cuke.com - an archival site on the life and world of Shunryu Suzuki and those who knew him and anything else DC feels like - originally a site for Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki - not crookedcuke.com

what was new | table of contents | Shunryu Suzuki Index | | dc home | dc writings | |CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism | links | comments | Photos | bibliography | and lots more if you look around like Dharma groups in or related to Shunryu Suzuki's lineage || People on Cuke | More links at the bottom of the page. Contact DC

Shunryu Suzuki or his student etc related posts 2011
from What Was New 2011     See same for 2012

For this year go to Suzuki Index - right side

For Suzuki related posts going further back in time, just look through the What Was New for that year.

12-27-11 - Here's another scan of a Shunryu Suzuki comment on If you are truly involved in the development of our way - from a Fall, 1967 Wind Bell - included on the same page as the prior quote, below it.


12-25-11 - Merry Christmas.

Last Sunday I told you that, whatever religion you belong to, it doesn't matter when you to come and sit with us.  That is because our way of sitting, of practice, is for you to become yourself.  Katagiri Roshi always says, "to settle oneself on oneself."  To be yourself.  When you become you, yourself, at that moment your practice includes everything.  Whatever there is, it is a part of you.  So you practice with Buddha, you practice with Bodhidharma and you practice with Jesus.  You practice with everyone in the future or in past.  That is our practice.  But when you do not become yourself, it doesn't happen in that way. -

Shunryu Suzuki
19 June 1971
San Francisco


12-24-11 - Here's a scan of a Shunryu Suzuki comment on the importance of practice periods - from a Fall, 1967 Wind Bell.


12-20-11 - A few comments from DC on interview of Henry Schaeffer with Sam Bercholz on Rinpoche and Roshi as posted the day before yesterday. (Don't miss DC story at end)


12-18-11 - The transcript of Henry Schaeffer with Sam Bercholz on Rinpoche and Roshi now available on the Chronicles of CTR (Chronicles of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche) along with the audio as featured on 12-15-11 here on cuke.

Get the interview transcript and audio on Chronicles of CTR site.

Read the interview on cuke.com with a link to the audio.


12-15-11 - New on the Chronicles of CTR (Chronicles of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche) formerly the Chronicles Project.

 

Rinpoche and Roshi

 An account of Trungpa Rinpoche's interactions with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, told by Henry Schaeffer with Sam Bercholz. -Listen to Chronicles Radio [Audio 18:54]

In this episode, Henry Schaeffer and Sam Bercholz talk about

*** Rinpoche throwing his mala over a fence in Oakland, California in 1970;

*** Roshi blessing Rinpoche’s son, Taggie Mukpo, and the origins of the children’s blessing ceremony still practiced within Shambhala;

*** a talk given by Trungpa Rinpoche at the San Francisco Zen Center entitled "The Open Way", and what Roshi said to his students after Rinpoche left.

Group photo from Garuda - From left-to-right: Unknown, Karl Usow, Trungpa Rinpoche, Henry Schaeffer

 

Henry Schaeffer interview on cuke

The audio has its own links but the text doesn't seem to have its own link yet, being just on the main stories page. Think must wait till it's archived to have a permanent page to link to. - dc


12-02-11 - Shunryu Suzuki page on Everyday Zen website. On their list of books about Suzuki they Include
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Branching Streams, Not Always So, and Crooked Cucumber but do not include Wind Bell (which has a bunch of Suzuki lectures) or Zen Is Right Here subtitled Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki, Author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Also there's the little paperback Remembering the Dragon: Recollections of Suzuki Roshi by his Students by Gil Fronsdal. Get more info on all these and a few others on the cuke
Suzuki Book Page. There are also many books with more on Shunryu Suzuki listed in the cuke bibliography and on an Excerpts page - all that is incomplete.


12-01-11 - Most days I try to put up one Shunryu Suzuki related post and one on something else. It has been suggested that these two subject lines be more divided. I mentioned this a while back and put up this new idea for a home page [link gone]. It's also been suggested that cuke.com be only Suzuki and other stuff go elsewhere, like a blog or another site. I do try to isolate all Suzuki entries at the Shunryu Suzuki Index with a special What Was New on the right column. I'm thinking of maybe making the cuke home page be Suzuki oriented (as he's oriental) with a prominent link to Other DC Thoughts and Machinations or whatever. It would probably be less confusing which I'd be sad to part with - the confusion that is - but it would be interesting to do it that way. Hmm. Blah blah blah. Any thoughts on your part welcome.


11-28-11 - Have to redo The phrase “most important” as found in Shunryu Suzuki lectures #109 through #114 because I screwed up and was putting in repeats from earlier in the series. Also found #97 was a mistake. I don't know what happened. Little by little everything is becoming an amorphous blob. So anyway, here's - #109  in all its glory as it should have been presented. And it's an obscure one concerning an EKO chant which is a brief recitation offering the merit of the prior sutra. - dc


11-24-11 - Happy Thanksgiving. What do we have to be thankful for that isn't subject to decay?

