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What Was New in 2007
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What Was New 1999 to now Index



December


12-31-07 - John Tarrant's New Year's Message - and a special thanks to John Tarrant, head teacher of PZI for the generous, major support he has given to cuke.com and to Katrinka, Clay, and me - this year and last year and the year before and the year before that and I'm loosing count. Show your thanks and Donate to PZI. (And check out John Tarrant's books) And thanks so much to our other supporters, especially MK, without whom this work and life as we know it would not be possible.

And happy new year to everyone from DC and all of us at cuke.com!


12-30-07 - Bread, one of Shunryu Suzuki's earliest recorded lectures at the Haiku Zendo in Los Altos.


12-29-07 - A selection of  holiday and New Year's greetings


12-28-07 - Brief interview with Jeff Broadbent from '94 plus some recent notes from him on what he's up to and memories of Niels Holm and a "more accessible" version of what he's up to on climate change.


12-27-07 - What DC is Doing Now and an Appeal for Funds and how to donate.


12-26-07 - Hoitsu Suzuki is leading the five day sesshin at Dragon Mountain Temple in Crestone CO beginning March 11th. Here's the link for the sesshin and practice period which begins Feb. 9th. See the cuke.com interview with Steve Allen, Dragon Mt.'s abbot.


12-22-07 - Bypassing Voicemail Greetings and prompts - a little holiday gift from cuke.com

Sharing David & Linda Silva's holiday card

Exposed: the seven great medical myths - thanks to Kelly


12-20-07 - Zen Center and Tassajara Stories and beyond by Rick Wicks with a special link to the Shoes niche.


12-19-07 - Interview with  Audrey Robinson (Walter), stoneworker - via email with DC


12-18-07 - Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks by Jeffrey Broadbent, University of Minnesota - what one Suzuki student is doing to save our collective ass.


12-17-07 - Beltane Flowers is back. Get great flower arrangements for events - weddings, parties, openings, home, office in Sonoma or Marin counties (California) and help out cuke.com at the same time.


12-16-07 - Check out Andy Ferguson's new streaming videos on China at his website for South Mountain Tours. More on cuke on Andy


DC sez: Am not keeping up with stuff I wanted to post like the whole St. Louis trip in late October and more on the Port Townsend visit which included a stop at the incredible Phoenix Rising book store and more - buddhas, jizos, boddhisattvas, crystals, tankas, incense,  CDs. Katrinka and I spent a while looking around and talking to Jill, the owner, who sends this message: As all the great teachers have taught through the ages first we learn to love and honor ourselves, and then to extend that love and respect outwards to our family, our community, and then to all our neighbors And then peace will prevail
In Spirit,
Jill


Also - take a look at Gloria Simoneaux's worthy and impressive Harambee Arts: Let's pull togetherTM.  This is Gloria's new project to work with children in sub-Saharan Africa who have been traumatized by the AIDS epidemic, civil wars, famine and displacement. Gloria is the creator of Drawbridge, an arts program for homeless children.


12-15-07 - Check out the 2008 calendar prints and tee shirts and more in the Cuke Basket, a print on demand store in Cafe Press. Cuke profit no more than $3 on any item, $1 on calendars. Buy one such as the Shunryu Suzuki New Year's card calendar print to the left and copy it cheaper at a copy shop (but on quality stock) and use it for a holiday gift for Buddhists, Orientophiles, calligraphers, bird-lovers, that special someone, etc. To see this card a little better, go to its page in the Cuke Basket and hit View Larger.


12-14-07 - Reflecting on the reunion, Andrew Main sends Confucian greetings.


12-13-07 - A contribution from Fil Lewitt  in Brief Memories of Shunryu Suzuki


12-10-07 - Books by Bill Porter whose pen name is Red Pine - recently visited with Bill and Suzuki disciple Silas Hoadley (who built Bill's cozy guest cottage) in Port Townsend. More on this Thanksgiving trip tomorrow I hope.


12-09-07 - The Early Tassajara Alumni Reunion is going to have an art show about which I know very little. However I do have a sneak preview of three works by the esteemed Dan Welch.


12-08-07 - Brother David's Season's Greetings


And happy Buddha's Enlightenment Day - your enlightenment day - remember Kabumpkan's chant:

Who da Buddha? You da Buddha. Dat's who da Buddha.

In the ancient esoteric Japanese: Hudabuda yudabuda detsudabuda.


12-07-07 - Happy Pearl Harbor day (which was already the next day, December 8th, Buddha's Enlightenment Day, for the Japanese). As with every other day, today is a day to create a world without war, without tyranny, without poverty. Sounds idealistic, possibly counter-productive. Granted. Shunryu Suzuki on war and peace - from the files of cuke dot com.

12-06-07 - Crooked Cucumber Comes to America - (almost) 3300 word story of Suzuki's life. [This is a repeat in response to recent inquiries]

Been a little busy with this and that - Thanksgiving travel, computer problems, working on the reunion. That's why there was this little break in cuke reports.


November


11-30-07 - A brief memory of Shunryu Suzuki by Sheridan Adams (Ericson) entitled You know nothing!


11-20-07 - Check out the SFZC Bookstore. Mentioning this cause the other day cuke linked to the SFZC online bookstore but then learned that's an Amazon deal that bypassed the SFZC bookstore, the folks of which were unaware they were being thus bypassed. So forget that online Amazon thing which they don't get that much from anyway and check out the SFZC Bookstore and see what they've got. The reason this came up today is that someone emailed cuke and wanted an autographed copy of Thank You and OK! (see DC  books below) and so I'm suggesting they get it from the SFZC Bookstore and I'll sign it the next time I'm at the City Center and am suggesting they send an extra five bucks for the trouble. - DC


11-19-07 - A lecture by Shunryu Suzuki - lightly edited for your reading pleasure and with the verbatim version handy for reference.


11-15-07 - Going through some photos for get-together with students tomorrow (see DC at USF on the 16th), took John's advice at the CRC and downloaded Picasa so John at USF could choose photos for slide show and now I can't stop working with the photos on Picasa. Most are Zen Center/Suzuki related but there's a bunch of family stuff there too. All in various folders. Haven't put any explanatory text in yet. I can see I'm going to have to leave it with a lot of work yet to do. But it's not bad as is. Check it out - cuke and DC photos on Picasa. Onward. - DC


11-14-07 - Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

By Dainin Katagiri

Shambhala link

click thumbnail to enlarge     SFZC Bookstore


11-13-07 - DC at USF on the 16th

Last night and this morning Clay chatted with  me about Tassajara for a short report he had to write for school on some sub-culture he was familiar with. There wasn't much time so I typed it as he decided what to say. Here it is. - DC

Been having some computer problems  but thanks to Tech God and John at the CRC I think all will be alright. I'm wiping the main hard drive clean on the desktop and reloading - a good thing to do now and then but time consuming. It's about time to get a new one at the CRC - almost free to non profits which cuke qualifies for.

11-08-07 - Take a look at the SFZC's excellent suggested ideas for the holidays but don't go to the SFZC online bookstore link - go to SFZC Bookstore [see note of 11-20-07]. This would be about the only exception I'd make to an otherwise iron-clad rule to shun any mention of the holidays till December. Of course they could be thinking of Thanksgiving holiday and be planning to run this again in December.

Here's a neat quick video that explains the writer's strike - please support it if there's any way you can. Check out Huffington Post for more on this. The writers have a little problem in that they're striking against the folks who control the news, media in America becoming more and more controlled by a few jumbo corporations.

Back to CA after 65 days away. Katrinka at the airport! Clay!


11-07-07 - Interview with Milton Clapp in North Carolina


11-06-07 -  A few links to try to make up for my recent absense - just been busy making meals n running errands for mother, working on the Early Tassajara Alumni Reunion (see Alumni List), visiting with Fort Worth friends, scanning family photos, and reading things I'll post in the CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism section like:

Block Burmese JADE (Junta's Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act of 2007:
Get Your Representative to Co-Sponsor! - actually, for the
Burma Crisis info and action page

A "Paper Coup," and Blackwater Eyes Midtown Manhattan By Naomi Wolf

Silence is Complicity - Address by Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson on October 27, 2007

both those from Taigen.

And laughing myself silly watching this in Digressions, check this out: TelemarketerPrank - thanks to David Cohen.

For the Zen Aluminati section, Rene Pettit, who's been reading to Ananda while I'm gone, suggests:

I think you should make a request on cuke.com for people to email or blog ananda on your site. We could print them out and read them to him. Although he understands everything, he can only say yes and no and smile or frown. He likes the idea and it would be an easy way for buddhist friends to make a contribution without driving to his location. What say you, Sire?

I say sure - do it. Send or link to something to read to Ananda. We've done it before, let's do it again. Send to contact DC

And here's a picture and a poem from Gene DeSmidt

Later meditator - DC


October


10-31-07 - Niels Holm's Farewell Letter


Monks return to the streets in Burma    Burma Crisis info and action page


Happy Halloween to all cuke readers and all other sentient beings.

Read The True Meaning of Halloween The Lost Meaning of Halloween - further you can go to Wikipedia on Halloween and all sorts of other places. But not to be fooled, read this and find out the Satanic lowdown on Halloween.

Halloween greetings received: one from Anne Kyle Brown at Kumeido Zen Center near Mendocino.


Don't know why but when I tried to go to the Early Tassajara Reunion Alumni List and also to the CukeSanghaNews page, got this message here in a Fort Worth coffee shop: The SonicWALL Content Filter Has Blocked this site. The reason was catagory 5: weapons. (Caught at last) I was checking out a message from alert reader Andrew Main that the list wasn't fully loading. I re-loaded it after making a change so maybe it's okay but can't check it till later. - DC


10-30-07 - A High School Art Class Poem


10-25-07 - Sittin' here in Manchester waiting for a flight and reading what some Zen friends have writ about mindfulness - introduced by a few idle comments from DC.


10-24-07 - Don't Let the World Forget About the Saffron Revolution - This Wednesday, October 24th, is an important day for Burma. It is: 1) United Nations Day, 2) The day when Aung San Suu Kyi will have been under house arrest for a total of 12 years, and 3) One month since the uprisings in Burma were at their peak. The US Campaign for Burma will be marking this day with a host of actions around the world.
Burma Crisis info and action page
See BBC article on world-wide demonstrations.


10-21-07 - Phillip Wilson as found in Crooked Cucumber. Phillip died in July, not of a heart attack as I'd reported earlier, but, according to the coroner (according to JJ, his ex wife), of liver cancer. More on Phil soon. - DC  Click on thumbnail to enlarge.


10-20-07 - Watch the spinning lady - thanks Rev. E. Sawyer.


Don't forget Burma.


10-19-07 - The amazing and inspiring Sri Chinmoy passed away at 76 ten days ago.


And happy birthday Elin!

 

 


10-18-07 - 16 things we can all do to help the Burmese monks and citizens.


Dismantling Discontent: Buddha’s Way Through Darwin’s World - a new book


THE HEART SUTRA AND COMPASSIONATE COMMUNICATION With Paul Shippee November 9 / 7:00 pm - November 11 / 5:00 pm Madison Shambhala Center Madison, Wisconson


 Back Porch Zendo West Sonoma CA - Half Day Sitting is Saturday October 27.


10-17-07 - Don't forget Burma!  See the Burma Crisis info and action page.


A few quotes from a 1969 Shunryu Suzuki lecture - from the notes of Tony Artino


10-16-07 - Was compelled to bring you more Alan Watts Theater animation from The guys who do South Park - see 10-14 in WHAT WAS NEW for first posting.


10-15-07 - In eleven days I'm giving a talk in St. Louis at Washington University on Zen and Mindfulness. What should I say? What can be said about... what are we talking about? oh yes - mindfulness. What do you think? I've misplaced my notes and am dizzy from just having banged my head on a low beam and aching from having tripped over my own feet which led to a nasty tumble. Mindfulness? Huh? Help. Write me now at contact DC, share your thoughts and save me from the humiliation of staring at the eager assembly, mouth agape, occasionally mumbling "Duh." - DC

That's Brooks Hall where this auspicious event is transpiring. 
More exciting details on this breaking story.


