What
Was New in 2009going backwards
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What
Was New in 2009
going backwards
What Was New 1999 to now Index
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What Was New in 2009 going backwards December 12-25-09 - Merry Christmas! May you enjoy this hangover of the traditional pagan (winter solstice and other) celebration and, to me, a day symbolic of the birth of bodhichitta, the desire for enlightenment of self and others - or something like that. - dc 12-24-09 - I go to sleep the night before leaving Santa a note asking that the last two weeks of cuke negligence (due to being not only occupied with vital Zen affairs but stuck with poor connectivity) be erased and the past rewritten so that I awaken to find exciting entries for the last two weeks. I ended the evening watching White Christmas on AMC (a poor fifties rehash of the 1942 Holliday Inn which introduced that best selling song of all time, gaining it the academy award for best song that year) and enjoying a white xmas eve in Fort Worth Texas which has enjoyed the edge of a blizzard. I greet the Sandman with this wish and wondering... What was the Star of Bethlehem? - though sifting through the phenomenal universe for a clue to the meaning of this mythical symbol would be like looking for your car keys in your dreams.12-23-09 - xmas approaches and one minister writes of the political origin of the big story associated with that day. And here's A Christmas Story for Truth 12-22-09 - As Christmas approaches, a few favorite Christians come to mind: Brother David at Gratefulness.org William Walter - this guy is super obscure and was against promoting and forming churches. This is what I was raised on. - dc 12-21-09 - Leave Crestone Mountain Zen Center today after a wonderful ten day stay. I love being there. It's at 8500 feet on the slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with an expansive view of the San Luis Valley. The massive Great Sand Dunes are an hour away. They were greater than I thought they'd be. Tomorrow I fly to Texas. This ends 111 days of having been well taken care of by Dharma Sangha and old friend and teacher Richard Baker AKA Baker Roshi. As he drives me to Boulder I think how lucky I've been and how much much I've enjoyed the Dharma Sangha people and scene and how low it scores on the cult meter. I think that Zen in general in the West has gotten less culty as time passes and we suffer and learn and get older and much more realistic and less arrogant. But we're still people and so I'm not saying we're not all a bunch of idiots. - dc 12-20-09 -
my name is
alex lorch and i am one of two founding members of eyes of compassion
zen center in salinas, california. i began my residential zen practice
with a year and a half stint at green gulch from april 2008 to october
2009. the other member, and resident priest/teacher, is shinko rick
slone. rick received dharma transmission from norman fischer in march
2009 and initiated eyes of compassion in september. the center works in
very close partnership with the franciscan workers of junipero serra (in
fact, we all live in the same group house). we are all integral in
running dorothy's place, a soup kitchen and community center located on
soledad street, salinas' skidrow. the zen center offers free guest
student stays in additional to longer residential stays of anywhere from
3 months to 23 years and beyond. PS: We are having a 5 days sesshin from May 16th to May 21st 2010. 12-19-09 - Mark Petchey is doing great considering severe brain damage. He's enjoying his life and is awfully good natured. Here's his website. Review the history on his cuke page. 12-18-09 - Enjoyed visiting Dragon Mountain Temple out on the valley floor in Crestone and Shumei next door to CZMC. 12-17-09 - Met a fascinating writer named Douglas Penick in Boulder. 12-16-09 - Remembering the Boulder Zen Center and their zendo in their Briar Rose Bed and Breakfast. 12-15-09 - "Every great Zen master had an unhappy childhood." – Shunryu Suzuki. I heard him say that but of course I don't think he meant it literally. It's the way he said things. It goes into the Not Always So box with everything else he said. 12-14-09 - Bit of second-hand gossip picked up in Germany (which is one step short of urban myth). A monk there told me a friend of his was present with a group of waiting devotees when Rajneesh died and that it was announced that his last words were, "Don’t let them touch my Royles Royce." or something to that effect. What a card. - dc 12-13-09 - Wish I had more time for TED.com. 12-12-09 - While at Naropa, I was introduced to Shaking Medicine and Creative Therapy during a superlative Boulder conversation. 12-11-09 - Visited Naropa University where I'm on a waiting list for a Frederick Lenz Foundation Naropa fellowship grant to work on the Shunryu Suzuki oral history where it intersects with Chogyam Trungpa
click on thumbnail to enlarge 12-10-09 - Farewell Johanneshof, Grossherishwand, Germany, my Dharma Sangha sangha, and the other friends and fellows and fellowins from the last 99 days. May we meet again. On the last walk today could see the Alps 200 Kilometers away. Off to the US Alps of Colorado. It might be the ninth where you are but it's the 10th here which by now might be there. 12-09-09 - It snowed here the 2nd morning of sesshin. Here are two photos that Katrin, the tenzo (head cook) took.
12-08-09 - Happy Buddha's enlightenment day (Japanese version). Here's another date - April 15 In honor of this day, we present The Fugs singing Nothing. 12-07-09 - Arj Barker Sickest Buddhist 12-06-09 - Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009 November 11-28-09 - Going into a 7 day sesshin tomorrow known in Japanese type Buddhist circles as Rohatsu which is the day it is supposed to end, December 8th. But here at Johanneshof it's done Sunday to Sunday as close as they can get to the proper dates because more people can come that way. Here's some info on Rohatsu or Bodhi day. Drinking the last of the Pete's Russian Caravan black tea, "A well-rounded blend of teas with a full, smooth, smoky flavor." (thanks Katrinka) Such a nice metal container. It's a shame to throw it out, well, to recycle it. Maybe someone will want it. So many things to consider. I'm really glad that there are really no choices and life is living us, or, as Herr Dreyer says, quoting some German Christian saying I suppose, "Man thinks. God drives." Suzuki Roshi said in one lecture long ago (that I wrote a song about), "Ride the wave, drive the wave." I think that's a little more the Zen approach. But I've been readying a book given me by a Zennie in Hanover, Kaivalya Gita by Advaita teacher, Vijai S. Shankar, and everything is on the side of there is nothing we are doing or can do but... and I'm afraid to say what because he'll just scoff at me and say that there's nobody to do that and place to do it and so forth. Sri Ramana Maharshi said that the only thing we can do that matters is to see we don't exist. Wake up is also a fair call on that I think as long as we keep in mind that there's no one to wake up and we're not really asleep and even if we were there's not really any waking up. It gets exhausting having everything ruled out. And reading Red Pine's The Heart Sutra just makes it worse, I mean emptier except you can't really say that anything's empty or non existent or lacking in permanence, self, or delight, because there's nothing to point to to say that about. It really makes me wonder where I am etc. But enough of all that. In honor of the sesshin and the fact that I'm not going to turn on the laptop till it's over, here are cuke entries for your web-surfing pleasure for each day of my absence. - dc
Quick! Go out and buy nothing!