Shunryu Suzuki said on January 18th, 1968 in Los Altos, California, at the Haiku Zendo:

We should always be a beginner or else our practice is not pure.  And if you have gaining idea in your practice, that is not pure practice.  So whether or not you are aware of the big mind, we should say, ‘Thank you” for the big mind.  That is our practice.  Anyway the big mind is always with you so there is no need to seek for the big mind, which you have always with you.  The only thing you should do is that you should be grateful for the big mind.  That is actually our pure practice.  In this way we should continue our pure practice and we should be very careful not to lose the point of practice, not to go astray.


Taigen Dan Leighton's latest book, Zen Questions: Zazen, Dogen, and the Spirit of Creative Inquiry is now available. Congratulations Taigen!

 - Wisdom Publications link to Zen Questions

Excerpts from Zen Questions related to Shunryu Suzuki

Taigen's cuke link page for much more


11-09-11 - Four friends from over here went to the 500th Anniversary of Rinsoin, Shunryu Suzuki's temple in Japan. Check it out on the SFZC's Sangha News. Here we have Blanche, Mel, and Chuck at breakfast in the Rinsoin family area. More photos later.


13 years of Suzuki related posts on cuke - On the Shunryu Suzuki index page had already  included on the right side a record of posts related to Suzuki Roshi and his students and friends going back through July. That will be enough for that page so made a new one for the first half of 2011. Plan to do this all the way back to the beginning of cuke. The regular old What Was New including all posts going back to the first is still there of course. Maybe it's not necessary but it shows a clear record of Suzuki archiving etc and I would imagine most people come here for the Suzuki related material and not all the other stuff I put up - like the following.


Dogen's Genjo Koan: Three Commentaries by Eihei Dogen, Nishiari Bokusan, Shohaku Okamura and Shunryu Suzuki (Aug 1, 2011) Published by Counterpoint.

 

 

 


11-08-11 - ZEN MONSTER LAUNCHES 3RD ISSUE

See cool Zen Monster release card

 

click on thumbnail to enlarge

 

Zen Monster dot com


The release party for Zen Monster was at the Brooklyn Zen Center.


11-01-11 - Talking to a woman about getting Crooked Cucumber into Chinese and she sent me links to two organizations he's involved with. Here they are:

The Dondrin Chojin Association

Help Without Borders

The earth is our destined carrier.
    All lives are our shipmates.
        To help with compassion is our only direction


10-28-11 - Jack Elias' Rebel Buddha tells a Tassajara story that includes yours truly - dc (blushing)

See Jack Elias link page


10-27-11 - A couple of brief excerpts about Shunryu Suzuki and others from the late great Buddhist scholar Edward Conze's Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic.


Two new sanghas for the links to dharma groups in the Shunryu Suzuki lineage

Layla Smith (Gyokujun Teishin) is the teacher at the Mountain Root Sangha in Corte Madera, CA as she is for the Montana Zen Meditation Center.

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Weintraub is the teacher for the Presidio Hill Zen Group which meets on Thursday evenings, 7 - 8:30 pm at St. John's Presbyterian Chuch at Lake & Arguello in San Francisco. Their website will be www.PresidioHillZenGroup.org

 

 

 


10-21-11 - Just learned that Elsie Mitchell, founder of the Cambridge Buddhist Asso. in 1957, died on Monday. Read it in James Ford's blog.

Go to Elsie Mitchell's main page on cuke.

She died on Monday. On Tuesday talked with Huston Smith about her and agreed to send a message to her brother to say hi and inquire about her which had been thinking of doing for some time. On Wednesday worked on the letter. On Thursday learned from John Tarrant she' passed. Rest in peace great Zen pioneer. - dc


10-20-11 - A reminder of the Suzuki Roshi section of the SFZC's website which is very well presented, the focus being

The Dharma Talks Blog is a way to study the teachings of Suzuki Roshi, moderated by Zen Center Priest Korin Charlie Pokorny. By publishing them over time, we can study Suzuki Roshi's way of practice together over the course of his teaching in America. Join in with comments and questions!


Working on some possible new structuring for cuke.

Here's a test homepage which would send one to the Shunryu Suzuki side or the Everything Else side.

And here's the Suzuki index page that the Test Homepage would point to with the right side being What's New going back a few months of just Suzuki related material unlike the regular old What Was New which mixes it all up.