10-14-07 - The guys who do South Park (recipients of the prestigious cuke.com High Lords of Cultural Commentary Award) did this animated video called Life and Music to some wise words from Alan Watts.- Thanks to E. Sawyer. Filed in Misc.


Andrew Main sends A Grand Misjudgment, another side of the Al Gore getting the Noble Prize story. And look beyond that to the site it's on, Counterpunch.

And here's more comment on Gore's prize - Of Spoils and Spoilsports - with lots of links to even more commentary and opinion on what it's Al about.

And to add yet a third link to today's CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism offering, read The 'Good Germans' Among Us By FRANK RICH in The New York Times, October 14, 2007 in which he contends: "BUSH lies" doesn't cut it anymore. It's time to confront the darker reality that we are lying to ourselves. It's about torture and how we know it's happening and can't say we don't.


10-13-07 - Today in the CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism section.

Hurray for Al Gore winning the Noble Peace Prize! It could turn out that through a bizarre twist of events, Ralph Nader saved the world. Nah - it's probably too late anyway, but good try Al and all! (Idea stolen from Josh at Talking Points Memo) - DC

On the Iran Attack page - Read what Scott Ritter has to say about stopping the rush to war with Iran in Robert Scheer's Truthdig.com.


10-12-07 - Tomorrow there is a Celebration of Life Memorial for Niels Holm at 2PM at the Palindrome in Port Townsend, Washington. There will be a ceremony, potluck, and music. See Niels Holm memorial page.

A poem for Niels by Steve Tipton

A poem for Niels by William Benz


 A photo of Mark Petchey standing with his parents, Grahame Petchey and Hideko and a new Mark Petchey page.


Happy birthday to Kelroy Chadwick (1903-1956).

 

 


10-11-07 - A lecture by Shunryu Suzuki - lightly edited for your reading pleasure and with the verbatim version handy for reference.


10-10-07 - New paths to enlightenment through advertising - in the SF Chron today - in which meditator and yoga teacher Mark Morford ponders whether Zen can withstand so much association with random consumer products. Thanks to Gene deSmidt - In miscellaneous.


10-09-07 - Today Shambhala Publications releases

Zen Is Right Here: Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki, Author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
click thumbnail to enlarge cover

ZIRH home page   -   ZIRH and the Colbert Challenge

Shambhala Publications link and Amazon link - List price $12.95 - reduced price on both sites - $10.36

Praise for this book in its former incarnation.


10-08-07 - Couldn't the U.S. Do More to Pressure Burma's Junta? by William Kristol in the Washington Post
Sunday, October 7, 2007; Page B07

Comments on Kristol's article from Mahablog

See the Burma Crisis info and action page.

10-07-07 - Now online at the BUREAU  OF  PUBLIC  SECRETS website: a host of links on Buber, Basho, and more.

10-06-07 - TARA - A poem by Philip Whalen we recite for the Burmese today ...and for the Iraqies... and the Somalies... and the folks in New Orleans... and all people... and all animals... and all beings in the six realms and any other realms in the ten directions and any other directions... to the furthest reaches of the known universe... and the unknown. - See the Burma Crisis info and action page.


10-05-07 - The dramatic Zen Is Right Here (see subtitle in yesterday's entry) countdown continues.

ZIRH and the Colbert Challenge - reissued today.

ZIRH pub date is October 9th

ZIRH home page

click thumbnail to enlarge cover


10-04-07 - More on the Myanmar, Burma Crisis info and action page. This is so heavy that I feel like not putting anything else on the site, but, well, we're doing what we can, and life goes on in numerous ways.


On the Niels Holm Memorial Page - His partner O'Neill and a friend write - and three great Photos.


October 9th is Shambhala's publishing date for Zen Is Right Here: Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki, Author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Yes, that's the whole title. It's almost longer than the book. Go here for more on this book.

Click on thumbnail to enlarge cover.

 ZIRH and the Colbert Challenge


Off to Scotland today.  This is where to.


Happy Birthday Kelly, now 17/31sts of my age. In Family

 

 


10-02-07 - Burma update - and it's not good - reports and appeals for you and me to do what we can to help the people of Burma.


10-01-07 - Bay Area bonanza. Three items for the greater SF Bay area cukesters (cukester: one who stumble upon cuke).

1. Karl Renz will be in the Bay Area (Mountain View, San Francisco, San Rafael) October 3-7 (see the schedule) Read Andrew Main's informative message about this Advaita-like independent teacher - with links and quotes.

2. Only four more days for the Berkeley Zen Center 40th Anniversary Celebration Auction .

3. Joy can provide tech support in the South Bay. She gives a senior discount and is able to translate complicated Tech Speak into simple English. Her services include installation, upgrade, repair, tutoring, data recovery, security. Contact Joy at jcohn@realityresource.com. And thanks so much to Joy for donating a laptop to cuke.com and thanks to Tech God for arranging this noble gift.


September


9-30-07 - Happy 50th CBA!

On this last day of September, cuke.com turns toward Cambridge to acknowledge with a deep bow the 50th anniversary of the Cambridge Buddhist Association (CBA). (read more)


Our rosy future, according to Freeman Dyson - filed in CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism - thanks to jr -   And thank goodness there's no more reason to worry.


9-29-07 - More on Niels Holm's passing on this his 66th birthday.


9-28-07 - Myanmar soldiers attack Buddhist Monks. The latest from the US Campaign for Burma. Reuven passes on this link to Avaaz with their efforts to stand with the Burmese protesters. And, thanks to, swallowing, President Bush for focusing on these events.

Taigen's report has more links plus an unconfirmed report of the brutal slaughter of monks.


9-27-07 - Niels Holm died peacefully this morning at his home in Port Townsend, Washington. His partner of eight years, O'Neill Louchard, who was sleeping by him, had told him during the night that he was free to stay or leave. Between five and five fifteen she noticed he was not longer breathing. His body will remain at the home till ten tomorrow morning for close friends and family to be with. There will be a memorial service for Niels on the thirteenth of October at the Rosewood Community House in Port Townsend in the afternoon with music, sharing, and pot luck. (photo from his niece Eva)

Interviews and more with Niels Holm

go to his Care Page

 


9-26-07 - Two photos of Phillip Wilson with Shunryu Suzuki. Phillip died in July. More later.


9-25-07 - Read Taigen Dan Leighton's brief comments and suggestions on the events in Burma (which include the following).

On the Buddhist Peace Fellowship site: Two Actions You Can Take to Support the Monks and Nuns of Burma

People link hands as they accompany monks marching in a protest against the government in Yangon, September 24, 2007. Tens of thousands of people joined streams of Buddhist monks on marches through Myanmar's capital on Monday in the biggest demonstration against the ruling generals since they crushed student-led protests nearly 20 years ago. REUTERS/Democratic Voice of Burma

May we not see a repeat of the slaughter of monks and laypeople in '88. Pray for peace. - DC - in CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism 


9-24-07 - Greetings. Eight days away. Just got Internet connection at mom's home in Fort Worth TX. She's recovering well from hemi-arthroscopy or half hip replacement on one side. Had to take her boyfriend to the emergency room the other night for a catheter  problem. But everything's smooth now around here - doing meals and errands and fixing up their bathing facilities with seats and hand held sprayers and bars to hold on to. I keep getting familiarized with those little kinks of existence Buddha picked up on when he sneaked out of the palace. Namely: old age, sickness, and death. For the situation with Niels Holm, go to his Care Page. Before leaving Scotland, I promised Phil Wilson's interview in a week but it's not ready yet and I've got to work now on the Early Tassajara Alumni Reunion. Will get to that soon.

A sad note. Just learned that SFZC student from the seventies and eighties, Diana Berys, died in 1999. I met Diana in 1965 in Buenos Aires. I also met her cousin Richard Borevitz there, an American. Three years later I saw him in the office at Tassajara and said, "Didn't I know you in BA?" Years later, Diana came to visit and she stayed and became a Zennie. Then she went back and now and then I'd hear about her. Recently I got an email from Richard that said he'd run across someone and my name and Crooked Cucumber came up and, after 39 years he got hold of me and told me the sad news about Diana. More details later. Because of that, the someone who'd pointed him toward me, Jeannie Stearns, an old Suzuki student, sent me an email informing me of Phillip Wilson's passing.

And now for a pre-old age and death item, thanks Cheryl F for alerting us to THE LEAF, the log of Treeleaf Zendo where, among other things, you can sit online with a virtual community. Check it out.

Back soon. - DC


9-16-07 - Early sixties Suzuki student, Jeanie Stearns, responds to Early Tassajara Alumni Reunion page by informing us that Phillip Wilson died in Los Angeles in July of this year. Phil was the second person that Shunryu Suzuki personally ordained as a priest, the third he sent to the famous Soto Zen training temple, Eiheiji, in Japan. Phil was the second person, after Zentatsu Richard Baker, to be shuso, head monk, at Tassajara, Zen Mt. Center.  I have lots more to say and interviews with both Phillip and his wife of those days J.J. Wilson which I will go over and post as I get to it. I'll also be in touch with Jeannie and J.J. Please send your memories of Phil. And photos.

Last full day in Scotland. Got lots to do - like take a walk along the Loch right now. Flying to Fort Worth to help mother who's getting out of rehab for hip operation on Tuesday. Will continue posts from there. This is where I am. - DC

9-15-07 -  May you be ready for the bardos when they come! - by Jack Elias


9-12-07 - Tassajara Report I - Dish Shack Duty


Update on Niels Holm's condition


Happy birthday sister Susan! In Family

 

 


9-11-07 - Remembering the day six years ago when the whole world mourned with us and now mourning how we as a nation have turned that universal sympathy into antipathy. Since then hysteria fueled by greed, hate, and delusion have led the way, not the way pointed to by Jesus or Buddha or any of the great wise ones. We've poured gasoline on the fire and wander around choking and blinded by the smoke. We seem to be determined to join with forces of world suicide. Shiva, the destroyer, dances his eternal dance. - DC

click thumbnail to enlarge


Niels Holm is not well. Go to Niels at Sangha News to learn more.


9-10-07 - DC responds ramblingly to Robert's question from yesterday.


In CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism - Listen to Scott Ritter at a book event for his new book, Waging Peace: The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement

Adding it to the Iran Attack page.


9-09-07 - A thoughtful email received a week ago from Robert Anderson in which he expresses concern about idealizing Shunryu Suzuki.

 

 


9-08-07 - Thanks to Ken Ireland for sending Katrinka McKay (via the PZI Talk list) the wild and whacky Episode 6 of the Stuart Davis Show (Zen and the Zen of Zen) as found on YouTube, or check it out on the Stuart Davis Show, presented by Integral Naked, from the Integral Institute founded, I think, by Ken Wilber.


9-07-07 - Beautiful here in Scotland, like a post card, but have to sleep a lot so far. Fiona says it's all the greenery putting lots of oxygen in the air. This is where I am. I can finally pronounce it. Not so hard. Katrinka drives me to nearby picturesque Oban, gateway to the isles, in Argyll sockland, on the windy two lane roads. Dreamy walks.


 

9-06-07 - Letter to DC from Yeachin Tsai

hit thumbnail to enlarge

I am very happy to inform you that Shunryu Suzuki's "Not Always So" has been published in Taipei, Taiwan, on Aug. 23, 2007. The book so far has been very well received by the huge Zen Buddhists population in Taiwan. As my recent knowledge, it also starts its selling in the bookstores in Hong Kong and Malaysia. For people who can read Chinese, they can go to this link to purchase the book. Thank you for all your help on the process of translating this book (which I mentioned it in the translator's note). Wish all is well with you.

Your in the Dharma,
Translator, Yeachin Tsai
New York, USA
www.everydayink.com
http://shambhalachinese.blogspot.com/


9-05-07 - Jetlag I guess. Too tired to open laptop.


9-04-07 - I couldn't even add anything to cuke if I wanted cause I'm way up in the air. People sitting next to me say they can't believe someone could sleep for seven hours sitting in a cramped airplane chair.


9-03-07 - I told you there'd be no time to put anything on today. No sleep tonight.


9-02-07 - A light edit of one of Shunryu Suzuki's last lectures - at Tassajara in the summer of 1971.