filed in CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism 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 Common Dreams, for the discriminating cuke-EngagedBuddhist. Lambasted by the Buddha-Palin fan club. 11-25-09 - The Regressive Antidote. This guy would have been fun to have as a political science teacher. Boy does he trash Obama. But I know he wishes Obama and all of us well. 11-24-09 - If you're interested in movies, you must be familiar with IMDB, the Internet Movie Data Base. I have used it since near when it started - like more than ten years ago I think. Recently I placed my first movie comment. Read it here. 11-23-09 - See, it's okay to put milk in your tea. One might think this too trivial for a cuke feature link, however, cuke's founder, DC, has driven all addictions (of a psychoactive nature) into one and this one is tea from the tea plant, mainly black tea with milk, milk which has been chastised for years as blocking the cardiovascular benefits of the catechins .(not to be confused with catechism). 11-22-09 - Huston Smith's autobiography, Tales of Wonder Huston Smith's painful spiritual odyssey By John Blake, CNN - thanks MK Huston's interview page on cuke.com 11-21-09 - Menu suggestions - Food Inc. Meat and Climate - bad news bovines. I remember John Robbins who rejected family's ice cream way saying that the best thing you can do for the environment is to not eat animal food. - in Fauna-Ahimsa 11-20-09 - Am currently reading Red Pine's The Heart Sutra. Great. 11-19-09 - Guilty until proven innocent? Where? Most places if the government really wants to get you. We hear about China, but one place that's overlooked is Japan. It's pretty extreme there. I remember a young woman teacher who got arrested by accident but still had to sign a confession before they'd let her go. Read this. 11-18-09 - Was reading about Christian communities. Here are a few. But first a relevant quote. William Morris said in A Dream of John Ball,
11-10-09 - Going to Zurich early today to walk around then meet friend for dinner then we go get Katrinka at the airport. Won't be back her at Johanneshof for a week. My room's not locked and there's money in it, so don't tell anyone that. Let me take a moment to stick in a link to the Huff Post's post on Gorbachev saying the US should learn from Russia's experience and get out of Afghanistan and US National Security Adviser James Jones Skeptical about Troop Request. - posted in - in Out of Afghan! Anyway, I ain't taking my laptop so I thought I'd lay out the next week's postings right now which is 11-10 in Germany but not yet so in the US but the US is being downgraded these days anyway with the decline of the dollar and empire and all. Starting with:
11-09-09 - The exciting conclusion to "A really cheap and effective mindfulness program" from 10-26 which had just sort of petered off in the middle. Read now the finished product in all its glory. 11-08-09 -
11-07-09 - Roots of Peace dot org - Founder Heidi Kühn and her hubby Gary (I think) are on their way to Afghanistan to do their mine-removing thing. We wish them a safe and successful journey. Afghanistan: Groundhog day - Guardian UK - in Out of Afghan! 11-06-09 - May the US Invasion of Afghanistan Come to an End ASAP - in Out of Afghan! - a new page in the CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism section. 11-05-09 -
Shores of Zen
- a new Zen website by
by Jiryu Mark 11-04-09 - "I am" is an ever present fact, while "I am created" is an idea. Neither God nor the universe have come to tell you that they have created you. The mind, obsessed by the idea of causality, invents creation and then wonders "who is the creator?" The mind itself is the creator. Even this is not quite true, for the created and its creator are one. The mind and the world are not separate. Do understand that what you think to be the world is your own mind. All space and time are in the mind. 11-03-09 - Sarlo's Guru Rating Service - 1600 or so of them he says. It's dizzying to go through this site. So many humorous and conflicting thoughts come to mind. His opinions are interesting and don't overwhelm the data. Sort of puts things in perspective. Beautiful BBC footage of Peruvian hummingbirds mating ritual
11-01-09 - Hoff Berg Garten - sort of like "Country-place Mountain Garden". Hoff means "court" but I think here it refers to it being in the country. Anyway, this place is next door to Dharma Sangha's German retreat, Johanneshof. (see - there's that "hof" again). See the nice photo of Robert. It's his place. He's a really sweet guy. Actually, here's the homepage. It's great - organic garden, native plants, sells seeds online. - dc Fall Back an Hour in the good ole US of A - except Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas - a cuke reminder. See last week's Fall Back Comment. October 10-31-09 - Happy Halloween tricksters and treaters An appropriate story for today. 10-30-09 - Supporters and Advisors - past present and future Gathering past letters of support or at least links to them onto one page because I just sent a proposal you may hear about later which had a link on the bottom to this page so now I'd better create it. 10-29-09 - Check out the beautiful art of Sophia Dixon Dillo. 10-28-09 - Keeping up with the Clear View Project and their present fundraising drive. 10-27-09 - Eric Arnow - Report from China and Letter to Barak Obama 10-26-09 - A really cheap and effective mindfulness program 10-25-09 -
Shunryu
Suzuki's English teacher, And don't forget, it's time to FALL BACK your clocks - if you're in Germany like me that is. The US is next week. Which reminds me. I always wonder what official police and hospital and telephone etc records show to indicate the difference between the two hours with the same name. What about computers and airplane and other travel schedules? I don't know when they do it here but in the US it's at 2am. I remember once I was at a party at the Record Plant in Sausalito on such a day and made a call at 2am to someone saying "Come to the party" and then left the same message an hour later and the time was again 2am. Ever since then I've wondered about that. It would be easy to find out I bet. They could just go Date; 02:00A and 02:00B. - dc 10-24-09 - Mooji - the latest greatest Advaita Vedanta guru. I'm a sucker for this stuff. - dc 10-23-09 - Humpbacks battle - why can't they just all be friends? 10-22-09 - Shunryu Suzuki and the war. What did he do? It's a question that keeps popping up so here's the latest exchange on the subject. - DC Also as part of the prior entry, added the Epilogue to Crooked Cucumber. 10-21-09 - The Zen Site 10-20-09 - Yvonne Rand dharma talk on Suzuki Roshi's compassion. This talk is in the SFZC.org section on dharma talks. Yvonne Rand interview in cuke. 10-19-09 - Congratulations to the seven members of Pacific Zen Inst. who recently received the precepts and lay ordination. Gregory W. sends this report: The Refuge Ceremony for the seven who took the precepts (jukai) last night during the sesshin was a wam and inspiring event. I always love to hear how the refugees (as some of us like to call ourselves) present their personal vows. Each is so unique but also so true that it's another clear example of Guanyin's many tongues that go along with the many eyes and hands. For those who were unable to attend in person, here are the Dharma names for the newly precepted: Marsha B. ~ Road of Kindness Jan B. ~ Crows in the Golden Wind Illana B. ~ Shining Tree Mary C. ~ Night Sky Karinka McK. ~ Flower Forrest Ishara H. ~ Spring Valley Thaisa F. ~ Heart Field
From near Shunryu (and now Hoitsu) Suzuki's temple in Japan, comes Shizuoka Tea. Heard about it from SFZC alum Kirk Rhoads whose brother Kent now lives in Shizuoka and is gathering up these leaves for you. 10-17-09 - Vietnam: Sharp Backsliding on Religious Freedom - Harsh Crackdown on Followers of Buddhist Peace Activist Thich Nhat Hanh
Kelly
sends
this link to the almost invisible man and suggests, "Check these
impressive photos from an artist in
10-16-09 - Food day praise for Brazil and China, New Zealand and the US on the bottom - of action to meet the cry of world hunger. - Think of this fellow USAers, if you ask the average citizen of our dear land about this subject they will likely say that we're the most generous country in the world and we give too much foreign aid away and should take care of our own first. The truth is more that while we're the richest country in the world, we're the most miserly. And we don't use the savings to take care of our own - we transfer it to those who already have an excess, the rich. Yesterday I had a tour of Berlin and heard a lot about the historic struggle between the haves and the have nots, the aristocrats and the common citizens. In what was East Germany I stood before a statue of Marx and Engles whose writings aimed at helping the downtrodden had been used by other elites to dominate. Then looked up at a statue of Frederick the Great who though vicious in his military conquests, had championed freedom of speech and religion. I walked past Humboldt University where people still study and go forth to benefit humanity and make their fortunes, saw CNN on monitor and thought of power of those who disseminate and filter information. I wondered what would become of us all, pondered what on earth should we do, and reflected on greed, hate, and delusion. 10-15-09 - American Drug War dot com Ron Paul strikes again - this time on the war on drugs, especially pot. 10-14-09 - And don't forget the Chronicle Project to archive the teaching and memories of Trungpa 10-13-09 - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki. Got this together today because I met with Shambhala folks in Berlin last night and spoke about the relationship between Suzuki and Trungpa and said I'd do this cause I hadn't referred to it beforehand and it might add or subtract something to or from what I had to say. - DC 10-12-09 - Meditation in prison - thanks Loring 10-11-09 - Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss - thanks Steiner BBC - 'Scary' climate message from past10-10-09 - RIP John Daido Loori who died this morning.
Bernie
Glassman on John Daido Loori. 10-09-09 - Obama wins Nobel Peace prize. Wow. Rather than receiving this award for what he's done, it's obviously encouragement for the direction he's turned to - to eliminate nuclear weapons being the most significant, but for more than that. They mentioned global warming attitude shift as well. Maybe this is a proper approach in these times of serious threats to the survival of our species. By this I mean that it's not unreasonable to think there's not much time for action and why not use the award to applaud promising intentions. Now I hope there's more movement toward holding his feet to the fire to reduce the damage of our foreign policy and other threats to world peace and species survival. - dc
10-07-09 - You might be interested in the following two events on the Tricycle Community. You need to join the Community to participate, but joining is easy (and free): 1) Tricycle Community Poetry Club: Poet and Zen practitioner Jane Hirshfield discusses her poem, "Those Who Cannot Act" (ad maybe she'll discuss other stuff too.) This one is going on now. 2) Tricycle Community Book Club discusses the classic Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind with Zoketsu Norman Fischer. This one starts October 19th.