The idea is to clean up the clutter, change the site from being like an absent-minded professor's messy desk to... to something more easy to use. I like the idea but.... - dc


Yesterday Katrinka and I paid a visit to Huston Smith (new link page) who's doing great. She said he's gotten cherubic. His ear operation (which his doctor was worried he wouldn't survive but he said he had to be able to hear so the heck with it) was a success. Made a big difference. Brought up Elsie Mitchell who is not doing so well, and we agreed to send her greetings though she might not remember us. He said it was she who got him into Zen. He helped her to found the Cambridge Buddhist Society in 1955. When we arrived Huston's minister was there. When I said that now this is about as long as he likes people to stay, he said with charming humor, yes, it's important to know when to say that for me. Now go, it's time for you to go. And he shooed us out. - dc


10-18-11 - Pat McMahon's Remembering Shunryu Suzuki Roshi - posted in Interviews


Was just exchanging messages on Facebook with Pat and asked him about any memories of Suzuki Roshi and he reminded me he'd sent them earlier and I found them in a place on my computer(s) [thanks to Google Desktop] I hadn't gotten to in a while to check for such. I wonder why I didn't put it up on cuke at the time - looks like it was sent almost four years ago. Hard to keep up with it all, especially because there are other callings. Just part of a large yet shrinking backlog of worthy material I'm trying to get posted or disposed of one way or another. And tonight there's more to be recorded which will be here on cuke as soon as it's transcribed. - dc


10-13-11 - To see the archive of 438 Shunryu Suzuki photos, join the Suzuki Roshi Archives group in Flickr. If you know who any of the people are in the photos, please leave a note. I've done a few. They can't be downloaded. Thanks. And thanks to Joe Galewsky for putting them up. If you have an idea of a better way to display them in Flickr or another program, please let me know. For instance, it's distracting to have "by galewsky" under each photo. - dc


10-11-11 -Upgraded the video section of shunryusuzuki.com - added another format to each selection so if one doesn't work the other should.


10-09-11 - Shunryu Suzuki (鈴木 俊隆 Suzuki Shunryū, dharma name Shōgaku Shunryū 祥岳俊隆)(May 18, 1904 – December 4, 1971)  was a Sōtō Zen roshi (Zen Master) who popularized Zen Buddhism in the United States, particularly around San Francisco.

Thus begins the Wikipedia entry for Shunryu Suzuki which I just spent some time going over and making a few changes - like comment on WWII period, why he left Sokoji, tempered his put down of Zen in Japan vs America, a few details here and there. An overall good job by someone. Why aren't these entries signed? - dc


10-03-11 - Interview with Jack Tjeerdsma


September


9-24-11 - SHUNRYU SUZUKI LINEAGE kanji by Taigen Dan Leighton to go with the Shunryu Suzuki lineage from Dogen romanized.


9-23-11 - Shunryu Suzuki lineage from Dogen. Taigen Dan Leighton sent this list with dates incomplete. Kanji to follow.

filed in Shunryu Suzuki Info


The German version of Crooked Cucumber is being re-released with a new name as a print on demand book along with a number of other Buddhist books by

Manjughosha Edition
Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
Eislebener Str.16, 10789 Berlin

This is an image of the former edition. The old title translates as "Shunryu Suzuki or the Art of Becoming a Zen Master." In consultation with Baker Roshi disciples Christian Dillo and Nicole Baden in Crestone Mt. Zen Center, the new title close to the English title was agreed upon which translates as "Crooked Cucumber - the Life and Teaching of Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki." The following is from Manjughosha's new brochure. The German at the bottom means "Rereleased German translation of Crooked Cucumber early in 2012."

David Chadwick
Krumme Gurke –
Leben und Lehre des Zen-Meisters Shunryu Suzuki

Neuauflage der deutschen bersetzung von „Crooked Cucumber"; Frhjahr 2012

And thanks to Michael Podgorschek in Austria of podpoddesign.com for scanning the whole book and to Edgar Arnold for working on that too and for now agreeing to transcribe some Suzuki lectures so we can have them available in the archive.

Filed under Crooked Cucumber


9-19-11 - An Interview with Catrina Boni, widow of Bob Boni, early photographer for the SFZC.

 

 

 

 


August


Expanded DC note on Shunryu Suzuki's definition of Sangha in yesterday's quote.


8-16-11 - First Part of the lecture from which yesterday's most important point came from - for clarification.

The phrase “most important” as found in Shunryu Suzuki lectures. #41


8-11-11 - Tozen Akiyama remembers almost meeting Shunryu Suzuki - in Brief Memories

 

 

 

 

 

 


Today on shunryusuzuki.com, fixed audio for 71-07-02 which had audio for 71-07-20 there instead. Thanks Sami Takanen in Finland. Lots more mistakes to fix and improvements to make. Advice and assistance welcomed. - dc


8-07-11 - Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind in Ambivalent Zen : One Man's Adventures on the Dharma Path by Lawrence Shainberg


July


7-30-11 - Excerpts related to Shunryu Suzuki

from Zen Questions: Zazen, Dōgen, and the Spirit of Inquiry, by Taigen Dan Leighton 2011, Wisdom Publications, 2011 (November)

Taigen's cuke link page


7-20-11 - Interview with Tim Buckley


7-10-11 - Been working for some days now preparing to move the Shunryu Suzuki archival tapes and some originals from storage in Sonoma to a room at the City Center in SF - moving day is today. Hope this is the beginning of a permanent archive room for those and other tapes.  - dc


June


6-27-11 - The phrase “most important” as found in Shunryu Suzuki lectures. 229 instances. 85 each of "most important point" and "most important thing." Read #1

And they continue on almost daily for months.