Off to Scotland in two days. No more time for cuke till I get settled there. Till then I'm sure there's more within these cyber-halls than you know of. Snoop around. And when I return in a few days, all will be revealed.  - DC


 


August


8-31-07 - Sexy Senators and suggested consequences - an engaged Buddhist riff in DchadMisc


8-30-07 - Three Lectures by Sotan Tatsugami Roshi

Back from Tassajara and busily preparing to go to Scotland. Not much time for cuke till then. More on that later. - DC


8-16-07 - Off to Tassajara. Back on the 28th. Till then here are a few items and links to explore -  - at least one for each day I'm gone. Metta - DC


Email interview with Lynn Hennelly (Hesselbart).


A kind reader sends this: Here's another small teaching from HH Dilgo Khyentse to read to Ananda if you'd like. It's called BUDDHA-NATURE. Read it to him last week. He thanked me before I left - we don't talk - I just read. Works best that way. Going to see him this morning on way to Tass. - DC


A request from Dragon Mountain Temple. [see interview with Steve Allen]

Dear Greater Sangha,
We are looking for anyone who is interested in transcribing one or more lectures given by our Abbot Tenryu Steve Allen throughout the year.  Anyone interested in this endeavor please reply to this email and I will either email you an MP4 file, or I will put it on disk in audio or data format and send it by mail.  We would appreciate this very much and look forward to your replies.
Thank you and Gassho,
Benjamin
"Dragon Mountain" <dragonmountaintemple[at]gmail[dot]com>

And here's Dragon Mountain Temple's fall schedule


More from AM on Thomas Kelly and Maggie and his photos


A photo from Maggie's scrapbook of Daya and DC - in DC Misc, Family.


Check out this web site of Carolyn North. And here's a link to her books. And here's a site  for Seven Movements, One Song, Memoir as Metaphor -  with a fictionalized chapter about her experiences at the SFZC and Tassajara.


Check out this recent talk by Rev. Ogui (cuke interview and more) on the SFZC website. You can read some excerpts or listen to the whole thing.


Check out Jim Dreaver's web site to see about his new book - End Your Story, Begin Your Life - and email him if you're interested in his upcoming Living in the Flow workshop at Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California August 26 – 31, 2007. Email "Jim Dreaver" <jdreaver[at]aol[dot]com>
 


GENE DESMIDT sends  A Picture and a Poem

I'M MEDITATING
BY A LAKE .... WHAT DO I SEE ?
GURU ON A BENCH !

zEN mAN ( observing the hand carved name of the great Indian teacher, Yogananda, on the seat of an old pine bench by a beautiful lake in Nashville. Tennessee....not what I expected in the town with more Christian churches than any city in the U.S.A.) click thumbnail to enlarge


Ekai Korematsu Osho is in Melbourne, Australia, at Jikishoan. An errata gold star to Ron Buckstein for pointing out the mistake of saying Jikishoan was in New Zealand.


And, for the CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism section - There is no center in politics by George Lakoff

Look at this interesting grid - Progressivism is not dead - on Blast Off.

This is one for the It IS Happening Here page.


There will be a memorial service for Jack Van Allen at the Berkeley Zen Center at 3pm on August 25th. If you've got some story about Jack you'd like to share, this would be a good time to tell it.
click thumbnail to enlarge

 

 


Tuesday, August 14th - Santa Fe New Mexican obituary for MARGRET "MAGGIE" CONNOR KRESS followed by some great photos from her wedding with Niels Holm officiated by Dainin Katagiri. On the Maggie Kress memorial page. Thanks to Andrew Main for these touching photos. More to come from her scrapbook he says.


Mother's hip operation went well and the doctor and nurses said she had the body of a much younger woman. Good going mom. - DC



Monday August 13th - Kudos to David Cohen, brother of Darlene for the following inspiring slogan now available in the Cuke Basket on Cafe Press on various exciting consumer products. Need tech support? Try David Cohen, Tech God at Tech Light. Thanks David for helping cuke dot com out a lot. - DC

Hit the image or this link to go to the My Galaxy! page of the cuke basket.


Happy 93rd birthday to Ahdel, my mother. And may the operation for your broken hip go smoothly and you recover quickly.



Friday, August 10 - Have you ever seen Kodaiji's intro to Zen? And if so, how long has it been? If you want to see the temple, look around Kodaiji's Japanese site. Here it is translated somewhat. Here's their rock garden. Lots of other links about Kodaiji - just search for them. Enjoy. - DC


Welcome to the Bush Blog. It's time to stop attacking him and let him speak for himself so that we here at cuke can continue to uphold our commitment to be fair and balanced (great how that phrase has become a cause for ridicule). In CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism



Thursday, August 9, 2007 - Remembering Nagasaki from the website of the Exploratorium, a great institution in a great building in San Francisco. - in CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism


Dchad Misc - my schedule for the coming months.


Thanks to Andrew Main for pointing out a misspelling in the article below. It gives me a sense of community when people help me like this. No detail is too small for me.



Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - What I discovered today in a bridge column. On August 2nd, I drove to Green Gulch Farm  for a meeting about the Early Tassajara Alumni Reunion, arriving early so I could join folks there in dining on their sumptuous victuals. In the lounge upstairs before dinner I riffled through the Marin Independent Journal till I found Philip Alder's bridge column, his daily nationally syndicated article on the card game bridge. I was thrown off balance when his column for that day began, ' Norman Fischer, a poet and Zen Buddhist priest, said, “We all need to have a creative outlet — a window, a space — so we don't lose track of ourselves.”' - DC [read on in DchadMisc[Norman Fischer]


Saw this last night. Horrors. - DC - Orwell Rolls in His Grave - "About the manipulation of the media by America's ruling elites solemnly stokes the resulting flames of angry discontent... Exploding the myth of the American media's liberal bias." - BBC - CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism

Also in the same section - President Bush Vows To Protect Us [Crooks and Liars link] from the Evil Zombiefascists [my.break link]



Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - New Shunryu Suzuki lecture light edit, this one given 36 years ago today. Read it and/or read the verbatim version.


Tearing what's left of my hair about the Protect America Act -  - vomit, scream, retch, bang head on wall. Distraught DC email to Senator Dianne Feinstein about her voting for this despicable bill - the beginning of a new page called It Is Happening Here. Also links to articles and video. in CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism.



Monday, August 6, 2007 - It is most appropriate on this day to have received A World Without Armies report from Kaz Tanahashi. It is a good day to remember and be thankful for those who are working for peace, or, negatively, working at turning back the doomsday clock. Like the BPF. Go to Space War dot com for Current Nuclear Threat Worse Than During Cold War. Check out PSR who brought us the Nuclear Freeze Movement 25 years ago. Lot of people think that ended the problem. Ha ha ha laughs the WSC. See Species Threats #1 here on cuke for past posts on this. - DC


Sunday, August 5, 2007 - Front page Atlanta Constitution Zen news from 8/03 - Silence, please! Atlanta gets its first Zen master. Congratulations to Michael Elliston of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center - Thanks for sending this to Lynn Hennelly (Hesselbart) at Clay and Lucy Calhoon's Ashland Farms just outside of Atlanta. All three are early Tassajara alumni. Know anything about anyone from back then? Have you looked at the list to help to make it complete?

CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism  - all is lost



Saturday, August 4, 2007 - Here are more great photos by Ko (Brian) Blix of the 2002 Mountains and Rivers camping sesshin to add to Ken Knabb's interview.



Friday, August 3, 2007 - Speaking of Zen web sites (see two days ago) Check out this well gone well done website for Black Mountain Zen Centre in Belfast Ireland. Starts off with a Buddhist bang so to speak. The teacher is Paul Haller, co-abbot of the SFZC. Hey, I'm going to Scotland - maybe I can visit them.

There's an Eastern Orthodox Christian Church in Santa Rosa, CA, that I frequently pass by on travels to and from the barn. Saint Seraphim of Sarov is its name and the name of their web site as well. Local sculptor and early Tassajara alumni Andrew Atkeison said I should go see their iconography and Judith Brown (see interview with Dwite) suggested I visit. She sent me the book Christ the Eternal Tao (amazon link) by Hieromonk Damascene who is an Orthodox priest up north from here. A reader there named John showed me around. We spent most our time standing in the church where we were surrounded by the saints - and when the muralist monk returns there will be even more. John introduced me to Father Lawrence. They were both most friendly and forthcoming with answers to my many questions some of which were about Pseudo Dionysius whom I've mentioned now and then here - especially his Mystical Theology. Although come to think of it I didn't call him that; I said Dionysius the Areopagite who's often thought of as another saint - the other's called "Pseudo" cause he signed that name. It's really unclear who's who. No matter - the Mystical Theology is clear. Anyway, I plan to go back and attend a Saturday evening service to see what that's like.



Thursday, August 2, 2007 -

There will be a memorial service for Jack Van Allen at the Berkeley Zen Center at 3pm on August 25th. If you've got some story about Jack you'd like to share, this would be a good time to tell it.
click thumbnail to enlarge



Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - Check out the San Francisco Zen Center's web site's new look. Well done!

And at last - video of Shunryu Suzuki giving a talk on the San Do Kai at Tassajara in 1970.

Some family photos of DC et al




July 


Tuesday, July 31 - Larry Hansen interview updated. Emails old and new, stories, photos, updates, a translation of a Japanese Zen master's lecture - all added to Larry's interview which started in 1995 and continues today.

 



Monday, July 30 - Check out Bruce Lipton's Biology of Belief - thanks to Mary E.



Saturday, July 28 - WHY DO THEY HATE US?
U.S. has chance to lessen Muslim resentment
By Mohsin Hamid

In CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism which was just Current Events before it was cuke-engaged Buddhism. Maybe it will just alternate among these headings.



Friday, July 27-07 - A compassionate reader and former SFZC student sends a couple of great teachings from Tibetan masters to be read to Ananda Dalenberg - In Zen Aluminati (And there's this photo of HH Dilgo Khyentse).


Books by Norman Fischer - updated a bit


cuke-engaged buddhism - Jimmy Breslin on Impeachment and various links on the case for impeachment.



July 26, '07 - More Impeachment Links - in the cuke-engaged buddhism section (formerly, Current Events)


Get these patriotic engaged cuke Buddhist tee shirts and other items now with large logos or small logos. - They are too dangerous, destructive, incompetent, and devious to leave them with this power any longer. Also, they're an extremely bad example. Impeach em both now! Maximum cuke profit - $3.



Wednesday 7-25-07 - A new entry on the cuke bibliography page: Sher, Gail. The Moon of the Swaying Buds: A Spiritual Autobiography. Edgework Books, Feb., 2002. Amazon link  - It's a book of poetry which focuses on her experiences at Tassajara and with Shunryu Suzuki, ending with her leaving Zen Center. See Gail Sher's web site's books page. She's written a bunch of them. - DC

 

 



Tuesday, 7-24-07 - James Murphy's memories of Shunryu Suzuki


Added a few more web sites to the list of those belonging to Early Tassajara Alumni. This is outside of the Dharma Groups in the Shunryu Suzuki Lineage.


cuke-engaged buddhism:  Learn more about The Yes Men, featured recently on Bill Moyer's Journal. Here's The Yes Men's website. They are naughty, throwing monkey-wrenches into globalization and mega-corporate profiteering.



Monday, 7-23-04 - Added a few Buddhistically social engaged articles from BOPSecrets to Ken Knabb's interview.


Swami Beyondananda Calls for Impeachment - Check out the Swami's wake-up-laughing website.

 


7-22-07 - Interview with  Ken Knabb of BOPSecrets



7-21-07 -  How to Cook Your Life, a film by Doris Dörrie featuring Edward Brown and his cooking dharma

reviews, links



7-20-07 - Interview with A. Beck
with Nancy Roscoe helping out
Anna with her husband Bob sold Tassajara to the SFZC. Nancy used be an owner too.