10-05-09 - A new zendo in San Francisco 10-04-09 - Comparing health care to fire care - thanks
10-03-09 - Frank Rich on Obama at the Precipice as Kennedy was with a pointless, futile, massively deadly, destructive war. 10-02-09 - On the peaceful use of space 10-01-09 - Happy October - In Germany anyway. It's yesterday evening in America still but I don't know when I'll be able to post next so it's going up now. And now for a statement of personal conviction. I think there is a dangerous amount of hysteria in the US of A at the present - I guess it could be called political hysteria. I think that it is important for each of us, at least me, to do what we can to help to cool it off, to counter it or redirect it, to stand up and be counted, write letters to the editor, talk to neighbors, encourage media not to stir it up, pray, meditate, visualize, practice loving kindness, crack jokes, etc. Or maybe you think that doing nothing is best cause whatever one tries to do will just add to the problem - sort of a Taoist approach I guess. I'm packing to go on a trip right now (see yesterday's entry) but will get back to this as soon as I can. In the meantime, I'll remember the helpful mantra from my childhood (as mentioned in Thank You and OK!): When in trouble
Peace, DC September 9-30-09 - Leave tomorrow for 18 days in Northern Germany. First to Hanover and Kassel with Baker Roshi for a couple of seminars he's doing. Then to Frankfurt for a few days then Berlin for a week. Have enormously enjoyed the last month here at Johanneshof. This is a great place to practice. I didn't expect it to be so mellow here. Suzuki Roshi used to try to gently nudge us from being too serious, from taking ourselves too seriously, from taking our practice or Zen or whatever too seriously. Sort of like when he warned us about getting on trips. "Don't go on any trips," he said more than once. Trungpa Rimpoche used to say that too. I remember Rimpoche saying that once in a lecture over and over and over. On the other hand, when Ryuho Yamada first came to the SFZC, Suzuki told him not to goof off like he might in Japan, that his students were serious. See Ryuho's interview. So there's serious that's a trip and serious that's on track. And there are no heavy trips here that I've seen. Kudos to Baker Roshi and Dharma Sangha. - dc 9-29-09 - First Buddhist US Army Chaplain - thanks Gene DS 9-28-09 - RIP Lady Jane, Katrinka's companion of 13 years and Clay's and mine as well of 5. She was a big old dog. One woman observer called her an Anatolian Guard Dog. She slept more and more these last few years and recently it's become harder and harder for her to get up the stairs. She fell down them a couple of times and stayed down a lot. Then a few days ago she stopped eating then drinking and then she went over to the front of John's house and crawled under a bush and died there within a day. An excellent example to us all. This memorial filed under Family and Santhara (the natural, traditional way of death with dignity). Here's a photo of her minus the end of her nose. Thanks so much to Rachel Boughton
who wrote, "John told me that Lady Jane went to the happy hunting grounds
last night, moved on to her next incarnation, threw off this mortal coil.
She was a dear old lady, bless her heart. I'll miss her. Best wishes to
her on her journey and to you, too. p.s. here is a little video of her I took on my cell phone a few years ago. 9-27-09 - Pseudo Dionysius-The Complete Works - a great book Here's the core of this seminal Christian mystic's teaching - The Mystical Theology. It's from another translation which I don't like as much as the above one, but it's still good, not long, a sort of Heart Sutra approach or, Via Negativa. I know I've mentioned it before. 9-26-09 - Found the original Suzuki Roshi quote that was edited for ZMBM and then sent to me as seen in German Vogue as reported a few days ago. Interesting to see how it changes as it moves. Just go down to the entry for 9-20. I added it there where it belongs. - dc 9-25-09 - A Course in Miracles - Lesson 268 • for this date: Let all things be exactly as they are. 9-24-09 - BBC: An Australian quadriplegic, who last month won a landmark legal right to starve to death, has died. - filed in our Santhara section 9-23-09 - Bija: the Seeds of Freedom from Willem Malten's blog. 9-22-09 - The 2010 Project Censored book is out. 9-21-09 - Notable quote from Jon Cryer who won an Emmy last night for best supporting comedy actor for Two and a Half Men (which I've never seen - dc). "I used to think that awards were just shallow tokens of momentary popularity, but now I realize they are the only true measure of a person's worth as a human being."
Here's how I got it (caps are not mine - dc) in the OCTOBER, ISSUE OF GERMAN VOGUE, EXTRA ISSUE 30 YEARS OF GERMAN VOGUE, PETER LINDBERGH QUOTES SHUNRYU SUZUKI: "TO EXPRSS YOURSELF AS YOU ARE WITHOUT ANY INTENTIONAL FANCY WAY OF ADJUSTING YOURSELFIS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING" I just searched ZMBM and found it this way as the lead quote for the chapter on - well, you can see it. COMMUNICATION "Without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, to express yourself as you are is the most important thing." Here's the verbatim quote (not checkable on a tape but, according to one transcriber from back then, they typed it word for word) from the original lecture from February 2nd, 1967. To be quite natural…to ourselves, and to follow what others say or what others do in the most appropriate way is pretty difficult. So…but we cannot adjust ourselves, in some way. It is impossible. If you try to adjust yourself in certain way you will lose yourself. So without adjust yourself, without any artificial, fancy way of adjusting yourself, to express yourself quite freely is the most important thing to make you happy and to make others happy. You can get this at shunryusuzuki.com - see if you can find it. 9-19-09 - Birds on the Wire - thanks Kelly and Renée 9-18-09 - Buddhism in Europe? Yes - it's everywhere. World Buddhist Directory - Germany main page 9-17-09 - An excellent appraisal of the religious right in the US by a man who grew up in the power center of it. 9-16-09 - Looking forward to visiting Felsentor above Lucern in the Swiss Alps. This is Vanja Hans Palmer's mountain center with a zendo built by Paul Discoe. 9-15-09 - Two poems by Beverly Armstrong Sudden Rain for Kobun Chino 9-14-09 - While in Germany, looking forward to visiting my old friend Richard Schoenherz in Frankfurt. Richard generously played keyboards brilliantly for me on a few musical creations of the 80s. Check out his website - Schoenherz and Fleer. - dc 9-13-09 - RIP Jim Carroll who died died over this weekend. 9-12-09 - Suzuki student and dear old friend Tim Buckley has a book out: Thomas Buckley. "Standing Ground: Yurok Indian Spirituality, 1850-1990," Univ. Calif. P. 2002. Amazon link Tim writes: It might
be interesting to some cuke.com followers who knew Harry Roberts. Harry
appears in the book here and there, sometimes anonymously and sometimes
only inferenentially: it was because of my studies with Harry that I was
able to connect in mutual trust with several traditional elders on the
Klamath River (who all spoke Yurok as a first language). These people and
their testimony really form the heart of the book. Some people might have
been surprised by my becoming Harry's student after Suzuki-roshi's death,
rather than continuing to study with an obviously Buddhist teacher. But I
think that the connections between formal Buddhism and traditional Yurok
thinking and practice, as well as their many differences, are clear (if
unstated) in Standing Ground, as is my debt to Zen practice in my
understanding of Yurok thought and practice.