6-20-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #45 - Stephen Wiltse

This was the last of 45 entries put on cuke one by one from 5-07-11 - (when the entry read) Beginning a new group - Memories of Shunryu Suzuki from Wind Bell and DC Files - from letters written to Richard Baker, Zen Center, the Wind Bell, collected by DC in the late nineties while doing research for Crooked Cucumber. Includes letters written to DC.


Jerry's Ray's memories of Shunryu Suzuki


6-19-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #44 - Gerald Wheeler


6-18-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #43 - Mel Weitsman

long time abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center

Interview with Mel Weitsman


6-17-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #42 - Edward Van Tassel


6-16-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #41 - Fran Tribe


6-15-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #40 - Teah Strozer

Teah Strozer link page

 

 


6-14-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #39 - Steve Stroud


6-13-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #38 - Erik Storlie

Eric Storlie link page


6-12-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #37 - Bishop Ippo Shaku


6-11-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #35 and #36- Jane Schneider and Peter Schneider

Peter and Jane Schneider are teaching at the Beginner's Mind Zen Center in Northridge, Los Angeles.

Jane and Peter Schneider link page


Click on thumbnail to enlarge photo


6-10-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #34 - Jill Schireson


6-09-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #33 - Elizabeth Sawyer

Reverend Elizabeth Sawyer - Interfaith Minister- Lay Ordained Buddhist

The Wonderful Discovery of Elizabeth Sawyer


Charles Grob is doing some interesting and compassionate research and treatment with psilocybin and terminal cancer patients. Here's an interview with him on Wisconsin Public Radio. Here's more on Charles Grob.


6-08-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #32 - Ed Sattizahn

Ed Sattizahn has been chairman of the board of the SFZC for several years and has been an important supporter of work to preserve the legacy of Shunryu Suzuki. See SSHP.


6-07-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #31 - Sue Satermo

Sue Satermo link page


Another video by Bill Scheffel with Jakusho Bill Kwong talking about on becoming a teacher

Jakusho Bill Kwong link page

Bill Scheffel's video site which might have more on Kwong - there are three from him posted on Kwong's link page.

Scheffel's web site - Western Mt.


6-06-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #30 - Lew Richmond

 

 

 

 

 

Lew Richmond link page


John Steiner sent this frog in memory of Suzuki Roshi who was fond of frogs and mentioned them now and then in lectures. Just located 41 instances of him using that word.

Photo sent by and maybe taken by Tim Jones in or near Austin, Texas, and labeled, "nocturnal images from a small pond just outside the house in Hays County."


6-05-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #29 - Paul Reps with a brief comment from DC.

 

 

 

 

 

 


6-03-11 - Albert Saijo passed away yesterday (thanks John Tarrant for forwarding the news from Kevin Diminyatz on the Big Island in Hawaii). Saijo was a lesser known character in the Beat scene and was around Sokoji (the original home of the SFZC) some in the early days, lived in the nearby East-West House and then the Hyphen House. He's mentioned in passing herein in interviews with Philip Whalen, Joanne Kyger, and Ananda Claude Dalenberg. He wrote a book called The Backpacker and co-authored a book of Haiku with Jack Kerouac and Lew Welch called Trip Trap.

Tarrant included this poem, Bodhisattva Vows by Saijo and wrote, "He was in the internment camp during World War II at Heart Mountain in Wyoming where Nyogen Senzaki had the only zendo in the US at that time. Albert's mother was a haiku poet and his brother, Gompers, was an artist, some of whose calligraphy paper I still have."

Here's a good article on Saijo with photos - from the Tinfish Editor's Blog.


MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #28 - Jerry Ray


6-02-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #27 - Yvonne Rand

Yvonne Rand link page


6-01-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #26 - Larry Prager


May


5-31-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #25 - Rowena Pattee (Kryder)

Creative Harmonics (her website)

Interview with Rowena


5-30-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #24 - Willard McCarty


5-29-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #23 - Molly Jones MacGregor


5-28-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #22 - Alan Marlowe


5-27-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #21 - Alan Klein


5-26-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #20 - Taiji Kiyokawa


5-25-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #19 - Richard King


5-24-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #18 - Durand Kiefer


5-23-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #17 - Irene Horowitz


5-22-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #16 - Pat Herreshoff


5-21-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #15 - Edmond Gordillo. This is my personal favorite. - dc


5-20-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #14 - Eva Goldschied


5-19-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #13 - Della Goertz

Della Goertz link page


5-18-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #12 - Charles A. Gilman


5-17-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #11 - Stephanie Flagg


5-16-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #10 - Mike Dixon

Mike Dixon link page


5-15-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #9 - Kent B. Davis


5-14-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #8 - Ananda Dalenberg

Ananda Claude Dalenberg link page


5-13-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #7 - David Chadwick

David Chadwick links page


5-12-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #6 - Tim Buckley

Tim Buckley link page

 

 

 

 


5-11-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #5 - Edward Brown


Did Shunryu Suzuki use koans?


