paced around a bit on the platform beside the altar. All I can remember is he paused and said with great conviction, "I want disciples who will follow me through life and death!" [Source to come]

At one of the lectures he told about how he'd been invited to a college class to talk about Zen. "They ask me all kind of questions! 'When you talk about reality, do you mean phenomena, or the noumena behind the phenomena?' I don't know how to answer!" Suzuki laughed as if it was the biggest joke he'd ever heard. "I just had to tell them that that is not our way."- Chris Miller

Eventually he made it clear he meant the small mind, but it was a chilling statement to many who were present. - Mike Dixon

Suzuki said, "Only if you remember the name of each one." - Mel Weitsman about Alan Marlowe

He repeatedly told me that what we've got to do is to establish an American Zen. He's Japanese, and so am I, but he wanted to establish an American Zen, whatever that turned out to be. - Seiyo Tsuji

Once in a lecture Suzuki Roshi said, "We practice Zen so we can enjoy our old age." - DC

We all three looked at each other and burst out laughing at the same moment. - Irene Horowitz

At that moment the front door to the building opened, Suzuki Roshi stepped out, roared at the top of his lungs, spun around, and disappeared into the building. - Elizabeth Sawyer

Suzuki cut him off. "Don't say 'curious to know.'" - DC

Two students were serving tea and a snack of Greek olives for Suzuki and a visiting teacher from Japan. A plate was placed in the center of the room for everyone’s olive pits. During the meeting, the students watched as Suzuki picked up any pits with olive meat remaining and, one by one, cleaned them all off with his teeth. - Lewis Richmond

We didn’t like what he said about suffering, but knew the smile was genuine. Although I was deep in a fog of confusion, some clarity began to enter my world - [Source to come]

"I made a mistake. I’m so sorry," Suzuki said. - Niels Holm

Once in a lecture Suzuki Roshi said, "I think that when I die I would like to be a mountain—but I am not so attached to my desires." [Source to come]

Every now and then Suzuki would say, "Sometimes I'm the teacher and you're the student, and sometimes you're the teacher and I'm the student." - in CC

Once when Suzuki was quite sick and being helped to a bed, he said, "Now I can be a little child, I don't have to be a Zen Master." - Rick Levine

He ran impetuously up the hill kicking loose rocks down on me. I followed him up a ways until we lost our footing and were dancing downhill in a new slide. He lost his sandals in there. I couldn't understand why he'd do something like that. - Jake Fishman

Suzuki and his senior student were on the East Coast sharing the same hotel room. The student gave Suzuki a book to look at. Later he woke up and noticed that Suzuki wasn't in his bed. There was a light on in the bathroom. He found Suzuki in there sitting on the toilet reading. He hadn't wanted to disturb his student's sleep. - Edo Tai Shimano

"Deep," he said, with a deep voice. - Jack van Allen

One day Suzuki Roshi was up at the altar getting ready to perform a service. He was adjusting some of the many memorial tablets for the Japanese American congregation. Suddenly the whole bunch came down like an avalanche. He turned to face us, smiling happily, and pointed to his head as if to say, yes, my mind wanders; it's no big deal. - Stan White

At a Zen Center picnic in Golden Gate Park, when Suzuki arrived in his robes, a baby blanket on the ground caught his eye. He lay down on it, rolled up in it and just lay there a while. - Stephen Gaskin [Gaskin on cuke]

Suzuki told him to shut his eyes and said, "Touch my head." Yasuhiko did so and Suzuki said, "See, my head is bald, but you can feel the hair. So tell your friends, 'My father isn't bald. If you touch his head you can feel he has hair.'" [Source to come]

"I can't," said Roshi quickly, "I have to stay home and take care of her." [Source to come]

In heaven everyone also has short arms, but they are feeding each other across the table and having a lovely time. - DC

In TY or CC maybe from Kat

Once, taking a walk by the creek with a group of students, Suzuki came upon the two inseparable young women friends who were skinny-dipping. One called out that the day was so hot and the creek looked so cool that they just had to jump in. Suzuki shook his finger at them and said, "Remember, you're two fishes, not one." - Daya Goldschlag - CC

Suzuki opened the door to the basement. There was Okusan, full of fury, screaming at him. She'd been locked in all night. The women's club had met the night before, and they had gone around and locked up too thoroughly before they left. She'd been taking a bath, while Suzuki was upstairs reading. Finally he'd gone to sleep not noticing that she wasn't back. He even got up in the middle of the night to pee as always, not noticing that she wasn't in her bed and her sandals weren't at the door. She yelled at him machine-gun fashion. Suzuki realized what had happened and began to laugh. He laughed so hard that foam from the toothpaste ran down from his mouth onto his kimono. The new student got out of there. - Robert Front (Roovane ben Yumin)

Once in a lecture Suzuki Roshi said, "Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea."- CC

Once in a lecture Suzuki Roshi said, "Enlightenment is not any particular stage that you attain."- CC

Once in a lecture Suzuki Roshi said, "Buddhism is transmitted from warm hand to warm hand."- CC

Once in a lecture Suzuki Roshi said, "Encouraged by trumpets, guns, and war cries, it is quite easy to die. That kind of practice is not our practice." - CC

Shortly before he died Suzuki said to a student, "What I needed to do in my life has been done." [Source to come]

Shine main page             return to What's New