9-10-09 - Ryuten Paul Rosenblum is here at Johanneshof too. Here's his web site. Here's a cuke interview with him. 9-09-09 - Sane (to DC) comments and links on the current health care debate going on in the US. 9-08-09 - Keeping up with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. 9-07-09 - As I've mentioned before, I'm at Johanneshof September 3 through December 10th. What a beautiful hamlet we're in: Grossherishwand. - dc 9-06-09 - FUKANZAZENGI by Eihei Dogen
as translated
by Yasuda Joshu roshi Lecture one by Pat Phelan on it. lecture two 9-05-09 - Go to this link to see images of this area around Johanneshof with it's hamlets of Herrischried, Großherrischwand, Hogschür, Hornberg, Niedergebisbach, Rütte, Wehrhalden 9-04-09 - Johanneshof is a center of Dharma Sangha 9-03-09 - Arrived at Johanneshof today. 9-02-09 - Krugman's article on where economists went wrong remind me of the importance of not taking our assumptions too seriously in other fields as well - like Buddhism etc. 9-01-09 - Willem Malten sends thoughts on food and climate change. August 8-31-09 - Boddhisattva (in concert) - if the word gets hijacked let it be hijacked well. Here's a clean version. When we use it is it anymore accurate? 8-30-09 - The perfect predator. Thanks Rene 8-29-09 - Just updated shunryusuzuki.com - the archive comes to you. Back to the symposium today. - dc 8-28-09 - Karl Renz will be visiting the Bay Area (Berkeley, San Rafael, San Francisco) again this fall, September 30 - October 4, with his usual "Self Talk" evenings and a "Weekend Intensive". See the schedule. Karl's also scheduled to visit Boulder and Santa Fe this trip; haven't seen him in a couple of years. Given the likely course of world events in the near term, I suspect this may be our last chance to visit with Karl for some time to come. For a taste of Karl, there are a lot of videos (of widely varying quality) on YouTube: .As Karl says, "If you die, don't take it personal." Best wishes, Andrew 8-27-09 - US Campaign for Burma 8-26-09 - Jack Elias is the speaker in the three previous posts. His mate Ceci has launched a new Runt Farm book. 8-25-09 - Hello from our friend in Chicago, Taigen Dan Leighton with news about his Zen group there, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Buddha and the Hypnotist Part 3 8-24-09 - Buddha and the Hypnotist Part 2 8-23-09 - Buddha and the Hypnotist Part 1 8-22-09 - Zsolt's photo blog 8-21-09 - Zsolt Suto sent a new AV installation from - where are you from - Romania I think. 8-20-09 - Lisa Clark sent a great skyline of Perth to add to the illustrations for To Find the Girl from Perth. 8-19-09 - Buddhist Peace Fellowship 8-18-09 - a cool bit in the People Meter with SFZC folks in todays's SF Chronicle 8-17-09 - nothing 8-16-09 - Off to Tassajara today with Katrinka for a brief few days. Can't stay the usual ten because of too much to do. First time without Clay (18) for ten days since he was four I think. He went earlier with his girlfriend. Lot happening when we get back: insulating and earthquakeproofing on barn, Suzuki practice symposium, Arthur Okamura memorial, then flying off to Germany on September 2nd - to join Dharma Sangha at Johanneshof. Then to Crestone Mt. Zen Center for a couple of weeks in December, Texas for the holidays and back to Sonoma County Jan. 5. Will try to stay in touch. 8-15-09 - San Francisco Zen Center and the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley invite you to “Zen Practice at 50,” a symposium on Zen practice, 50 years after Suzuki Roshi’s arrival in America. Read all about it.
8-14-09 - Clear View Project
- adopt a monk.
To be ninety-five - a poem by Ahdel Chadwick on her birthday
IT TAKES A BILLBOARD 8-11-09 - Shunryu Suzuki page on facebook 8-10-09 - The Wrong Diagnosis Andrew Weil on the current health care debate. 8-09-09 - Nisargadatta 8-08-09 - Atom Films has an intriguing new short filme named Still Life 8-07-09 - For the Time Being - Norman Fischer in the New York Times 8-06-09 - Hiroshima day - thanks Gregory 8-05-09 - The Worst Horse is cool. - Thanks Howie 8-04-09 - Willem Malten has some new thoughts on his blog. 8-03-09 - Shoeshine man - Thanks Rene Pettit.
8-01-09 - Daily Alcohol Limit Unhelpful - BBC Sri Lanka in a bad state. Thanks John Steiner July 7-31-09 - Crooks and Liars is not only a great site for short videos of and links to what's happening in the news like this cool move from the house floor and this clip from my fave, Thom Hartmann, there's an occasional far out flick like this. it's also got a great selection of music videos usually put on at the end of the day. And there's the Late Night Music Club with a wonderful array of music at the end of the day - like this great piece by Cab Calloway and two great dancers. 7-30-09 - "The authorities say that God is a being, an intelligent being who knows everything. But I say that God is neither a being nor intelligent and He doesn’t ‘know’ either this or that. God is free of everything and therefore He is everything." "If I had a God I could understand, I would no longer consider him God." - Meister Eckhart, from Enlightened Spirituality site. That's a good section on Eckhart. 7-29-09 - Sarah Robinson writes on our future.
7-28-09 -
Shodo
Harada Roshi
click on image to enlarge 7-25-09 - The Ubiquitous Matrix of Lies 7-24-09 - Home Project - thanks Ron Browning 7-23-09 - Alan Watts on Time - thanks Gregory Wonderwheel and Katrinka. Without Alan Watts, where would we be? 7-22-09 - Fil Lewitt sends a Tassajara story
click on image to enlarge
7-19-09 - Check out Zenga, a new CD from Barrett Martin. He's also got paintings and more. Here's his website. - thanks Daya. 7-18-09 - More photos of Arthur Okamura and Bobo from Bill Braasch. 7-17-09 - Photos of the cremation ceremony for Arthur Okamura by Bill Braasch. More. More on Arthur
Please join us in celebration on Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 11:00-2:00 for a tasty brunch and birthday cake! address and phone for RSVP and directions To friends of Della: Just saw her. She's living with her granddaughter now in a big wonderful home with kids running around. She was as sweet as ever. Della's birthday is coming up. Some might have time to drop by but she'd appreciate a call - on that day or any day. She can still remember you. Barely. - dc 7-05-09 - Bollywood movie on King Asoka recommended by Eric Arnow. 7-04-09 - Be careful with self-affirmation if you want it to work--from the BBC. 7-03-09 - Jacqueline Kramer's Hearth Foundation--a home for spiritual parenting and homemaking. 7-02-09 - The problem with rankism on Huff Post by Robert Fuller and Thomas Schaff. I remember Fuller as a friend of the ZC back in the Nuclear Freeze days. Check out more on and by him here. 7-01-09 - The CD of Songs for To Find the Girl from Perth is now available here, soon in more ways. Buy it and in this tiny way help to support shunryusuzuki.com and so forth. For more on the girl from Perth, go to this site. Added another photo of Kendra and newborn Trent down below (6-23) June 6-30-09 - Congratulations Al Franken! and condolences to Buddhists and Other Spiritual Seekers Opposed to Progressive Comedian Politicians. Today's tasks are bringing cuke.com and backups up to date. Here's more on backing up which leads to a hasty update on work on Suzuki Roshi heritage preservation and delivery. 6-29-09 - We've ceded the name Shunryu Suzuki Legacy Project to the SFZC for fundraising they may do for this work. Since January 2009 we've received no funding from the SFZC. More 6-28-09 - Clear View Project & Adopt a Monk - Clear View has taken responsibility for BPF's (Buddhist Peace Fellowship) Burma Project 6-27-09 - Ray Sumser has a great art site. Don't miss this great piece: the Comicosm. Take a look at it and then to help him go here. 6-26-09 - UN INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE
The Center for Victims of Torture
works to heal the wounds of torture on individuals, their families and their communities and to stop torture worldwide. 6-25-09 - Check out David Godman dot org - thanks for reminding me Howie who suggests reading the five interviews downloadable from that site and mentioned to the left on the home page. 6-24-09 - Back in June, Beverly Armstrong sent this poem in memory of Annapurna.