5-10-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #4 -  Peter Bailey

(not this Wind Bell which is chosen at random)


5-09-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #3 - Art Atkinson


5-08-11 - MEMORIES OF SUZUKI Roshi FROM WIND BELL AND DC FILES - #2 -  Frank Anderton


5-07-11 - Beginning a new group - Memories of Shunryu Suzuki from Wind Bell and DC Files - from letters written to Richard Baker, Zen Center, the Wind Bell, collected by DC in the late nineties while doing research for Crooked Cucumber. Includes letters written to DC.

The first letter - Mark Abrams


5-05-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98 part XI and the last in this series.


There's a fantastic new documentary out about Chogyam Trungpa, Crazy Wisdom. We got to see an early screening of it this weekend and it is really wonderful. They have a short section in there about Trungpa and Suzuki Roshi,

[Filed this in Suzuki Film among other places] - Joe Galewsky

 

 

 


5-05-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98 part X


5-04-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98 part IX


Dairyu Michael Wenger cuke link page to his Zen teaching, his art, his books, his stewardship of the Suzuki archive work.

 

 

 

 

 


5-03-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98 part VIII


Some Shunryu Suzuki lecture audio in the archive were fixed.

67-12-01A and 67-12-02

67-12-04 and/or 6712-04A was just renamed as 67-12-02.

The file named 67-12-02 had the second half of 67-12-01A and something else. It was just a mistake. My bad because I listened to the beginning of every tape to compare with the first line of the transcript. I guess that was one I planned to get back to to figure out and then forgot about. But now it's fixed.

The fixed files are in their rightful place on shunryusuzuki.com and also in shunryusuzuki.com/new/replacements.htm

Only 16k mp3s - the 32k mp3s are too big to load from here in India, at least where I go to upload.

And for taking so long to get to this, my apologies to Charlie Pokorny of Suzuki Roshi dot SFZC dot org where all the Suzuki lectures are going up one by one in a better presentation than on shunryusuzuki.com. - dc


5-02-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98 part VII


5-01-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98 part VI


Eric Arnow has his own web site now. For years I've been putting his letters from Asia here. From now on they'll go on his site, the Bumble Buddhist which also now has all the previous ones from cuke and photos more. - dc

Eric Arnow link page


April


4-30-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98 part V - if you notice that the last one you read was part III and wonder where part IV went, part I was just divided into parts I and II so IV became V. - dc

Special thanks to Robert Barner and Keith Cowan for helping to keep this going. See something I wrote on this today. And yes Robert I'll find that Tim Buckley interview first thing when I get back. - dc


4-29-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98 part IV


4-28-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98 part III


Jakusho Kwong link page including a link to

Jakusho Kwong in Crooked Cucumber


 

 

 

A brief memory of Shunryu Suzuki by Brit Pyland which came in the form of a gentle correction to something in DC's first notes on Suzuki posted 4-26.


4-27-11 - Suzuki disciples tell stories Jan. '98

part I   and   part II

Who were the Suzuki disciples

An old note on the Japanese for Crooked Cucumber and the meaning - with help from Hoitsu Suzuki and Gary Snyder. - something that came up in the disciples' discussion.


4-26-11 - DC on Shunryu Suzuki - 1st thoughts.

Prior link in the new DC on Shunryu Suzuki and So Forth

DC Link Page

I think it makes sense to do this. At least it adds to the catacomb effect. - dc


4-25-11 - Katherine Thanas remembers a talk by Reb Anderson.

Reb Anderson link page


Just stumbled across this not yet released book: Dogen's Genjo Koan: Three Commentaries by Eihei Dogen, Nishiari Bokusan, Shohaku Okamura and Shunryu Suzuki (Aug 1, 2011) Published by Counterpoint.

Books by and about Shunryu Suzuki

 

 


4-24-11 - TASSAJARA AND SUZUKI IN THE TIME OF THE SANDOKAI TALKS, in the summer of 1970

in which this introductory sentence caught my eye: The Buckeye Fire burned 44,000 acres and got to Willow Creek just over the Tony Trail. After looking into that a little further, added it to the History of Fire at or near Tassajara.


Brief discussion with a few Suzuki disciples about the time of the Sandokai talks, the summer of 1970, the first addition to

Groups of stories or Groups telling stories


branching.gif (64341 bytes)Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness

Shunryu Suzuki's lectures on the Sandokai

 

 

 


4-23-11 - Interview with Robert Aitken


Here's an interesting bio on Hakuun Yasutani, Aitken's first teacher,  which includes a brief bit on Aitken, Maezumi, and Eido. Don't know where it came from. Just found it in my files. - dc


4-22-11 - Interview with Tom Wright


4-21-11 - A Brief Memory of Shunryu Suzuki by Tony Johansen.