IMPEACH 'EM BOTH NOW           Try this



7-19-07 - I know a cool thing to do on cuke - have a list of web sites of people associated with this site which is mainly people from back in the Shunryu Suzuki era. I guess that's what Links is for and there's a bunch of stuff there but it's not organized in this way. Now I'm working on this Early Tassajara  Alumni List and so we're asking people for their web sites. So I guess what I'm talking about is adding to the links section a list of links related to early Tassajara alumni. There should also be a list of sites associated with anyone else that has to do with SFZC and another list for other Zen and other Buddhist sites and also other suggested sites that aren't Buddhist - I mean, who cares? I also need a list of sites I've linked to just cause someone asked but there was really no reason at all to do so other than that I didn't want to say no and the more links the better - that's a sort of long title for that list - have to abbreviate it. Okay, so I'll start the Early Tassajara Alumni Web Sites Link with Jack Elias's Finding True Magic.  Ilene Oba whom I'm working with sent it to me to check out. It's already on cuke, but let's revisit it. And check out Jack's interview.


IMPEACH 'EM BOTH NOW



7-18-07 - Thanks to Rev. Myoshin Lang of Zenshuji, the Soto Zen temple in Japantown in LA, for sending me the kanji, for Rinsoin, expertly rendered by Rev. Kojima. Rinsoin is Shunryu Suzuki's old temple in Japan. His son Hoitsu Suzuki is now the abbot though he is tanto at Eiheiji so his son Shungo is running the place - with help of course from his mom, Chitose-san. His sisters Kayoko and Narumi are teaching and I forget what. Shungo's wife is gorgeous and so kind and helpful but I forget her name. They're all kind and helpful. The reason for these kanji appearing here is that I'm looking for the location of Rinsoin on the map and it's embarrassing but I wasn't sure about the kanji anymore and couldn't find the kanji here and everything's such a mess I knew it would take forever so I called Taigen but he didn't know so I called Zenshuji and Rev. Lang and Rev. Kojima took care of it. Now I'll find it on the map I hope with the help of Google and it will join other SF Zen Center related centers and temples on a map that Timothy O'Conner Fraser is putting together at the City Center for the SFZC web site which is going to be all new, as I understand it, in a few days. And click that image to enlarge. Thanks. - DC



7-17-07 - A brief memory of Shunryu Suzuki and Maggie Kress from Jack Elias.


Congratulations to Hakuun Joko, Dave Haselwood, on the final phase of transmission, the Bestowing of the Robe Ceremony, from Jisho Warner at her Stone Creek Zen Center in Sebastopol, CA on Sunday July 15.  See more on this and Dave and his Empty Bowl Sangha in Cotati, CA.



7-16-07 - INTERVIEW WITH PAUL DISCOE by Neil Myers - on the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center's Mandala Project


Saw Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders, a documentary film, one of many I've seen and enjoyed perversely in the last few years exposing various evils of how our society functions, or should that be - of our dysfunctional society? - In Current Events.



7-15-07 - Been working furiously on the Early Tassajara Alumni list. Now there's a Early Tass Alum Home page which is gathering links generated by this project. Here's one -  Taisan (Larry) Sheridan's journal entry and list of students from spring 1971 practice period and his brief memory of Shunryu Suzuki which will go into the cuke section of that name.



7-11-07 - Andrew Main writes about the photos of Thomas Kelly, one of which might be the one Maggie Kress was admiring when she had her fatal stroke, others on the Aghora of India who practice in graveyards and more.



7-10-07 - A reminder to check out Zoketsu Norman Fischer and his Everyday Zen Foundation.  Don't miss the page on books which includes not only a few suggested core Zen books but Norman's books of poetry, Buddhism, Judaism, and working with youth. Don't miss the poetry and teachings links. See Norman's book page herein for more books.



7-09-07 - A letter sent to Ananda in three parts involving the Tisarana and What the Buddha Taught. Ananda really enjoyed the letter - a suggestion on how to communicate with Ananda.


July 7th Buddhist service for Maggie Kress in Colorado


Current Events - 'Supporting the troops' means withdrawing them By [Lt. Gen] William E. Odom [former head of the National Security Agency] from Nieman Watchdog.



7-08-07 - Reuven Benyuhmin sent some interesting emails yesterday - about his name, the word "bupkis," misrepresentations of his past, the meaningless trivia of a great deal (maybe 100%) of what we're involved in, and the emptiness of everything - in response to the Early Tassajara, Zen Mt. Center, Practice Period Alumni List (1967- 1989). This, as everything on cuke, is printed with his permission, and, as with everything herein, can be modified as he wishes. We are not journalists but... but... what are we? Reuven sort of answers that. - in Reader's Comments


Current Events - Progressive blogosphere isn't making as big a deal out of this as I would expect. The New York Times finally states in today's powerful lead editorial, The Road Home, "It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit."



7-7-7 - Make of it what you want. Here's what shuck and jive says (progressive Presby blog).


Check out the latest SFZC's Sangha News with this early photo of Shunryu Suzuki and his wife Mitsu (Rev. Suzuki and Okusan back then - it looks early 60s) with a quote from ZMBM and three haiku from her in a segment called Shunryu and Mitsu Suzuki on Impermanence.


There's also a reminder about Were you at Tassajara 1967-Fall 1989? which will bring you back to a page on this site. And that reminds me - I'd better get to work on that. You too - if that's applicable. - DC



7-06-07 - check out
 

and the home for the website of Brother David Steindl-Rast, a dear friend and good friend to ZC through the years, starting with the first practice period at Tassajara. - DC




2006 photo by Jim Nichols



7-05-07 - Taigen Dan Leighton reading from Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra at Black Oak Books in Berkeley tonight at 7. See Taigen's book page and Ancient Dragon Zen Gate website.


Photos of Annapurna's Shrine at the Pine Street Clinic in San Anselmo by Rene Pettit.
 

 

 

 

***********************************************************************

A new Memorial Index - went back over prior posts to remember some who have passed on.

***********************************************************************

Doing that led to Ryuho Yamada in Thank You and OK!

***********************************************************************

 Current Events - LIFE SENTENCES: COLLATERAL SANCTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH MARIJUANA OFFENSES on the CCLE website (Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics) sent by the Marijuana Policy Project.


cuke.com supports Harm Reduction and an end to the war on people called the war on drugs. See this entry from earlier this year.

click on thumbnail to see ACLU decriminalization ad
 



7-04-07 - Happy Fourth of July from cuke.com! See Current Events for suggested links today from historian Howard Zinn in the Progressive and cuke fave blogger Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo to justifiably outraged Keith Olbermann and inspiring Ryan to NYTimes's unique Nicolas Kristof . - Current Events



7-03-04 - Early Tassajara, Zen Mt. Center, Practice Period
Alumni List
(through 1989)
 

Please help to make it as complete as can be.

Enjoy looking at the names. Let's double this list! - DC
 



7-02-07 - In the series of light edits
of the last lectures of Shunryu Suzuki
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Sunday, August 8, 1971
Zen Mountain Center

photo by Don Deangelo


June


6-29-07 - Shunryu Suzuki student and Zentatsu Richard Baker dharma heir (DC dharma bro), Tenryu Paul Rosenblum Zen sitting and study group in San Anselmo, CA meeting July 12, 19, and 26.

Paul's website
 

And thanks to Paul for a correction in this historic photo in which I slipped and called Phillip Wilson on the left Philip Whalen.



6-28-07 - A report on the memorial service in Santa Fe for Maggie Kress


Some Suzuki quotes found on the net, a curious fishing expedition.



6-27-07 - A service was held for Margret (Maggie) Kress last night at 6pm in Santa Fe, NM. [See death announcement below]



6-26-07 - Read the text of Jack Van Allen's cremation ceremony and some words about Jack from officiating priest Alan Senauke.



6-25-07 - Margret Kress died last night surrounded by her family.

See cuke.com interview with Maggie Kress.



6-24-07 - Morning Zazen, the Four Vows, and Meister Eckhart



6-22-07 - 6-22-07 - A brief report on Jack Van Allen's funeral service and cremation.

A small service for Jack Van Allen, led by Allen Senauke of the Berkeley Zen Center, will be held this morning at 9A.M. This will be followed by the cremation. A few friends and family will attend. See memorial page for Jack.


Death&Dying - An Interested Reader comments on the passing of Chogye Trichen Rinpoche's passing - from Blazing Splendor.



6-21-07 - Happy summer solstice. See the celebrations at Stonehenge. - Digressions

Loring Palmer's Memories of Jack Van Allen

Photos of Jack's recent ordination by Gempo Merzel

 

 


Report on Annapurna's Amitabha Puja.



6-20-07 - Jack Van Allen died last night at 5:18.


Lewis Richmond In Concert June 22nd in Redwood City - See flyer



6-20-07 - Donny and the Birthday Photo of Suzuki Roshi, a curious tale.


click on thumbnail to enlarge

******************



6-19-07 Please join Green Apple Books of San Francisco & the Bazaar Cafe for an evening with the author of Thank You and OK and this web site - DC.
click thumbnail of cover to enlarge
Tuesday June 19, 7pm. More on this monumental event.


Thank You and OK! home page here on cuke
 


Death&Dying - The Dying of U.G. Krishnamurti,
an example of Santhara


Digressions   -   A reminder about Julian Beever - so amazing.



6-18-07 - Rene Pettit reports on Annapurna's cremation



6-17-07 - Happy Father's Day to all fathers and thanks to mine

Pearls says exactly how I feel - DC



6-16-07 - Interview with Steve Allen, Shunryu Suzuki student, dharma heir of Issan Dorsey and abbot of Dragon Mountain Temple in Crestone.

Professionally transcribed by AlanKelly VerbatimIT

 


A message from Lama Palden on the Amitabha puja for Annapurna at the Sukhasiddhi Foundation tonight.




6-15-07 - Directions to Saturday Puja for Annapurna.



6-14-07 - Annapurna's cremation to be held tomorrow, Friday June 15th in Novato.

A Wonderful Blog for Annapurna - much more than here

A puja this sat nite at 7 pm with Lama Palden has been set for Annapurna. That's all I know so far. If you know more please email me. Lama Palden mentions the puja on the blog listed above but doesn't say where.



6-13-07 - Brother Lor writes on Annapurna, her paths, and her music. Also, just following that, a note from DC.


Current Events - Go to Colbert Nation to see Liz Wolf's son Josh Wolf on the Colbert Report - June 12. Way to go Josh.


Sudden Awakening by John Tarrant - with art by Kaz Tanahashi



6-12-07

Annapurna, Georganne Coffee, student of Shunryu Suzuki and beyond, has gone to the other shore. Gyate gyate.

Read the note from her son and Reuven on her memorial page

cuke.com interview


photo by Reuven Ben Yumin


Death&Dying - Death of a Sadhu - from bro Lor &

More Santhara comments from Loring



6-11-07 - At The End Of A Good Life
Scott Nearing's dignified death, like his life,
sets an inspiring example for all of us

by Helen Nearing


Another example of Santhara


a subsection of Death&Dying


Also on the Santhara page see the comments on Sallekhana which seems to be a synonym for Santhara - with a link to an article on Sallekhana in Jainworld dot com.


A DC Comment on the Creation Museum.


Tweaked the poem, Who Said What?



6-10-07 - See b&w video footage of Shunryu Suzuki.

Just go to
12:25 on the video interview with DC mentioned below four days ago. To see this footage go to Welcome to Present, with your host, Mel Van Dusen.  The Suzuki footage, was taken at Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center, in the summer of 1970, while Suzuki was giving a lecture on the Sandokai - see yesterday's post just below this post. It was 16 millimeter, I believe, with no sound. A skilled video-savvy SFZC student named Timothy Fraser under the sage guidance of Michael Wenger synched the audio tape with the lecture. We should get the story on that cause he did a great job. That image of Suzuki to the left is one I took off other footage of Suzuki.


Death&Dying - from India Traveler.blogspot.com - SANTHARA : The Ritual of fasting unto death voluntarily by ones own free will - photos and video.

The latest addition to the Santhara page herein.



6-09-07 - Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness
Shunryu Suzukis lectures on the Sandokai.

just added the links below to the Branching Streams page.