Trent was born 12:05 May 20th (his exact due date), 7 lbs. 9 oz. The middle name is after David's father, last name is his mother's maiden birth name. Mary Cunov is Kendra's mom. click on thumbnails to enlarge
David writes: Everyone is healthy and unbelievably happy. Mary, Linda and I got to see the new family just moments after the birth. A moment that will live forever in my memory. 6-22-09 - David Silva sent this link to April photos of the Tassajara area. "Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet, do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past. You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of. firewood, which fully includes past and future and is independent of past and future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash, which fully includes future and past. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, you do not return to birth after death." Genjo Koan 6-21-09 - Bashar interviewed by Alan Steinfeld of New Realities. More on this, my favorite channeled extraterrestrial from the future, in dchad misc. 6-20-09 - Gene DeSmidt singing Brand New Heart with the Elephant crew at Blue Lakes. - link doesn't work now. Sorry 6-19-09 - Grace is home
6-18-09 - A funereal scam and so forth. 6-17-09 - My car can be yours - dc (could have been). Now titled "Selling a piece of junk." 6-16-09 - The recent Upaya Newsletter has a rather vague Suzuki comment on reincarnation from the Shunryu Suzuki lecture archives. This subject is one of those things that it appears to me to divide people into three categories once described by Ken Wilber. There are those believe something and nothing will dissuade them, there are those who don't see it that way and nothing will convince them otherwise, and then there are those with open minds, the true skeptics, (those who keep their eyes open). Kabumpkan says: If you must believe, believe in nothing - but not too strongly. Reading Suzuki's words there reminds me of why he didn't want his talks made available to people in general without being edited by his students. Sorry Roshi. It shows how much work there is to do to present all the lectures in a minimally edited form. There is a column in the Shunryu Suzuki Lecture Index in shunryusuzuki.com just for light edits by our hero Gordon Geist who's done many through the years. Keep it up Gordon. Check out my niece Camille Koue's excellent new web site. Find the photo of Clay and me from a few years back. 6-15-09 - Neat Fox report on 11 year old boy's memories of past life and what his parents found out when they dug into it. Cuke apologies for linking to what some cukesters see as superficial stuff. There are those in Zen and other sects who say you gotta believe in reincarnation to be a Buddhist but the Shunryu Suzuki approach to this was always to say he didn't know - and also he seemed to think it was a sort of diversion from the here and now etc. Aren't we always reincarnating? Here we are. Here we are again. 6-14-09 - Congratulations to Clay Chadwick for graduating from high school yesterday.
6-13-09 - Important biographical info on DC in dchadmisc - my history with duck talk.
Many thanks to Gaylon for this eye-opener.
Here's something I wrote ten years ago about him and his third Zen book, Afterzen.
Some day I'll dig out some of the neat letters he wrote. No wonder there was no answer from the last I sent him. Thanks for the great books Janwillem, and for the great blurbs for mine. - DC 6-10-09 - One by one Shunru Suzuki dharma talks are going up on the SFZC's site for them: Suzuki Roshi dot org forward slash dharma talks. As the discerning cuke reader well knows, the transcripts (and notes of talks) and audio are also all available now at shunryusuzuki dot com. A column with a link to the SFZC presentations will be added to the data base organization of all these lectures found on shunryusuzuki.com. Cuke.com and shunryusuzuki.com also will post the following which was lifted off the aforementioned SFZC Suzuki lecture website. Need to reword it for posting here and there, gotta look into that.
This is great that they're doing it this way. - dc 6-09-09 - Check out Waylon Lewis's Elephant Journal which cuke became aware of when he posted his list of Best Buddhist Books which included Crooked Cucumber on the Huffington Post on June 1st. (see cuke post of that date). What a guy. - dc 6-08-09 - Gerard Senehi blew some minds on the Today Show. Thanks Bro Lor 6-07-09 - Della Goertz has moved - a brief report with photo.
6-06-09 -
6-05-09 - It's not to late to sign up for Stephan Bodian's School for Awakening. Check it out. 6-04-09 - Here is a collection of Youtube links featuring Adyashanti [thanks to Joe Veit] 6-03-09 - Check out Buddha Torrents which today featured YouTube links to these videos of Shunryu Suzuki giving a lecture on the San Do Kai. Thanks again Howie. 6-02-09 - Civil Rights Movement Veterans website. Just learned about it from someone I knew from Mississippi in 1964 who sent me a letter out of the blue recently because he'd been in a poetry group in Okalahoma long ago with Frank Anderton and had seen Frank's email interview here and had also tutored a Buddhist in New Mexico who knew me from Boulder. Here's something I wrote quickly for that excellent site about my experiences with the Civil Rights Movement. I already want to edit it. In fact, I want to write more about that whole period. - dc 6-01-09 - Best Buddhist Books? Posted by Waylon Lewis on the Huffington Post. Cuke saving it here for its historical significance (like listing Crooked Cucumber). I look at the Huff Post every day but missed it. Thanks to Howie Klein for clueing me in. - dc May 5-31-09 - a poem by Nyogen Senzaki 5-30-09 - Why torture has failed. 5-29-09 - Paul Hawken's Commencement Address to the Class of 2009 - University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009----Sent by several people. Thanks. 5-28-09 - Remember Michael Sawyer and his great art. 5-27-09 - Commemorating Suzuki Roshi's arrival in America - from the Chronicles Project. Included are A recollection of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha By Chögyam Trungpa and an interview with Alice and Richard Haspray and a calligraphy by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, created on the occasion of Suzuki Roshi's death. 5-26-09 - SFZC statement on same sex marraige 5-25-09 - A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change 5-24-09 - Mark Foote's Unauthorized and Incomplete Guide to Zazen Gangaji has a blog on the Huffington Post 5-23-09 - 50 years ago today, Shunryu Suzuki arrived in San Francisco. At the SFZC there were events all weekend - meals, ceremonies, storytelling. To me the standout moment in the storytelling was when Ed Brown said that Suzuki told him that cooking and writing books was fine but don't forget that samadhi is most important - something like that. It's on tape. I also especially liked the exchange where someone asked what the source was for Suzuki's having said, "You're all perfect... and you could use a little improvement." Michael Wenger said, "We don't know," and I said, "Yes we do," and he said I asked so and so to ask you and you told him you didn't know and I said I don't remember that and anyway it came from Ed Brown, right Ed? Ed wasn't sure. Yvonne Rand said, "It's called 'growing old.'" -dc 5-22-09 - A note from Grace Dammann on the approach of the one year anniversary of her horrific accident - and a photo of her with Fu and TDL. 5-21-09 - This weekend there's a celebration of this 50 year anniversary of Suzuki Roshi's coming to America on May 23, 1959. Here's your invitation. Here's the schedule. 5-20-09 - The SFZC has a new website, Suzuki Roshi, and here's the dharma talks link dedicated to presenting the lectures of Shunryu Suzuki. The staff of cuke.com congratulates Timothy O'Conner Fraser and Charlie Pokorny for the great look of this site and wish them well. The site looks great. Well presented. Great photos. We also salute the hard-working staff of the SSLP for the archiving of the past year which we are pleased to see bearing fruit in both the SFZC site and that of the SSLP, listed yesterday. These two sites will share material but develop independently, serving different functions. 5-19-09 - See what the cuke.com staff has been up to and check out Shunryu Suzuki dot com now. It's not hard to get in. Just got to make a little effort. Once you're there you may be surprised. All Suzuki all the time. More to come.
5-17-09 - Pacific Zen Institute Coming Events
***Summer
Sesshin: June 7 - 14
***One-Day
Koan Retreat in Santa Cruz with Rachel Mansfield-Howlett,
***Koan
Seminar in SR with John Tarrant,
5-16-09 - Pema Chodren on Bill Moyers. - Thanks MK 5-15-09 - SFZC City Center bookstore features posters celebrating Shunryu Suzuki's arrival in America 50 years ago. They've got books too.
5-14-09 - MAD writes
My handwriting teacher uses this quote which seems a little weird to me
to attribute to Suzuki Roshi. Just wondered if you had ever seen it before.