Brief Interview with Toshiaki Nakahara, friend of Otohiro Suzuki


Edward Brown sends a spring note

Edward's Peaceful Sea Sangha

Edward's cuke and other links page

 

 

4-20-11 - Interview with Tim Ford

Photo of Kobun Chino on Facebook. Testing linking to it.


4-19-11 - Interview with Sterling Bunnell


4-18-11 - Memories of Suzuki Roshi by Rene Pittet


4-17-11 - Interview with RD


4-16-11 - Interview with Steve Tipton

 

cuke and other link page for Steve Tipton

 


4-15-11 - Interview with Paul Disco

and a link page for Paul

 

 

 

 

 

 


4-14-11 - Interview with Louise Pryor (formerly Welch)


4-12-11 - Interview with Loly Rosset


4-11-11 - Brief Interview with Tim Aston


4-10-11 - Tiny Interview with Teah Strozer

 

 

 

 


4-09-11 - Interview with Peg Anderson and Will Stocker, early Suzuki students from Palo Alto, Peg was born in 1903 and her path took her to some seminal spiritual teachers of the forties and fifties on the West Coast. Will, born in 1916, was in charge of building the Haiku Zendo in Los Altos.


4-08-11 - Adding some odds and ends to what's on cuke about Les Kaye, abbot of Kannondo including

notes of a couple of chats with him and some comments.

That's found at the bottom of the Les Kaye Interview page (interviews by others mainly).

Mary Kaye on Suzuki the thief - in brief memories,

work.gif (114087 bytes)Kaye, Les. Zen at Work: a Zen Teacher's 30-Year Journey in Corporate America. Crown, 1996.
[Les has been a priest at the Los Altos Zendo since Suzuki ordained him in 1971 and for many years he combined his priest practice there with his job at IBM.]
Amazon link


4-07-11 - Interview with Lucy (Bennett) Calhoun

Ashland Farm - Lucy and Clay's home and biz


4-06-11 - Interview with Dr. Albert J. Stunkard, one of America's senior Zen students and teachers, doctor to DT Suzuki who studied with several great teachers including Shunryu Suzuki.


4-05-11 - A couple of follow-ups filed in Readers' Comments

In answer to Ann Brown's question of two days ago, Here's the SFZC's service and ceremony audio page. - thanks Brit Pyland who also sent this self portrait or maybe hands portrait.


Peter Levitt writes in response to his own question of 4-02:

Dear David and Kaz

I hope you both are well. I did a bit of research and found reference to a meeting on the same day Suzuki-roshi gave that talk in SF that indicates that Kawabata was in Japan that day, which probably means he was not visiting SR the day before in San Francisco. I'll check more on this, but it seems pretty tight as evidence. Oh, well.

What seems most likely is that somehow Suzuki-roshi heard or read Kawabata's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which had quite a bit about Japanese culture in it (I read it yesterday) and his discussion of the arc of Japanese literature/culture took off from there.

So, maybe "case solved" on this one. If not, I'll let you know.


4-04-11 - Photos from and of Bob Halpern

click thumbnail to enlarge


4-03-11 - Interview with Ken Sawyer of Sawyer Construction.


Ann Brown of the Kumeido, the Little River Zen Center in Mendocino asks:

Hey, I was wondering if you have a recommendation for a site that has audio recordings of our Soto Zen Chants...in particular Daihishin Dharani and the Heart Sutra.

I pointed Ann toward Elsie Mitchell's incomparable Way of Eiheiji. I also said I am sure that some groups have such recordings.

Any other suggestions? I don't have time to Google right now. If so please let us know at Contact DC.  Thanks. - dc

Here's the SFZC's service and ceremony audio page. - thanks Brit Pyland


4-02-11 - Interview with Norm Randolph


Peter Levitt writes: On Sunday I based my talk on some notes from a talk Suzuki Roshi gave on Sept 14, 1969. In this talk he says, "Yesterday [visitor] Yasunari Kobata was speaking about something about Japanese literature.' I am assuming he means Yasunari Kawabata, the great novelist who is the only Japanese novelist to receive the nobel prize in literature. Kawabata is my favourite Japanese author, and I think same for Kaz [Tanahashi], so I am very interested in this reference. Do you have any information (or memory) of the visit to which he refers? Are there any records indicating that Kawabata came to see SR, or that he gave a talk around mid september 1969. If so, I would love to know about it.

DC says: I don't know anything about this. Do you? If so please write me at Contact DC. Thanks.