Branching Streams - UC Press page
and, from the UCPress website,
Read Chapter 1, "Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: first talk"  and from elsewhere, the Berkeley Zendo translation of the Sandokai as well as the Stanford Translation Project translation of the Sandokai



6-08-07 - see 6-19-07

 

 

 


Western Addition PEACE WALL Unveiling and Celebration in San Francisco tomorrow, June 9th, across the street from the SFZC. Read all about it including Barbara Wenger's invitation to you to come!


 



6-07-07 -

More playful calligraphies by Michael Wenger.





 



6-06-07 - Mel Van Dusen informs me, DC, that his Community TV interview with me (A bit more on this from an earlier post), is now on his web site, Mel Presents. Go there and scroll down to the still of two funny looking guys sitting on a goza mat above which are these words:

Mel Van Dusen Presents David Chadwick, Buddhist Priest and Disciple of Soto Zen Priest Shunryu Suzuki

Here's the email Mel sent (He must have enjoyed it more than the woman to the left).:

Well you're up! I see you as being forthright, fun, insightful,  mischievous and marvelous. In a time frame of 27 minutes you gave the audience a feel for Zen, a feel for Suzuki Roshi, a feel for beginner's mind, a feel for your brand of creativity, a feel for your two books, a feel for what it means to live. That's pretty good! And, as time goes on - and I get more high profile guests - you'll be one of my high profile guests. Thank You David!



6-05-07 - Chogyam Trungpa on Shunryu Suzuki from Born in Tibet. I've got more Trungpa on Suzuki here from a couple of issues of Garuda. I'll look around for it.

 

 

 

Also, in Brief Memories, Laura Shinko Kwong on Shunryu Suzuki. - DC

 

 


Death&Dying - In the Felo de Se department, an editorial from today's NYTimes - Dr. Kevorkian’s Wrong Way.  

And, on the related subject of Santhara (see yesterday below), bioethics writer Wesley J. Smith considers Should Suicide by Self Starvation be Prevented?



6-04-07 - Santhara

continuing a discussion
of dying and introducing
an alternative to
the Kevorkian method
of assisting the acute angle of death
found in Felo de Se.
 

in Death&Dying



6-03-07 - A new Shunryu Suzuki lecture light edit with link to verbatim version

 

 

 

 

At the human be-in in January 14, 1967

photo by Lisa Law



6-02-07 - Why bring Kevorkian and all up? - There comes a time for many of us when we are ready to die, want to die, pray to die, when most are sympathetic with this wish, but we keep on living. More on Felo de se. - in Death&Dying



6-02-07 - Yesterday, Jack Kevorkian is released from prison. A fitting time to begin a discussion of

Felo de se - A Delicate Topic

in the Death&Dying section of the Zen Aluminati section.
What's it doing there?
More tomorrow or later today.

 


Go to the BPF web site and sign up to Receive their Monthly E-Newsletter.

One just came out today. Dchad Misc comments on this - not on one coming out today but - oh you'll see.


***************************************************
A couple of YouTube
Digressions :

500 Years of Female Portraits in the West - thanks to Gregory Johnson

Mipham - What About Me - thanks to Joan Sutherland



6-1-01 - PROLOGUE to Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - BEGINNER'S MIND with its famous epigraphic quote:

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

Compare with the earliest transcript
which itself was minimally edited:

In beginner's mind we have many possibilities, but in expert mind there is not much possibility.

Also with the earliest transcript, see my comments on this editing. - DC


May

5-31-07 - Go here to learn about Jana Drakka's June 9th Workshop at the SFZC, The Whole Moon In A Puddle - A Training in Total Acceptance, in which "We will be working with a combination of mindfulness meditation and Harm Reduction training." This page also features links to articles and videos about Jana's work with the homeless.

 


Much more juicy light shed recently on the real conspiracy to rig US elections and Where the cuke.com staff goes for our news. In Current Events 5-31


5-30-07 - If you happen to be in range, Tune in to KMVT 15 Community Television out of Mountain View, CA at 6:30 pm Wednesday, May 30, 2007 to see yours truly, DC, the instigator of this site, be interviewed on Present!  Produced and hosted by Mel Van Dusen. The show will also reach all the way to Cupertino and Los Altos. To quote from their Shows A-Z page, 'This program explores creativity, “spirituality” and personal growth through interviews with people who are pursuing their unique vision.  To learn more about Present! Visit http://www.melpresents.com/.' I see on his site that the show will play on other stations too - I don't really understand when. I plug this show with a sliver of dread crawling up my spine. I have been interviewed now and then through the years on radio and TV and, especially with TV, receive a copy of the program, and have never listened to or watched one minute of any of it. I only report it out of devotion to conveying cuke-relevant news and also out of a self-interested promotional hope that this will lead to a big break. - DC


 

5-29-07 - Mentions of Shunryu Suzuki in Thank You and OK


Searched the whole book this morning and took out every mention of Suzuki just to see what I'd said there so I wouldn't repeat it unconsciously in some other writing. Found it rather interesting. You might too. - DC


Suzuki photo by Tim Buckley


5-28-07 Checking out the Berkeley Zen Center web site which I do recommend to check out,

went to the lecture archive, and got lost there for a while.

There are a number of lectures and lecture excerpts there by Shunryu Suzuki

 

 

as well as by the BZC abbot, Mel Weitsman [cuke.com interview]. Check out his Buddhism and War and Commentary on Suzuki Roshi's Sandokai Lectures

They have lectures by other teachers too.

click on image to enlarge the Diamond Sutra

The BZC site also has an excellent Liturgy & basic texts section so you can read online the sutras that are chanted there and elsewhere - BZC's version of course - from the Heart Sutra to the Bodhisattva Precepts.

BZC rocks. - DC


5-26-07 - 12 Calligraphy Pieces
by Michael  Wenger


 


5-25-07 - Revisiting Masao Yamamura, (once) young neighbor of Shunryu Suzuki in Japan. And from there check out the link to Shunryu Suzuki on Peace and War.


5-22-07 - Good morning. Off to various exciting errands: driving, correction, being driven by Clay to his school, Nonesuch. a late Breakfast with John Sumser, to the nursing home to read to Ananda, to SFZC to visit with folks - like Michael Wenger, ending up in Mountain View CA to be interviewed by Mel Van Dusen for his Community TV show, Present - more on that soon - it won't air for a week. Horrors. Back tonight. And here's a poem written in the bath this morning.

Who Said What?

The subject of the song she had forgotten where and when
Oh yes it's just like self-less nothing holy non-abiding Grace
Who while I'm plodding with the this and that all in the there and then
It seems has found the here and now my gosh is not a time and place.

rewrit 6-11-07 - DC


5-20-07 - The Younging Woman


5-19-07 - Revisiting the interview with Stan White.


5-18-07 - Shunryu Suzuki lecture on Beginner's Mind.


5-17-07 - Beltane Flowers of Santa Rosa, CA - working on a web site for my partner Katrinka McKay. Live around here? Need flowers? She's got 'em. And, make no mistake, by receiving flower arrangements from Katrinka for your home, office, or wedding, birthday party, Bar Mitzvah, or Pagan Pageant,  you will simultaneously be bestowing benefit on cuke.com, the Cucumber Project, and the Zen Aluminati.




5-16-07 - Driving Me Crazy, an excerpt from Thank You and OK!: an American Zen Failure in Japan. See notice of the book's recent republication below.






 



5-15-07 -
Check this out:
VerbatimIT - Verbatim Instant Transcripts
VerbatimIT transcribes online events or recorded media.
VerbatimIT
offers an easy-to-use dictation system:

Thanks to Alan Kelly, owner/operator of VerbatimIT for transcribing an interview I did at Tassajara recently with Steve Allen (no relation) of Dragon Mt. Temple. Jeez, I hope he can understand it. There was a lot of wind going into the mic. I told him not to worry about words that were hard to understand and that I'd fill them in. Alan is in Gatineau, Quebec, if you know where that is. - DC  

This brings up another related point about putting Ads and Promoting Products on cuke.com - in DC Misc.


5-14-07 - Some reader reviews of Thank You and OK! - snatched off Amazon.com in a blatant and shameless attempt to increase sales and also because they're with the Penguin edition and haven't been transferred over to the new Shambhala edition. See notice about the book's release below. More reader reviews and comments to come, and excerpts, and errata I couldn't fix this time maybe next printing, and a key sentence left off of the explanatory text on the back cover, and a new contest. All part of the exciting Thank You and OK section. Oh yes - and don't forget the Zen Failure T-shirt - find it in the Buddhism & Nothings Shop of the Cuke Basket.

This entry was originally dated 5-15 but is being demoted to 5-14 because I want to put something else up there now. See 8-21-05 - Why I Sometimes Date Things Falsely with a new paragraph at the bottom correctly dated 5-15. You just can't believe anything.




5-13-05 - Advice on Sitting for Busy People

 

 

 


 

5-12-07 - On this day in 1941, Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer in Berlin.


5-11-07 - SF Japantown being sold? Some of it, looks like lots of it. People are worried. Here's one SF Chron article from yesterday.


A review of a new book on the history of the not-as-prevalent-as-we-think concept of flat earth and "how and why crackpot science takes hold," just like with modern anti-evolutionism and literalism. An interesting article in Wikipedia on the history of flat earth theory worldwide. I always get the impression of endless world systems reading old Indian Buddhist and Chinese writings, but how did they envision the geometry of the earth? Any ideas? I'm sure lots of folks have commented on this but my time's up. Gotta do some work to promote the recently re-released book, download a couple of interviews off a digital recorder, efforts to fund this work, then to the neglected drip line.  Sticking this in Misc rather than Digressions because it stirs up thoughts related to Buddhism and other awakening systems, cosmology, religion, literalism, and the history of


5-10-07 - Catching up - the last four letters (emails) from Eric Arnow in Thailand:

#24 12-31-06  I am OK, but still concerned, #25 4-15-07  The Thai New Year--a week long water fight, 26 4-17-07  The Further Adventures of the Bumble Buddhist, and #27 4-18-07 Eric on Shunryu Suzuki

The next letter on his ZC history was combined with #27 to make An Interview with Eric Arnow.

Eric just had a bit to say about Suzuki so that went into a new section entitled Brief Memories of Shunryu Suzuki - it's just the same as in the letter and interview.

Added one other brief memory from a contributor named
Jack Williamson. I have many, many other brief memories that I will get to as soon as I can. - DC


5-09-07 - Reports on a Buddhist Peace Delegation in Colombia, South America co-led by Linda Ruth Cutts and Sarah Weintraub. Couldn't find it on the BPF (Buddhist Peace Fellowship) web site and then when I did the link to this story wasn't working. Maybe it is by now. They know. Which reminds me, go to the BPF web site and check them out. They do lots of good work for the sake of all sentient beings like you and me and the cypress tree. - DC

5-08-07 -
It's back!

"The Catch-22 of Zen." - Taigen Dan Leighton

Enthusiastic readers storm bookstores hoping to buy Thank You and OK!: an American Zen Failure in Japan before copies run out.

Read
Comments on this book
from writers, critics, teachers

Shambhala link to
Thank You and OK!:
an American Zen Failure in Japan

by David Chadwick
originally a Penguin Arkana book published in 1994


Click on the photo, or these words as a matter of fact, to go to the Thank You and OK main page of cuke.com which naturally includes a larger and clearer image of the cover.
 



Happy Birthday Blanche Hartman!




 




5-07-07 - Reflections on a woman trying on bathing suits in a dressing room.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

5-3-03 - IN MYRIAD FORMS, A SINGLE BODY REVEALED
Paul Rosenblum's Introduction to
Roundabout Zen: Recollections in Celebration of the 70th Birthday of Zentatsu Baker Roshi
click thumbnail to see front and back cover art (by Edward Avedisian)





5-2-07-
TWO POEMS AND CONVERSATIONS WITH SUZUKI ROSHI
by Mitsu Suzuki - her contribution to Roundabout Zen

Mitsu says: Buy Roundabout Zen





************************************************

5-1-07- Lewis Richmond In Concert
Sunday, May 6, 2007
2:00 pm
Suggested Donation: $20
Joint benefit:
SukhaSiddhi Foundation and
Vimala Sangha

payable at door

(no one turned away for lack of funds;
please offer what you can)

Sukhasiddhi Center
1938A Fourth Street
San Rafael, CA

For more info go to
Vimilasangha dot org

or just download the flyer for the event:


April

4-30-07 - Remove the Seeker, Remove the Sought
by Stephan Bodian


with pithy intro - scratch that - with rambling intro by DC


4-29-07 - Taigen Dan Leighton has a new book out:

Visions of Awakening Space and Time:
Dogen and the Lotus Sutra
Oxford University Press

Description and comments

Go to Taigen Books for more info on, you guessed it, Taigen's books - and two mid-May events in the SF Bay Area.