Tks. 5-13-09 - The Buddha and Suze Orman - John Tarrant in the Shambhala Sun 5-12-09 - Jim Dreaver's new website 5-11-09 - Ten great Buddhist temples - thanks Gregory 5-10-09 - Happy day to all mothers. Thanks for everything. Check out Mother Cow. 5-09-09 - At Sonoma Mountain Zen Center May 16 Sat. ZEN ARCHITECTURE: The Building Process as Practice. Paul Zengyu Discoe, renowned Japanese Master temple builder, Zen teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, and builder of Sonoma Mountain Zen Center's Mandala Project, lectures on his forty years of traditional Japanese woodworking and the architectural process as an embodiment of Zen Practice. He will also be presenting his newly released book, Zen Architecture. 11-12. Zendo. 5-08-09 - Paul Discoe talks Zen Architecture. A video of his talk at Book Passage on the 21st of April I believe. He's also going to be at Sonoma. An interview and more on cuke on Paul. 5-07-09 - An article on Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - ZMBM at Thirty-eight and Counting. This is the unedited version of an article written by me, DC, for the fall 2008, 25th anniversary, issue of Inquiring Mind for their Dharma Treasure series]. This was first put on cuke on the 13th of last month, but the link got screwed up so this is a reminder. 5-06-09 -
Click thumbnails to enlarge. 5-05-09 - Shunryu Suzuki known notes on his lectures from December 1961 through 1962. From the earliest Windbells. 5-04-09 - Were you at the Zenefit to help buy land for SFZC's retreat near Big Sur? It was November 13, 1966 and the funds wern't yet going to be for Tassajara but for the nearby Horse Pasture. The Grateful Dead, Big Brother, and Quicksilver played, Alan Watts spoke, so did Shunryu Suzuki briefly. No recording exists that we know of. Thanks to Joe Galewsky 5-03-09 - There are Theravadan and Mahayana interpretations of and songs like by Steely Dan and then there's the Bodhisattva in Metro - video. - thanks Gregory 5-02-09 - The amazing Bat Man - echolocation - from the very short list. 5-01-09 - Howdy. Been so entrenched in the Shunryu Suzuki Digital Archive development I haven't had time for cuke since April 9th. Getting ready for another big push but I'll take a break here to do what wasn't, to dot the j's and cross the x's and yes I think that's a good use of apostrophes. But back to poor neglected April and all those lonely, empty days. Here's a little something for each one, snuck in to those dates while the month doesn't look. Pretty soon it won't even remember it didn't happen then. Thus the past changes. Check it out. - dc April 4-30-09 - Grace Dammann is slowly improving. 4-29-09 - Check out Kodo Arts. Their sale in Nevada City CA ends Sunday. Say hi to old Japan buddy Jake.
For further information on the show - Reception May 17, 4-6pm. 4-27-09 - Got this note from Suzuki and Trungpa student Jack Elias: We have a friend in Sacramento, female, 40ish, with a variety of health issues including mold sensitivity who needs help finding an apartment that is clean and quiet. she is on her last legs energetically and as been bouncing from one house sitting situation to another -- this method is no longer feasible. My hope is that you know someone in Sacramento who can tell us where to find a good inexpensive clean and quiet place fast! Send response to contact DC. 4-26-09 -National Religious Campaign Against Torture - a reminder 4-25-09 - Enlightenment Therapy - NY Times Magazine - thanks Lilypad
4-24-09 - Go to shunryusuzuki.com and get back to me if you're interested. 4-23-09 - In
commemoration of the 50th anniversary of 4-22-09 - Jerry Bolick has some spring poems 4-21-09 - Look at Tarrant Works and his Zenosauras blog 4-20-09 - The Ven. Dao Chuan is a monk of the Minh Dang Quang Buddhist Temple in Tucson - we've been communicating about the Shunryu Suzuki digital archive. He studied with Taizan Maezumi among others.
4-18-09 - PBS show on What's Happening now with Global Warming and how it's affecting the Ganges. thanks to Brother Lor 4-17-09 - Recently we had the wrong link for
Bill Schwob Photography. He just saw our friend Jake with the sale in
Nevada City. Check out these and more at Bill's site. I have a copy of the
one on the right that rats have half chewed here in the barn - good taste.
- dc
4-16-09 - News and views on A Zen Life, the documentary on DT Suzuki 4-15-09 - Jane Bay's books now available directly from her site. 4-14-09 - Two new Vortex Blogs sent by Willem Malten: Agro-ecologia in Brazil and Michell's garden in Cuba. 4-13-09 - Trailer on Tulku, a new film by Gesar Mukpo - thanks Howie Klein 4-12-09 - Thai temple built with beer bottles - thanks Anne Myosho+- 4-11-09 - A Meditation on Our Monetary System - sent by Eric Arnow. We're all doomed - dc
4-09-09 - "Who am I?" we often ask. Look at it from a bacterial point of view and ask, "Who are we?" Thanks JR. 4-08-09 - Video of a memorial get-together in honor of Nanao Sakaki in Japan. Nanao on cuke and more. And happy birthday Buddha as far as Japanese Buddhism is concerned.
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. 4-05-09 - Suzuki disciple Jakusho Bill Kwong talks about Chogyam Trungpa on the Chronicles Project. See Jakusho Kwong cuke interview. A little article on getting energy from gratitude from the Huff Post with a reminder of and link to this wonderful video (not the first cuke mention) which exudes gratitude and appreciation for people and peoples everywhere or go to Where the Hell is Matt dot com. 4/04/09 - Join us at Tassajara for Summer Work Practice. - We go there every summer for ten days as regular old students and we love it - the Zen, the Zen friends, the guests, the compound, the woods. This will be Katrinka's fourth year, Clay is 18 and has been going since he was three. I started in the winter of 67. Tassajara reminds me vividly of Suzuki Roshi's statement, "This world is its own magic." - DC 4/03/09 - Rumi night at the SFZC City Center on Friday, April 10.
4/01/09 - Returning to this date through the vibrations of a cyber time gizmo to bring you a message of hope from the future for your troubled times and troubled world. Yes, there is hope in this dawning of the Aquarian Age. And for you, to lift you up to the wagon-hitching stars, here is the shining hopeful message we of the trouble-free, ecstatic tomorrows of tomorrows bring. March
3-30-09 - A few announcements: DC just added the following note to my Facebook page in the little box that asks What's on your mind? I answered: Fundraising. Gotta keep going on the Suzuki archive work and pay back people who've loaned money to get it digitalized. Thinking about ways to make it more accessible to people too. SFZC is in a money crunch so don't want to bug them. Just posted the Guide to the Shunryu Suzuki Digital Archive (March 2009) on cuke.com yesterday. How to donate.Stephan Bodian is back in the SF Bay Area in search of a car, minivan, or small SUV that's scent, smoke, and chemical free. Contact DC. You and your friends might be interested in attending the upcoming May 8th and 9th events with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is a much needed BENEFIT for Inquiring Mind.