4-01-11 - Brief interview with Pat Herreshoff


March


3-31-11 - Is That So? by Laura Burges on Tim Buckley: Zen Way, Yurok Way
on the SFZC website. In it she mentions his book

Standing Ground: Yurok Indian Spirituality, 1850–1990 by Thomas Buckley (UC Press page for the book)

Here's a note from Tim about the book put on cuke in Dec. '09

Tim's Wikipedia page

Damn - can't find the interview I did with him. I'm sure I have it back in Santa Rosa. But I did find this story of Tim with Suzuki Roshi in his Garden from an old letter he sent Baker Roshi when they were collecting Suzuki stories for the Wind Bell back in the seventies. Filed in Brief Memories. - dc

[Got Tim's interview transcribed after returning from India - see Tim Buckley link page.


Interview with Katherine Thanas of the Santa Cruz Zen Center


When in Alaska, be sure to stop at the Achorage Zen Community for an enlightening sit. Just got an email from their Director Shogen Danielson and realized they weren't in the Dharma groups in or related to Shunryu Suzuki's lineage section of the links folder. But now they are. Congratulations.


3-30-11 - Interview with Ken Berman


3-29-11 - Brief Memories of Suzuki by Joanne Bull

 

 


Interview with Jim Morton which is also pretty brief but not right for Brief Memories.


3-28-11 - Interview with Anne and Jim Armstrong who were around the ZC back in the Suzuki days and later. Anne is a psychic who many students saw and this interview concludes with her psychic reading of Shunryu Suzuki from their home in San Anselmo in 2002..

 

 


3-27-11 - Interview with Jonathan Altman, artist, a founder of Lama Foundation, student of Zen with Shunryu Suzuki and later of Tibetan Buddhism.


3-24-11 - Interview with Henry Schaeffer, early Suzuki and Trungpa student, SF Cable Car employee.


3-23-11 - A long interview from 1994 with Gary Sndyer by Matt J (Jenske?) who was living at Green Gulch back then from which his brief memories of Shunryu Suzuki have been snatched. And since there is more from Gary on cuke, there's now a Gary Snyder Main Page.


3-22-11 - Interview with Ted (Ed) Tripp, draft resister, peace marcher, memories of Shunryu Suzuki.


3-21-11 - Edward Brown on his shaking and Suzuki


3-18-11 - An interview with Deborah Madison and Pat McFarlin from 1963 at their home in Santa Fe, separated into two pages and files.


3-17-11 - Interview with Rick Morton whose wife Carolyn's interview was put on cuke 3-13. Today we include their wedding photo - married at Tassajara by Suzuki Roshi July 14, 1970 (Bastille Day).


Buddhism and Wealth: Defining 'Right Livelihood' - Lew Richmond's Huff Post blog featured on their front page today. My web news habit is to quickly on all - check the BBC RSS feed first, then Huff Post, Talking Points Memo, and Crooks and Liars. So I was most pleased to see Lew's article featured so prominently on Huff today.

See Lew's cuke interview where there are more links.


3-14-11 - Interview with Don Deangelo (Crockin)


3-13-11 - Interview with Carolyn Morton - Only 69 files to go in the folder of interviews, notes, and transcripts this interview came from. Then there are 26 audio files of notes I'd read aloud and recorded before leaving. After that I can cull through the folders and files in my digital labyrinth seeking other undigested matter to share in cyberspace until the last bit degrades.


3-12-11 - Interview with Craig Boyan (the beloved), student of Shunryu Suzuki, devotee of Meher Baba.


Check out the great photo of Daya Goldschlag and Darlene Cohen near the top of Daya's interview


3-10-11 - Elizabeth Tuomi Memorial Page.


A brief interview with the late great Rick Fields who wrote How the Swans Came to the Lake about  Buddhism coming to the West - with other links. Also some about the early Hindu influence and Theosophy as per the above post.

 

 


3-07-11 - Some Brief Memories of Shunryu Suzuki from the cuke archive backlog which is what I'm working on these days here in Tamil Nadu. - dc

Pat Phelan - the early wake up bell story, one of the most told.

Kobun Chino - a few comments

Ken Schnell - How do I express my gratitude?

Elizabeth Tuomi - his eyes

3-05-11 - Les Kaye, abbot of the Los Altos Zendo and disciple of Shunryu Suzuki sends a question which DC answers.

Les Kaye on cuke and elsewhere


3-03-11 - Added some notes to the Interviews with Hoitsu Suzuki, Shunryu's son. 
Also added this link to Hoitsu Suzuki at City Center from Natural Wisdom blog
and a bio from Sweeping Zen
and this SFZC brief bit on Hoitsu.
And a good photo of Hoitsu on Flickr
And Valleys and Mts. - download a lecture by Hoitsu

And there's more on the web.

Check him out at Hoitsu main page


added more info to Lewis Richmond entry below


3-02-11 - Remembering a Man of Wisdom by Lewis Richmond, an article about Shunryu Suzuki published in 1996 in Interbeing Magazine.

Lew's website, Living and Aging as a Spiritual Practice

For more on Lew Richmond, go to his cuke interview page

Lew is now blogging on the Huffington Post. He'll be posting there every couple of weeks. To see my first post, take a look here:

Huffington Post blog: worry less, care more

He is also present on facebook at Lewis' Facebook Page and twittering at @lewrichmond


3-01-11 - Some brief memories of Shunryu Suzuki from Barbara Young

Grahame H. Petchey sent the following excerpt from a letter he wrote. Tacking it on to his cuke interview.