Excellent color photos added to the Taigen moved to Chicago article and a link to their Ancient Dragon Zen Gate website.

Check out Taigen's Peace and Justice Page, get on his e-mailing list which, just today, informed about the National Religious Campaign Against Torture's campaign to support the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007.


4-28-07 - If you're in the Sonoma County, California, area today, there are various events happening. This morning I'm going to the Sebastopol Apple Blossom Parade and Festival which continues tomorrow. Tonight is the Nonesuch School Benefit Dinner Auction Concert at the Sebastopol Community Center. Come join us. Starts at six.

Click on thumbnail to expand flyer for the event.

Nonesuch School web site. It's son Clay's school.











4-26-07 - Interests of Niels Holm - sort of the third interview with him - the result of a recent visit - lots of nifty links and comment including photos of the Holm home and cabin.

Also:

Thanks to Michael O'Keefe for sending Peter Coyote's correct Dharma name: Hosho Jishi -  Dharma Voice Compassion Warrior. See report on Peter's lay ordination.

Added Don't Fire Gonzales to Greg Palast's links in the recent Rigged Elections continued page (election fraud vs. voter fraud) and rewrote the opening paragraph to make more clear the idea that the prosecutor firings were part of a naughty Rovian scheme to reduce minority and Democratic votes.

4-24-07 - Peter Coyote zaike tokudo, lay ordination report with lots of photos, links, and phenomenal Zen world tidbits.

 

 

Election Fraud vs. Voter Fraud - Brief email chat between Taigen and DC, links to various reports and articles on one of the key and mainly disregarded stories behind the firing of the attorneys by Gonzales. The conspiracy most worth bringing to light - that of Republican or Rovian election stealing and voter suppression. Just another day's addition to the growing section in Current Events on rigged elections (earlier posts).


************************************************************
4-19-07 - Happy Birthday Clay! Sweet 16.

[hit thumbnail to enlarge]
4-18-07 - Meditate and Destroy
- a documentary about Noah Levine's path of punk, spirituality, and inner rebellion. World Premier at Santa Cruz Film Festival on Sunday, April 22nd. Second showing on the 24th. Go to their website and get the lowdown. Any film named that had to be plugged on cuke.com. It reminds me of something Shunryu Suzuki said in a lecture way back in the early sixties:
                          I have come to destroy your minds.
                    ************************************************
4-17-07 - Save Small and Independent Publishers threatened by new postal rate hikes that will give them huge increases, reversing traditional rates that helped them to survive. Go to www.stoppostalratehikes.com. Time Warner seems to be behind this. If so, shame.

Tinkered with yesterday's entry, adding more pithy comments.

4-16-07 - A Fairly Gossipy Account of Two Events from Yesterday - a book award ceremony given by the Northern California Book Reviewers at the SF Public Library and the SFZC's annual benefit and live auction Greens Restaurant hosted by Peter Coyote. It was also an evening to honor Edward Espe Brown and Deborah Madison.
 

4-15-07 - "Today Koa Books and Maxine Hong Kingston will be receiving a "Special Recognition in Publishing" Award from the Northern California Book Reviewers on Sunday Aprli 15 at 1 pm at the San Francisco Main Library. You are cordially invited to attend." That's from an email from Arnold Kotler (cuke interview) (see yesterday's entry). I think this award involves Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, edited by Maxine Hong Kingston and published by Koa Books.

May Koa Books prosper.


Check out Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? a disturbing article from England's The Independent which has other frightening comments on cell phones. Yikes. This is serious stuff. Maybe it's time to go back to the woods or, at least start using the cell phone headset. Everything we do is so addictive. Are we doomed? Stay tuned.

In Sangha News - IVA JONES in Cotati, Sonoma County, CA, needs a new car.

4-14-07 - Birds of a Feather, Friday, April 6, 2007 NY Times article on retirement communities featuring Stephen Gaskin's Rocinante in Summertown, Tennessee. Lot of talk about this sort of thing in Buddhist circles and the SFZC these days. More on this later. Photo of Stephen Gaskin and Gayla Groom at Rocinante by Christopher Berkeley for the NYT



Right now gotta go meet with Suzuki student Arnold Kotler (cuke interview) of Koa Books and some other friends to talk about publishing and Koa Books I guess. Check out their web site and see what they've got. I'm especially interested in the book Dissent, featured there right now.

More tonight. As ever, DC

4-06-07 - Off to Tassajara Springs, Zen Mountain Center, for a week with Trinka and Clay, so today there will be seven items to make up for this absence. - DC

1. An article from the Monterey Herald on the purchase of the Horse Pasture parcel of land adjoining Tassajara by the Wilderness Land Trust plus more great images from this beautiful, remote 160 acres.

2. Two interesting quotes recently received. Well, I guess one's a quote and the other a nifty thought. In Comments, a section that has almost atrophied.

3. Also in Comments, An interesting email just received with the subject line of: After forty years our paths cross again.....sort of.

4.

Zentatsu Richard Baker seminar. Baker-roshi will teach a seminar in Boulder from May 4-6, 2007. For more on this click on thumbnail which is probably to the left. Here's a link to info on this seminar on the Dharma Sangha web site - that's a link to their home page.




5.
There's a new SFZC Sangha-e newsletter which you can see by going to this link - this is a link which gets updated so it won't be the same later. You can also subscribe to Sangha-e by going to this page. It comes out about once a month. Snatched this photo of Hoitsu Suzuki by Renshin Bunse from the newsletter. He's at Eiheiji these days as the tanto, head of training.

 

 

 

 

6. Taigen Dan Leighton has moved to Chicago.

7. A photo

L to R Phillip Wilson, Shunryu Suzuki, Mitsu Suzuki, don't know - please tell me someone - I forget, yours truly David Chadwick, Richard Baker. Thanks to Paul Rosenblum for sending this. Don't know who took it. Probably 1967 or 68 since Richard went to Japan in the fall of '68.

 

4-05-07 - Anyone who's following the news knows that it's no longer "Free Josh Wolf!" Now it's Josh Wolf's Free! Go here to see the last post with many links herein on the plight of America's longest jailed journalist as he's been called. It's all over the news and the web. Here's a LA Times article - Blogger freed after 226 days in prison. Here's the First Amendment Center's article, Now-freed Josh Wolf went to jail ... why?  And here is the SF Bay Guardian's summation of the whole thing which, from his mom, Suzuki student Liz Wolf (see cuke.com interview), who worked non stop on his case - getting people to sign petitions, write judges, newspapers, legislators, sending out constant links to articles, and so forth. I don't know his father, Len Harrison, but he too was on the case, maintaining a daily vigil in front of the federal building at Larkin and Golden Gate in San Francisco. Anyway, welcome back to the outside Josh!

4-04-07 - Check out
U. G. Krishnamurti,

no relation to J. Krishnamurti, though they both come from India and were sponsored by the Theosophical Society for a time. Anyway, U.G. just died in Italy on March 22 at the age of 89.

He said a lot of cool things, like,


A messiah is the one who leaves a mess behind him in this world.


And,

All I can guarantee you is that as long as you are searching for happiness, you will remain unhappy.

I like this dis-ownership clause which accompanied his published or broadcast message:

My teaching, if that is the word you want to use, has no copyright. You are free to reproduce, distribute, interpret, misinterpret, distort, garble, do what you like, even claim authorship, without my consent or the permission of anybody.

DC says check U.G. out. Thanks again Loring.
 

4-3-07 - A free ad as all ads on this site up to now are free and this one's for old buddy Jake Costello from Kyoto who's selling his antique Nipponese wares in Nevada City, CA April 7-15. There must be a few of you near there. Click on the image to see the full size multi color enticing ad. Jake's a card and has played many cruel practical jokes on me and other unsuspecting, innocent people - like getting me to loudly request a glass of urine in a noodle shop not long after arriving in Japan. Anyway, it's all in the past and I have no interest in getting back at him. I just want to help him out. So go to his show and tell him cuke.com sent you. He said that anyone saying that would receive a free all silk kimono. - DC

4-2-07 - Ha ha! I frequently do the opposite of what I say (or, in this case, what I said yesterday). It's called character. We did go to the Saint Stupid's Day Parade and it was great! Read the stupid report.

4-01-07 - It's a sad day. We have decided not to go to the Saint Stupid's Day Parade in San Francisco. Check out the Saint Stupid dot com, or, The First Church of the Last Laugh (FCLL). We're too busy doing stupid things. I'll miss seeing Suzuki student Sue Roberts (see her cuke dot com interview) who's always dresses up whacky for the event. I wonder if buddy Herb Gold will be there.  Boo hoo. I remember prior years' stupid parades. Maybe we should go anyway and let today's stupidity take care of today. That does sound like some sort of iron clad cosmic law. Hmm. - DC

PS - And by the way, I found the secret to the universe, to all life and death and everything. It's so simple! Why didn't I think of it before!
Here's the secret oh noble reader of cuke dot com.

 

March

3-31-07 - By popular demand, the link to the lesson in A Course in Miracles that the My thoughts do not mean anything quote from yesterday came from.

3-30-07 - A Course In Miracles is, I bet, the most popular channeled teaching of all time. I say that without really knowing but what would compare? Many people I greatly respect have deeply studied ACIM. I see it as a mind-only spiritual teaching that uses Biblical language and emphasizes love and forgiveness. Not what some Buddhist web-surfers would be interested in, but for some others this gift will be appreciated. There are, of course, sites on the web that are easily accessed. I get a daily email from Joseph G Veit with brief lessons from ACIM. I asked if I could mention him here and he said, "I am happy to include anyone who sends an email to jveit@sbcglobal.net with a request to receive the daily lessons."

Teachings like the following from ACIM help me not get caught by the theistic language and make me feel right at home:
My thoughts do not mean anything.

Thanks Joseph. - DC

3-29-07 - The Whoopee Bird Sits on the Shelf by Sophie Rubenking


Neil Rubinking sent this and wrote:
I have mention Katagiri-roshi's "special" brand of English at one time or another. Yesterday Sophie was doodling around drawing things and came up with this lovely illustration for that famous quote, "the whoopee bird sits on the shelf"... I'm sure you remember that one!

DC responded - No I don't remember.

Neil responded - Katagiri was talking about how the chick in the shell pecks from the inside, while the mother bird pecks from the outside. Some Zen story. He called the chick a "would-be bird" (probably proud of that phrase). So, the would-be bird sits in the shell... but people heard it as "the whoopee bird sits on the shelf".

A few other notable ones I remember:

"If you want to live, take a breathe! But if it is time to die, please die"

"He craps in street, so-called death" (craps = corrapse = collapse) ((everything was "so-called"))

Then another time he was talking about not looking at yourself too much, not being so focused on your own stuff. "You peep through crevasse in shoji panel and you screw... screw... (um) screw... SCRUTINIZE! You scrutinize yourself". (but by this time people were cracking up).

Remembering dear Katagiri. Here's a brief bio from the Minnesota Zen Center.

3-25-07 - Gary Gach of What's New 3-22-07 fame is also on the board of The Buddhist Channel (Bringing Buddha Dharma Home). It's out of Malaysia.  Check it out. It's quite extensive.

See this date's entry on the family page to see why the broken link in 3-22-07 What's New entry wasn't fixed till this morning and why Clay was in the Kaiser emergency room last night.

****************************
3-24-07 - One of the last lectures given by Shunryu Suzuki.


Happy birthday Renée!
 

3-23-07 -
 
The Roxie New College Film Center
3117 16th Street, San Francisco, CA
(415)-863-1087
  e-mail

Michael Goldberg's award-winning film comes to San Francisco! It'll be at the Roxie Friday, March 30 through Thursday, April 5th.

Go to A Zen Life's web site.