Information
and registration for the May 9th workshop Nonesuch School [DC's son Clay's school near Sebastopol, CA], with the generous support of the Rialto theater is hosting a benefit showing of Harold and Maud this Wed. evening at 7:15. The money from the showing will go towards supporting the New Orleans' community service project. This is a great opportunity for us to raise a some money and a little community awareness. 3-29-09 - Here's the Shunryu Suzuki Digital Archive (March 2009) Guide which went with the CD/DVD sets and the Hard Drives, both of which contain pretty complete collections of audio and transcripts of Suzuki lectures, video, and photos. Just getting them out to teachers and groups as donations come in to pay for the hard drives, mailing, gas, etc. Please donate. Inquire as to how it can get to you. Been working on this so much haven't gotten to cuke. Sorry. - dc 3-23-09 Jerry Bolick on his history with the Buddhist Bookstore and Ananda Claude Dalenberg. 3-21-09 - Jerry Bolick's poems now on his blog. Jerry ran the Buddhist Churches of America's (Jodo Shinshu) Buddhist Bookstore on Octavia Street off Bush for years and was a friend of Ananda Claude Dalenberg's. Today the Buddhist Bookstore is no longer small, is in Berkeley and online. The bookstore was founded I believe in 1959 and was for years, as far as I know, the only Buddhist bookstore in America. It was around the corner from the old Sokoji where the SF Zen Center began. I'll try to get more on it and everything from Jerry. - dc 3-20-09 - Two talks with Ken McCloud and Red Pine. Filed in Others Index Thanks Cheryl. 3-19-09 - Homeland Guantanamos - immigrant detention in the US. Filed in CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism 3-18-09 - Read about Translating the Words of the Buddha at the Chogyam Trungpa Chronicles Project. If you wish to sign the petition In Appreciation of Dharma Translators Worldwide - have receive several requests to post this. 3-17-09 - Richard Baker comments, referring to Ivan Illich, on Mark Bitner's question about Shunryu Suzuki commenting on Western Civilization (after DC commented). 3-13-09 - An article on Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - ZMBM at Thirty-eight and Counting. This is the unedited version of an article written by me, DC, for the fall 2008, 25th anniversary, issue of Inquiring Mind for their Dharma Treasure series] 3-12-09 - Speaking of transcribing. Gloria McMillan (Coonan, Disco) has finished transcribing all the early Shunryu Suzuki lectures that were in the box of lectures Trudy Dixon was working with to make Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Here's another one from October 7, 1965. Thanks Gloria. 3-11-09 - Shunryu Suzuki's first student was Bill McNeil. Here is one of his paintings. More on Bill later. Thanks to Joe Bacon for sending them. 3-10-09 - Thanks to Alan Kelly of VerbatimIT for transcribing he's done in the past, present, and future for the SSLP. If you need something transcribed, get hold of Alan at VerbatimIT. Right now there are four Shunryu Suzuki lectures Richard Baker (see him below) found in his storage that we wish to get transcribed. Alan's going to get to them as he has time. I'll put up mp3s of them in a while in case anyone else wants to do them. There's lots more transcribing to do. Stay posted. - dc
The Basics of Zen Practice Transforming the Life We Are Given FRIDAY, MARCH 20: 8–9pm $15 (Lecture/Q&A only)Seminar & Practice - SATURDAY, MARCH 21: 9am–5pm, SUNDAY, MARCH 22: 9am–Noon At historic Cavallo Point Lodge, Fort Baker, Sausalito, CA Maine Town Passes Ordinance Asserting Local Self-Governance and Stripping Corporate Personhood - filed in CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism3-07-09 - PZI, Pacific Zen Institute in Sonoma County, CA, upcoming events. » East Bay Koan Seminar with John Tarrant, Saturday March 21st.
>> Spring Sesshin: April 4th - 11th
And remember - Nonesuch School, dinner, auction, music in Sebastopol CA at the Masonic Hall - Saturday, March 7 from 5pm on. $15 at the door. Dinner is $10. It's Clay's school - his last year. I'm offering the self-serving donation of one copy of each of my books. 3-06-09 -
Sarah Weintraub
writes about 3-05-09 - Please Remember by Barton Stone (need to get his stuff together) - Filed in cuke-the-arts/writing ClubOrlov: Social Collapse, Best Practices - a talk to the Long Now Foundation by Dmitry Orlov - thanks Willem Malten - filed in CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism 3-04-09 - An interesting presentation of "I am that I am" in Wikipedia - ending with uses of that phrase or a facsimile by Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta. (continued in dchad misc) 3-03-09 - Nonesuch School, dinner, auction, music in Sebastopol CA at the Masonic Hall - Saturday, March 7 from 5pm on. $15 at the door. Dinner is $10. It's Clay's school - his last year. Son Kelly just sent me this wonderful film about a friendship between an elephant and a dog. Enjoy. - dc
February 2-28-09 - Gary Snyder in conversation at the Commonwealth Club in SF which ends with the following quote: Suzuki Hiroshi [sic - transcribing error for Roshi] who founded the Zen Center in San Francisco, said to me when I first came back from Japan in 1969, "Do you know what's wrong with Americans? They're too serious. They don't have enough sense of humor." I knew just what he was saying, because the Japanese Buddhist world has this knack for seeming very formal and very strict on the surface, and then just having a freewheeling, very tolerant time behind the surface. That's a trick. A lot of American Buddhism is still crypto-Protestantism. - thanks to Palden McLennan filed in Brief Memories 2-27-09 - Here are Della's notes. (see below) [no - failed again] It's NOT fixed again - 5-19-11 Fixed but file too big. Have to work on it at home, arriving 5-25-11 - dc 2-26-09 - Della Goertz's notes of a few of Shunryu Suzuki lectures and Manly Hall as well - maybe some others. Sorry about page 35 I think it is. I copied this at the BnB mentioned down to the right in Boulder - Briar Rose - and missed page 35 and a kind gentleman who worked there put it in for me but it's extra big and upside down. If you can fix it please do. I still visit Della at a retirement home in Napa. She'll be 97 this year. She still remembers me but is forgetting I've been there before and each time I see her have to remind her that Ananda and Betty have passed on. See Zen Aluminati.
No time to look at it now. I'm at an airport hotel near SFO on the way with son Clay, sis Susan, niece Camille to Florida for family reunion. Picking up mom Ahdel at DWF. Good gosh - that pdf of Della's notes is gonna take too long to load. Gotta get to the plane. I'll get it on in Florida. Sorry. Meg and Marc Alexander's daughter Jenine has been involved for the past several months with THE IMAGINISTS - a theater collective recently from Healdsburg, but now in Santa Rosa. This Friday the 27th is opening night for their production of UBU REX - a show which will run for three weekends. Check it out here. - dc 2-21-09 - Listen to the earliest recording of a Shunryu Suzuki lecture that we have - and/or read a verbatim transcription - July 26, 1965. 02-20-08 - On my birthday 11 days ago I wrote a little something in dchad misc in which I mentioned that I remembered Suzuki Roshi saying the reason we practice is so we can enjoy our old age. I suggested that maybe he meant "a" reason rather than "the" reason. Later that day in working with the audio archive of his lectures I came across a lecture (August 3, 1971 - one of his last ones) where he said: How you have always hope in your old age, how you create, you know, yourself after 50 or 60 is the main purpose of our practice. So that you may not feel sorry when you become old, you practice hard. It was serendipitous to find an example of what I'd just referenced, but a also I was reminded of the characteristic way in which he would say whatever point he was making was the most important one, not "a" practice but "the" practice. But it's not like he didn't say that about a zillion other things. I once made a list from his lectures of many, many different subjects of his oft used phrase, "the most important thing is..." There were like 150.
02-19-09 - Chinese Chan Master Sheng Yen has departed this floating world. A report from Andrew Main.02-18-09 - More NOTES and photos FROM TASSAJARA from GENE DESMIDT
And especially so to Katrinka without whom cuke.com would sink like a kidney stone.
2-13-09 - Friday the 13th. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia. I don't have that, but I'm a bit worried about what's to come with our economy, society, environment. Continued here in dchadmisc ending with: Finding inspiration within and without - for instance getting a hit of Nisargadatta (refresh for a new quote). I'm gonna put this link on the home page for a while. 2-12-09 - Under the whether or not but coming up to share son Clay's MySpace music link. Beware, death metal. He's the drummer.