3-22-07 - Gary Gach has just launched a new book, 185 brief poems by Ko Un called Flowers of a Moment. Gary is one of three translators of the poetry in this book. The inaugural reading (app. 20 minutes) at Moe's Books is online.

Here's the book's web page and here's the Amazon.com link
Here's the email from Gary.
Here's Gary's web site.

3-21-07 - Roundabout Zen: Recollections in Celebration of the 70th Birthday of Zentatsu Baker Roshi

Finally it's available. Go to the Roundabout Zen page and see more info, table of contents, DC's chapter in it, how to buy it.


 

3-20-07 - Cheryl F sent a heartfelt note on More on the deaths of two from a couple of days ago in which she said, "The Tibetans always say that death can come at any time and without warning and so we should be prepared but we never are." Almost never, but see below. I think it can be said that a benefit of waking up to who we are is to prepare us for death.

Check out the Adyashanti video page and see the ten minute video with Adyashanti called What Do You Really Want? commenting on death and who am I? what am I? who are we? It's now at the bottom of this list of videos. And check Adyashanti out in general. He is incredibly clear. I've been hearing a lot about him recently. JGV just sent Trinka the same Adyashanti  video link with a suggestion to see the 9 minute video called The Personal Will. Check it out too. Here's Adyashanti's home page.

Also - ECOLOGICAL DESIGN: BUILDINGS THAT MAKE SENSE - Lecture and open forum with Sim van Der Ryn, an architect, author, and educator. Spring 2007 Energy Forum. 4-5:40 p.m., Wednesday, March 21, Environmental Technology Center at Sonoma State University, (707) 664-2577. - Sim's an old friend of the SFZC, Richard Baker, and mine. I'll go and maybe heckle him from the audience with a disguise. He won't recognize me until I call him "Mr. Ryn" at which point he'll respond with something like, "Mr. Wick I presume." Thanks to Lane Olson for the tip. [He didn't show - bad back]


3-19-07 - Brother Lor sez about Into Great Emptiness:

A flick on meditation and emptiness ???  Christ consciousness/Buddha nature/ the Authentic self are alive and well at the Grand Chartreuse Monastery in the incredible new film, INTO GREAT SILENCE, by Philip Groning.  It's a must see.!
Check out the trailer --  www.zeitgeistfilms.com

And check out The Meditation Spot - a good place to send those who inquire so they can make up their own minds which way to go. Other links like this requested.

 Link trading with Manyzone dot com's Buddhism pages. Lot of astrology stuff there.


3-18-07 - More on the deaths of two who were close to Clay and on what to do before the funeral.

________________________________

 

3-17-07 - HISTORIC HORSE PASTURE property near Tassajara PROTECTED FOR WILDERNESS. Read about it in Sangha News.

 

 

 

3-16-07 - The Sky is Falling. Really, an editorial in today's New York Times by Russell L. Schweickart (Apollo 9 Astronaut, founder of the B612 Foundation, and Clay's granddad). The B612 Foundation has previously been featured on cuke.com in the Species Threats section of Current Events.
Nine bows (as they say in Zen) for your work on this Rusty.

Back home in the wee hours from Bend, saddened by news of two tragic deaths  that happened here while I was away. Rest in peace young Jeremiah Chass whom Clay knew from school and soccer field. Rest in peace Bryon Prokopowich, beloved husband of Kirsten and father of Troy whom Clay jams with. At first I wondered what I should do, could do, but it's Clay's world, and he and his friends are dealing with it all at meetings and memorials and all I can do is be available with a car now and then. I think of a line of the poem on the han, the board that is struck to call us to zazen: Shoji was jidai ni shite - Life and death is the great matter. - DC

3-15-07 - Shambhala Art Festival in Santa Rosa California this weekend! Come to the opening tonight - schmooze and gnosh - and, oh yes - admire the art.


Click on thumbnail to get details.

 

3-07-07 - Off to Bend for a week. Look for undiscovered areas of cuke.com. Till then, here's a quote from this site's namesake: Sometimes I'm student and you're disciple, and sometimes you're student and I'm disciple. More quotes from Shunryu Suzuki. Toodaloo. - DC

3-06-07 - Coming soon to your local independent bookstore
(as well as B&N, Borders, Amazon, and Shambhala's own on-line sales).

"The Catch-22 of Zen." - Taigen Dan Leighton

published by


Shambhala link to
Thank You and OK!: an American Zen Failure in Japan where it is announced: Not yet printed. Now accepting pre-orders! Expected publication date, May 2007.

Get the book and follow the exciting supplemental materials to be posted here on cuke.com - including another intriguing contest!


3-05-07 - Fungi fascination: Local couple turns passion for wild mushrooms into business from the Spokane Spokesman Review, an article about my eldest son, Kelly, and his partner Renee. In the fledgling family section of cuke.com. - DC
click thumbnail to enlarge

3-04-07 - New York Times editorial this Sunday: The Must-Do List to reverse the "lawless policies" of Bush and Cheeney. Pardon the current events on this Buddhist site, but I know what a big deal has been made of what Shunryu Suzuki did or did not do during Japan's rise to militant fascism. See Shunryu Suzuki on War and Peace. And I remember that both Rinzai and Soto schools of Zen have apologized for their support of Japan's period of madness. I should go over all this stuff and organize it better and there's more to add like correspondence and conversations between Brian Victoria and me - there are links to stuff by Brian on that page. More later I hope. Meanwhile, please remind me which Zen master said, "From the very first, not a thing exists." And what's that list that Buddha made of what life is like: a bubble, a dream, etc. And all is empty so why waste our time on all this phenomenal crap? Seems to me emptiness doesn't take the bite out of karma. It pumps it up. Like, gee, isn't everything swell. Like Nagarjuna said, better not to have heard of emptiness than to have a one-sided attachment to it. Something like that. Good luck to us all. - DC

3-03-07 - Free Josh Wolf! Can't keep up with all that's happening with America's longest jailed journalist, Josh Wolf, son of Suzuki student Liz Wolf (see cuke.com interview). 

Julian Davis sends the best web link to know what's new with Josh and his case.
Andy Blue sends the email lists to keep up with Josh and to learn what you can do.
supportjoshwolf@lists.riseup.net
and freejoshwolfupdate@lists.riseup.net
 

the supportjoshwolf list is an open discussion and can generate frequent emails with back and forth discussion. the update list is a newsletter and action alert list that comes out about once a week or if urgent action is needed.

To subscribe one sends and email to these addresses:

supportjoshwolf-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
and frejoshwolfupdate-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

Thanks Julian and Andy and keep up the good work. - DC
Here's a link to his home page. Hard to get to from the Free Josh page.
Josh Wolf in Jail page on cuke.com - prior entries on Josh
Here's another Josh Wolf page
thanks to A.M.


3-2-07 - A Robert-Beck virtual-memorial  was created by Natalie Carpenter. At this site, you can read about Robert Beck, post a greeting, share in the guestbook, view a photo album and more.

There's more on Bob from the What's New 2-26-07 announcement of his passing to the other shore.

See the cuke interview with Robert Beck.


3-1-07 - DARLENE COHEN UPDATE from Tony Patchell:

Darlene finally finished her six months chemotherapy regimen this week.. Her doctors had increased the amount of medication given to her the last two times, thus it has taken a bit longer each time to for her to recover from the toxic side effects. She will soon be officially declared in remission. If the cancer does not reoccur in the next five years, she will be "cured." However, since ovarian cancer is an extremely aggressive form of cancer, she will continue with her alternative medicine appointments with Michael Brofman in San Anselmo as well as actively pursuing information regarding clinical trials, new cancer drugs & drugs that are being fast tracked by the FDA. Darlene’s spiritual well being remains intact & healthy. She strongly feels this is due to the consistent caring, support & wishes for well being that are offered up daily by sangha, friends & family.

See cuke.com interview with Darlene Cohen which includes links to Darlene's website and more.


February

2-27-07 - A great article on Stewart Brand, the visionary et al of Whole Earth Catalogue fame, in the NY Times with this photo of him with one of the 10,000 year clocks his Long Now Foundation is making. These clocks are, incidentally, being put together with great skill and care by Chris Rand, son of Suzuki student and Buddhist (and beyond) teacher Yvonne Rand of Goat-in-the-Road. On the web site of the Long Now Foundation, you'll see on the staff page a photo of Chris who is identified as "machinist and fabricator" with a bit more on him. Hi Chris.

Back to SB. I remember meeting Stewart at Tassajara in 1967 when we were first getting the Zen Mt. Center thing going. I have the memory of him being with some Native Americans but maybe that was another time. I ran the dining room and took care of guests. There weren't many other guests then - maybe it was not during a guest season - because I remember not being busy and sitting with him at a table by a window and him telling me of an idea he had to start a magazine that featured the tools and ideas that would serve us all best or something like that. Sounded good, but I didn't get a clear image and I heard so many new, interesting, far out, etc ideas from people passing through at that time that I didn't think much of it. It wasn't long before the Whole Earth Catalogue came out and Tassajara got an ecology or something award for the way that we put the wash water from cleaning our eating bowls in the garden. That was only in the case of the formal, ceremonial oryoki meals taken in the zendo. I have kept being on the edge and running into him and his activities and creations (like The Well) and am certainly filled with admiration for the man. The story of Stewart Brand, of the Whole Earth publications and his many creative ideas, and the story of the Zen Center have been neighborly histories. He's been a very good neighbor. Wikipedia on Stewart Brand.  - DC

2-26-07 - Robert Beck who, along with his former wife Anna, sold Tassajara Springs to the SFZC,  died Saturday evening, February 24, 2007 in a Bay Area veteran's hospital.

Bob had been diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. According to an email from Nancy Roscoe, his friend and also once Tassajara owner, " His last day was peaceful. He was coherent, talkative, and cheerful. His last request was for lemon bars and vegetable soup."

I talked to Bob a few times recently after I'd heard from his son, Adam. Bob wanted me to visit but didn't feel well enough when I tried. I thought this was going to be some long drawn out illness and was shocked to receive Adam's call tonight. I really liked Bob. He was a fascinating person and he and Anna were really generous with the ZC in the terms of the sale of Tassajara which they could have sold for more to others. Thanks Bob. I'll miss you. Many of us will. - DC

See the cuke interview with Robert Beck.

2-25-07 -
Stepping Down Ceremony at Green Gulch Farm
Saturday, February 24, 3 p.m.
On February 24th Jiko Linda Cutts will complete her seven-year term as Abbess of San Francisco Zen Center at Green Dragon Temple.


Mountain Seat Ceremony
Sunday, February 25, 3:30 p.m.


In this special ceremony, Myogen Steve Stucky will be installed as a new abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. He will join Abbot Ryushin Paul Haller in directing the religious life of the community. The sangha of all three practice centers will come together at SF City Center to welcome the new abbot into the temple.
All of the above taken from the SFZC website.

Congrats to both of you from the whole gang at cuke.com.

More on Steve from his group's website - dharmaeye.org.

More on Linda from the abbot's page of the SFZC web site - along with a complete list of prior and present abbots.

Abbots at the San Francisco Zen Center have for some years, served one or two four year terms. There used to be just one - Shunryu Suzuki and then Richard Baker and then Reb Anderson, but then, during Reb's abbacy, a second abbot was added - maybe even a third for a while - and term limits were established. What used to be one exalted person at the top of the SFZC pyramid became something more like a rotating senior teaching and learning position. (sigh of relief) After they've been abbot they can become senior dharma teachers. I think I've got that right. - DC

And A Scale Model of the Solar System plus other related mind bogglers is now where it belongs down on 2-19-07. It had fallen on the floor and rolled under the table.

2-24-07 - Gotta get to work on the barn this morning but wanted to put something up here on the cuke like what occurred to me in this morning's meditation. Hmm - zazen epiphanies - could make this a section of cuke. Something like Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts although I could never ever come up with thoughts that deep, that wonderful.

So the German mystic Meister Eckhart came to mind and his admonition for the key to knowing god or getting enlightened or whatever. I wanted to check on the exact wording and thought maybe I could find it on the Internet which took me to the excellent Wikipedia entry on Meister Eckhart. I looked at The Man From Whom God Hid Nothing, An essay on Johannes Eckhart by Arthur Brown. There's a book of similar name by Ursula Fleming. There are many links and lots of info, of course, on the Wikipedia page and elsewhere on the Internet. I looked into quote sites to see if I could find what I was looking for. Here are twenty quotes from Meister Eckhart. There's so much on the Internet on him I'm getting distracted looking at it all or rather bits of it and so I now quit the search and paraphrase what I recollected of Eckhart this morning in zazen, his admonition for the key to knowing god or getting enlightened or whatever. It was something like:

Know nothing, want nothing, have nothing.

Is that all? Big deal. So what? one might say. Or, it might sound impossible huh? Not to me. I don't try to apply it in space and time - that always screws everything up. If one imagines oneself trying to know, want, and have nothing morning to night day after day it seems, to say the least, rather impractical and unattainable. So don't do that - just apply that suggestion to the exact present moment. See, it's easy. No need to think about tomorrow or what you're gonna do across town. That's his door to god. What are you waiting for?

I remember talking to a Catholic contemplative monk who said that he liked zazen for its purity, its lack of a focus on any symbol, but he wondered if it was right for him as a Christian to let go of everything. Well, there are plenty of Christian mystics, contemplatives who let go of everything. Meister Eckhart is one.

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2-23-07 - Last night went with Trinkita and David Cohen (Darlene Cohen's [cuke interview] brother - sorry David - in Zen circles he's used to that) - anyway, we went to an A World Without Armies dinner and get-together. (I think that's the first time in my life I wrote "an a" where both of them are used as articles.). AWWA was started by Zen artist and scholar Kaz Tanahashi  [cuke interview] and Zen friend Marc Lesser got heavy into it right away. Eddie Hartshorne is a co-director.

Sandra Ribas runs the Costa Rican Un Mundo Sin Ejercito (AWWA in Spanish) and here's her blog.  That's her on the left with the flowers. There were four Costa Rican AWWA (in Spanish) women at the dinner and they spoke and sang. Costa Rica eliminated their army in 1949. Women had a lot to do with that. Good for them. Trinkita's into flowers too. Women with flowers - what could be further from armies with guns? Lots of interesting people were at the dinner and I love AWWA cause it's so gloriously idealistic and at the same time, to me, inevitable. Don't ask me to explain why I think that - just a hunch. Check em out. Nighty-night. - DC

posted the next day: On another subject, David Cohen reminded me this morning of a cool thing that Sandra of the photo in yesterday's entry on A World Without Armies had said about what aging hippies in Costa Rica are called - coca-cola. Coca they use for bald, like coconut, and cola is a ponytail.

[Monday, August 6, 2007 - It is most appropriate on this day to have received A World Without Armies report from Kaz Tanahashi.]

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2-22-07 - I was just getting ready to sit zazen but...
 

Trinkita hadn't seen An Inconvenient Truth so I watched the DVD with her and once again was so impressed with the film and Al Gore and with the extreme urgency of the issue of global warming and how well it's all presented. Can't wait for the academy awards. Isn't that embarrassing. And I am digging (through) the supplementary DVD materials like the informative 30 minute intro and update by Al Gore. I appreciate how he has put this whole thing together pretty much by himself - the info, the slide show as he calls it - not the movie (thanks Laurie David and Lawrence Bender and Davis Guggenheim and others).

The thought crossed my mind that what Gore's doing might be more important than what he might have done as president cause, for one thing, there might have been too many issues to deal with, like what to do with all those Saudi's that were, due to having an alert crew running the country, caught plotting to send planes into buildings. I thought it could be that having these reckless, psychopathic, warmongering incompetents in charge could be, from a global point of view, in terms of the survival of civilization and the coral reefs and all, it could be that the good work Gore's doing outbalances all that misery and waste. I think it's good for him too - not being president. He's so much more free and easy-going now. I really don't want him to run in 2008. Politics is a sea of lies and misrepresentation so greatly influenced by sinister whispers and worshipers of Mammon who cannot be concerned about the fate of the earth and earthlings when there's so much short-term profit to be had, to be dived into like ole Scrooge McDuck used to do. It would be fun. Oh yes, back to that thought. It might turn out that Ralph Nader will be heralded as the man who saved the world by making the 2000 election so close that the Republicans could steal it thus freeing Al Gore up and away to pursue his life-long passion - making people aware of global warming. And we turn the tide in the nick of time. Hooray! Or maybe not.  It doesn't look like we're going to but, not to despair, I recommend seeing the film as a terribly relevant thing to do and also heartily promote going to the site of the film, http://climatecrisis.org. - DC

All this while of course keeping in mind that it was time to cool off with a refreshing period of, well, as Sylvia Boorstein said, Don't just do something - sit there.

2-21-07 - Amy Goodman in Truth Dig on Josh Wolf who is Liz Wolf's son. Liz was just interviewed by Alan Colms. Josh's case was also on Frontline. More on Josh.

2-20-07 - Check out the Marijuana Policy Project's web site and Watch MPP's Rob Kampia on CNN tonight 

MPP’s Rob Kampia has just returned to the D.C. office after filming a segment for “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on CNN. I hope you’ll tune in to watch him talk about the movement to end marijuana prohibition.

Dobbs’ hour-long, nightly TV program attracts CNN’s largest audience, and for the past few nights, the show has aired a series called “The War Within,” about our nation’s failed drug war. As Dobbs notes, “We're fighting a war that is inflicting even greater casualties than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and, incredibly, costing even more money. We're losing the War on Drugs, and we've been in retreat for three decades.”

When we found out last week that Mr. Dobbs planned to cover the marijuana “legalization” movement, we called the show and asked to be included. Thankfully, they agreed. Although Dobbs is not ready to join us in calling for an end to marijuana prohibition (and indeed, tonight’s program might include a direct refutation of MPP’s position), it is important for his audience to hear MPP’s message. - from an email from MPP

This is part of the Harm Reduction movement - reduce the harm from drugs and from the War on Drugs. I don't tote the weed anymore, but I sure don't support the draconian witch hunt against those who do. End the persecution! - DC

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2-19-07 - A Scale Model of the Solar System and other planetary and starry stuff. That link is to a page on the SF Exploratorium's web site. Check it out to see why you never see an accurate scale model of the solar system in books or on display. The distances are so great that it can't be done without a magnifying glass or a bus trip. 

In the image on the left, on my screen, the sun is 1/8 of an inch. That would make Mercury .0008 (eight/ten thousandths - right?) of an inch in diameter and it would be 10.4 inches away. The earth would be .0022 (two thousandths of an inch) in diameter and 2.86 feet away. Pluto would be eighty-eight and a half feet away.
 

There are many good links on this from the link above. Thanks to MK.

Look at the beautiful and staggering comparative planetary and stellar sizes. Tres cool. - Thanks to Kelly C. and someone else a long time ago for this.

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2-17-07 - Images of Tehran, Iran, that you don't see everyday. Music by Cat Stevens. Thanks for this, Elin Chadwick. Take a look and reflect on the madness of our government planning to attack them - including extensive planning ordered by Dick Cheney to include nuclear weapons (an article from the financially strapped antiwar.com - go there and help if you can). For more, see Iran Attack. What can we do to stop the attack?



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2-16-07 - An excerpt from David Schneider's upcoming book, Side Effect: The Philip Whalen Diaries to be published by Fish Drum Inc.
Thanks to David Silva
(see What's New 2-12-07 for more on David Schneider pubs)

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2-15-07 - A photo of our terrible trio, make that curious quartet, in Baja in a new family section in which it's intended stuff of relatives and friends will congregate like on many web sites and sounds. - DC
 

2-14-07 - Happy Valentines to all! Morning, my valentine Trinkita, son Clay, and our friend Kabumpkan celebrated this heartfull day with an envervealating stroll. Passing cuddlers in the park, Kabumpkan sang, "Hello Young Lovers!" "Valentines is a day for us without to hang together," he commiserated with Clay. Passing the cave entrance, he honored those who singly "find the Valentine spiraling in their spine." He gave a congratulatory nod to the merchant ringing up an obligatory Valentine sale. "There," he said, "we've taken care of the floating romantics, the consoling platonics, the sealed hermitics, and the counting mammonics. But let's not forget the stubornly cynics." For them he unveiled a link to the asylum valentines. The first is on the left. Click it to go there. - DC

2-13-07 -
Andy Ferguson of South Mountain China tours, that's the Andy Ferguson of Zen's Chinese Heritage, sends the following message:

Here's a link to my Zen video page for you to take a look at -
with two video's -
Zen in China and Rebirth of Bodhidharma

Plus here's a link to my other videos that are streaming on-line.


Check it out and sign up for one of his China Tours. Maybe I can come too. - DC


2-12-07 - Read a note from old ZC friend David Schneider about:

The Teacup and the Skullcup:

Chögyam Trungpa on Zen and Tantra,

David's the co-editor of this book, along with Judith Lief.

The book is from Vajradhatu Publications. It's on the web as part of the Shambhala Shop.

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A visitor wrote and asked, "Who is Kabumpkan?" Oh yes, I guess that's not common knowledge. What should I say? Hmm. Later. - DC
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2-11-07 - "CUKE.COM FOR SALE?" scream the headlines! Not so quick there. Here's what happened.

 

Important Shunryu Suzuki lecture footnote note: Just realized that when I've been downloading Shunryu Suzuki lectures that the footnotes haven't been following for some reason. So now, in the latest lecture, they're not at the end as formatted hyperlinks but just more text placed in brackets right after what they refer to.

2-10-07 - More on the US coming ever closer to acting on the long held Bush administration plan to attack Iran. See the new Iran Attack page, a special section in the Current Events section of the Digressions section of cuke.com. The inclusion of this section is vehemently opposed by our dharma siblings, Buddhists in favor of Neocon Wet Dreams. They are working up a position paper as I type. - DC

 

2-09-07 - Happy 62nd Birthday to DC from Kabumpkan.

Wow, I didn't know he was still alive. - DC

And as a birthday present to myself go to today's (2-09-07) medley of treasonous political links in Current Events about the administration's moves toward attacking Iran.

2-08-09 - While in Baja wandering with pareja blindly through the illusive wisdom that has gone beyond an obscure and seductive beach encampment called Cabo Pulmo [commercial site] found after a couple of hours of sandy, gravely at times almost disappearing road, I came upon a fellow wanderer named Krishna once Chris with a fine woman whose name I forget but not the features. Krishna was open to walking on various paths which we did for a time, but here's his Krishna Satsang website which I pass on rather than trying to remember what transpired. That's not Krishna in the forefront of the photo to the left which I got from his web site. That's his first guru PapaJi. Papaji is chill. Check em both out. - DC

2-07-07 - DISCOVER ZEN CULTURE IN THE CASTRO! and check out the Hartford Street Zen Center, Issan-Ji, named after a dear old friend, Issan Tommy Dorsey about whom David Schneider wrote Street Zen (Amazon.com link). And here's an interesting article on Issan from the Shambhala Sun magazine.

2-06-2007 - Shunryū Suzuki Lecture from Sunday, August 15, 1971, given at Zen Mountain Center - both light edit and verbatim.

2-05-07 - Thanks to Gregory Johnson for sending this great perspective enhancing wonderful song I've long loved. It's from the Harold Giliam film The Meaning of Life. And here's a charming anecdote involving my son Clay, me, Eric Idle, and John Cleese.

2-04-2007 - Get the 2006 Winter Issue of
Education about Asia


and read an article by DC on Shunryu Suzuki
entitled Crooked Cucumber Comes to America

Read other interesting articles while you're at it

Link to Education about Asia's website

Link to page on the 2006 Winter Issue

2-03-07 - Back from the retreat, well, sort of retreat - like seven weeks in Baja. More on that later. And now for our first post Baja item, the first of 2007.

Press conference on Feb. 6 marks day that Josh Wolf becomes longest incarcerated journalist in US History.

Here's a link to his home page. Check it out and help Josh.

Josh is Liz Wolf's son.

See Josh Wolf in Jail page on cuke.com - prior entries on Josh


January

There was no January. The whole cuke.com staff was on retreat. Thanks. - DC


                              

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