from GENE DESMIDT
click thumbnail to see Gene expand 2-06-09 - Nailing down the Gary Snyder quote about there being two jobs for a monk: sitting and sweeping the temple - as discussed here on cuke in the past - five years ago. Thanks to Andrew Main 2-05-09 - Gloria Levine writes about Harambee Arts I am writing to you from Nairobi, Kenya where I've been living and working as a Fulbright scholar since the beginning of September 2008. As part of my fellowship, I am fulfilling the mission of Harambee Arts, by hiring and training talented young artists to work with troubled children in slum areas, hospitals, schools and orphanages. [read the rest of her message] 2-03-09 - Battle of the Bands Feb. 6 - Friday nite - at the Sebastopol (CA) Community Center featuring Ancient Mystic, Fish Bear, Petzel Chadwick Duo, Mad Decent, Tahitian Ghost. DC will be there to record his son Clay, one of the Petzel Chadwick Duo. Come join us! Proceeds go to youth built community garden in downtown Sebastopol and micro-finance development projects in Peru and Argentina. $15 2-02-09 - Early Suzuki student Pat Herreshoff dies. from Silas Hoadley I was able to visit with Pat Herreshoff a few days before she died last week. Pat was at home with her son Daniel and his wife Madeline in Kingston Washington. Before moving there Pat had lived in Hawaii for many years. She was a regular at the Bush Street zendo in the spring of 1964 when I started sitting there. She had found out about Suzuki sensei through a job connection and, in her direct way, had cold-called Alan Watts to find out how to get to the place where a real Zen master was teaching, Pat was born in San Diego Thanksgiving Day 1913 , When she was 4 her mother sent her to relatives in a small Montana town to protect her from the Influenza epidemic of that time. She stayed there till she was 8. During this visit Pat sat upright and her presence was bright. During tea she spontaneously broke out in a child hood hymn to the setting sun . She also sang a verse from "old black Joe." Her voice was strong and wonderful. She said she had learned these songs in Montana as a child. She also shared a dream of a night or two before. Two friendly beetles had appeared in the interior vicinity of her spine. One had short legs and the other long. They had nothing much to say but gave a very good feeling as did Pat on this last visit. I've got correspondence from Pat and some other materials but it will be a while before that surfaces. - dc Hi there - my main computer is in the shop and I'm busy with some SSLP and other tasks and will be back with more cuke stuff soon. - dc January 1-27-09 - From an internal Random House email earlier today:
1-26-09 - A very good film with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi footage synched with tape of lecture he was giving, recent Tassajara footage with Suzuki lecture voice over. Put together by Mel Van Dussen. Thanks for the tip to Howie Klein 1-25-09 - Khyentse Rinpoche's advice to teenagers - thanks Cheryl Foltos 1-24-09 - Born Again American - thanks to Beverly (Horwitz) Armstrong 1-23-09 - A message from Green Gulch We are celebrating the cease fire and the hope that our new President will increase the chances for peace. Obama’s first phone call was to Mahmud Abbas. The article in Time acknowledges Eric’s unflagging intention….. and here again his blog link. With gratitude and love, emila
The other notable shift in US foreign policy announced today was a strategic decision to move towards a "nuclear free world", through bilateral and multilateral disarmament. "Obama and [Vice President Joe] Biden will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons, and pursue it," according to the agenda. It is a long term goal. The US will maintain a "strong deterrent as long as nuclear weapons exist", but begin to take steps on the "long road towards eliminating nuclear weapons". The development of new nuclear weapons will be stopped, a sharp change from the Bush administration that pushed for a new generation of warheads, and the new administration will work with Moscow to take US and Russian missiles off their current hair trigger alert, while seeking "dramatic reductions in US and Russian stockpiles of nuclear weapons and material". 1-21-09 - Check out WhiteHouse.gov - stuff worth looking at. Read A National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation - Obama's first proclamation. It's a bizarre twist of events in our CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism section.
1-19-09 - One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change." - Martin Luther King Jr. (thanks Barry Vesser) And let us remember today what the mainstream tends to conveniently ignore about Martin Luther King - that toward the end of his life he was marginalized for his emphasis on, his passion for peace, for ending the war in Vietnam. - dc 1-18-09 - A poem by Hafiz (1320-1389) - All the Hemispheres (thanks Stuart Hardy) 1-17-09 - The National Religious Campaign Against Torture reminds us that torture is a moral issue, enlists religious organizations to join in opposing torture and works toward a change of policy by the US government. 1-16-09 - The Chronicles Project - the Big No by Chogyam Trungpa 1-15-09 - The informative Free Speech TV 1-14-09 - Zen rabbi Alan Lew died on Monday - JTA link - SFZC notice on Alan Lew's death 1-13-09 - Check out books and writing by old friend Jane Bay. It's funny but the term "old friend" seems to have worked better when we were younger. As we get older maybe it would be better to say "dear friend." 1-12-09 - SSLP quick update for you and cause I needed folks from Facebook to have something quick to read. 1-11-09 - Make a New Year’s Resolution for Human Rights 1-10-09 - See Grace Dammann's Caring Bridge update and donate to the fund for her. 1-09-09 - One of the earliest Shunryu Suzuki lectures that was recorded on September 9, 1965. A reminder - An invitation from Tensho David Schneider to join with him and others who knew Philip Whalen to spend an evening sharing memories of Philip. 1-08-09 - For those of you, like me, who find the celestial far more impressive than mere planetary fodder, Saturday night will be the biggest full moon of the year and visible on the West Coast from 7:12 AM to 4:53 PM local time. thanks to David Cohen - this is his news site - the limping gazelle. 1-07-09 - A Report on the Recent Events in Thailand 1-06-09 - Check out Willem Malten's blog 1-05-09 - HFA - the Humane Farming Association - founded by Brad Miller who many of us know from the SFZC years past. In the Fauna Ahimsa section which has more links about the HFA, origin of Ahimsa in Jainism and Buddhism, and more. 1-04-05 - More links for Nanao from Andrew Main 1-03-09 - Happy New Year to Jana Drakka. Check out this latest article on the work she does in the Tenderloin of SF from the San Francisco Street Sheet. Cuke's Jana page.
1-01-09 - Happy New Year from all of us here at cuke.com. May this year bring you peace, joy, prosperity, health, and ever-expanding awakening. Last year cuke got 296,753 visits from folks who went to 882,810 pages, and made 2,661,466 hits in this sprawling mess of Zen and nonZense. We are planning to put up a cuke goals for 2009, but today we're mentioning but two major goals: to raise money and to share more of the teaching of Shunryu Suzuki. Today we're going to ask you for
financial support. # 1 primero uno ultissimo we ask you to please send a
tax deductible donation to the
SSLP,
Shunryu Suzuki Legacy Project ["To preserve and
deliver"] by sending a check to
Abbot’s
Assistant, Green Gulch Farm, That's the main thing the cuke staff is working on. Our goal is to bring you many more results of this work this year, more than we did last year which concentrated on preservation. There is much more preservation work to do but our goal is for the delivering, the sharing foot to step forward. You can also make a donation to cuke.com directly by hitting the DONATE button on the right side of this page and following your instincts. Here's more info on how to make a tax deductible donation to cuke.com. There's a DONATE button at that link too. Please think of others who might be interested in supporting the SSLP and cuke.com. Email us - contact DC. There is a big bang for this buck. Our overhead is very low. Thanks to all the generous people who have made this work possible up to now and to them and you this year and every year, as Meher Baba said, "Don't worry, be happy, love life." |
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11-27-09
-
Trungpa,
Chogyam, The Teacup and the Skullcup:
Chögyam Trungpa on Zen and Tantra, Vajradhatu Publications,
2007. 
Happy
birthday Katrinka!
Walked
around Basel, Switzerland, the other day past the remarkable Rathouse,
city hall, and continuing further happened upon this wonderful
11-02-09 -
Himalaya Blue, Tibetan Red invitation from creator Zsolt Suto. See Zsolt's,
10-18-09 -
10-08-09
- 
10-06-09
-
9-20-09
- Thanks to Al Giga for sending this photo of the cover of the recent
issue of Vogue (German issue) which on the inside has a quote from Shunryu
Suzuki
8-12-09 - Thanks
Gene DeSmidt for this photo and poem.
7-20-09 -
7-13-09
- 
710-09
-
Arthur Okamura, Marin artist and old friend, died suddenly today in
Bolinas while walking his dog. Arthur started sitting with Suzuki Roshi
and received lay ordination from Baker Roshi and is
known to many old-timers. He will be missed.
6-19-09
- 
6-12-09
-
6-11-09
- It has just come to my attention that Janwillem van de Wetering crossed
to the other shore last October. Here's an
Here's
4-28-09 -
David Silva photography show, Original Nature,
will be showing for the month of May at the
4/02/09
- Buddhist Social Activist and Nobel Peace Prize
Nominee, Sulak Sivaraksa, Will Give Three Bay Area Talks April 23-25 -
3-31-09
- Photo of the March 2009 Shunryu Suzuki
Digital Archive housing.
3-09-10
-
John
Tarrant is the head teacher of PZI. Check out this Shambhala Sun sponsored
NYC
3-02-09
- Lew Richmond has a new blog -
2-14-09 -
Apparently,
1-22-09
- From
1-20-09
- The whole staff at cuke.com welcomes our new president. We look forward
to opposing his policies when they promote the continuation of war,
imperialism, corporatism, and the destruction of the planet, and hope our
hope proves true - that he will do much less harm and encourage our higher
angles a bit. Saw the inaugural with son Clay and fellow students and
teachers and parents on wide screen TV followed by pancakes. What a day.
Now enjoy 