February


2-28-11 - Interview with Judyth Weaver

Her website - Judyth O. Weaver, PhD


2-27-11 - Interview with John Steiner, indefatigable peace worker both outer and inner, key actor in the best remembered incident of Suzuki era oral history, and for that event, the Suzuki Explosive Answer page.


2-25-11 - Created a Nona Ransom Main Page - she was Shunryu Suzuki's English teacher during his college years.


Dealing with the Details of this Archive

Looking for more references to Nona Ransom, I remembered that Brian Power (RIP) had told me over the phone from England in the mid nineties that she was a teacher of his in Tientsin in China in the 30s or so. As I recall he said she was rather strict. He had a photo of her I think in his book on the last emperor of China, Puyi. In looking for that book in the bibliography on this site I couldn't find it so I went to a file of Crooked Cucumber itself and it was in the bibliography there along with another book that had somehow slipped out of the bibliography when it was included here. So now they're both here on cuke in the main and original bibliographies. Only took twelve years to correct that error.

Power, Brian. The Puppet Emperor. Universe Books, 1988.

Uchiyama, Kosho. The Zen Teaching of "Homeless" Kodo, Kyoto Soto Zen Center, 1990. [I'm considering scanning this book to put in here because it's often so hard to get].

Read more on this plus pithy reflections in dchad misc


2-24-2011 - Harry Ransom-Rose on Nona Ransom, Shunryu Suzuki's English teacher in his college years. This is newly entered on cuke, adding to:

Nona Ransom in Crooked Cucumber

Shunryu Suzuki on Nona Ransom

See The Twelve Days of England  - written in 2000 after I met Harry Rose


2-23-11 - From Loring Palmer's 2011 note to DC after reading his interview posted here three days ago - now appended to the interview with the following put in his Brief Memories of Suzuki:

Also, I didn't talk about the deep impression that Suzuki Roshi made on me by his authentic presence: sincerity and integrity. He was a package of beauty, truth, and goodness: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. His speech, movements, and decorum were magnetizing: lightness-of-being. The ordinary as extraordinary. I "turned Japanese" after being around him---from the outside in. Remember the haramaki [waist sweater] and devotion to the zori? We're the luckiest people in the world to have met SR and the wabi/sabi aesthetics of Nippon: enjoyed practicing Cha-no-Yu for 10 years while in Boulder. Life is good!


2-22-11 - Shunryu Suzuki had a radiation belt.


2-21-11 - Barbara Bash with a brief memory of Shunryu Suzuki. Check out Barbara's website and visual blog.


2-20-11 - Interview with Loring Palmer -  Suzuki, Trungpa, Andrew student, and cuke contributor from 1994. Took me a while to get to it. That's one thing I'm working on now here in Tamil Nadu, getting more interviews and notes up on cuke, going through the considerable backlog. - dc

Loring Palmer on Suzuki and did he take LSD?

Brief memories of Suzuki from Loring's interview


2-19-11 - Zen and Chinese medicine and Shunryu Suzuki - no I don't know anything about it but came up with an interesting memory via Loring Palmer and a suggestion for the questioner. Read on in Brief Memories of Shunryu Suzuki.


2-18-11 - This site was created in December of 1998 as a supplement to the book, Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki. There was a lot of the info as presented still in the Crooked Cucumber section, and some photos. Now and then I'd make a change or add something such as in the schedule of events or errata pages. In May of 1999 I started adding to it on a more regular basis and started this What's New page which grew to a What's New section. Every year I have to create a page for the prior year and add links for it to the What's New pages for each year going back to 1999. Just did that. Got a problem with the margins not holding so need to find what's causing that. Always busy work like this and I can only spend so much time on maintenance. But it's interesting when I open the old files to look back at what was posted in these years. - DC


2-18-11 - Here's a New Year's card sent from Mitsu Suzuki, Mrs. Suzuki, Okusan, Shunryu Suzuki's widow, to Daya Goldschlag. Tozen Akiyama Roshi kindly translated it as 

"I wish you Happy New Year," literally, "I respectfully say the joy/delight of the beginning spring."

Hatsuharu no
oyorokobi
tsutsushinde
moshiagemasu.
Gantan Mitsu Gassho

This was sent before the conventional Western New Year. In Japan they use the new calendar and the old calendar for different purposes. They have a way of not erasing the old when they add the new. The traditional New Year in Japan, China, and all Asia I guess, is early February, the beginning of spring, the traditional seasons beginning about six weeks earlier than in the West, when there's a hint of the season. Sort of like Groundhog Day being the hint of spring. - dc


2-16-11 - Lani just called to tell me Michael Gilmore passed Jan.30th at 10:30 PM. By all accounts a very good passing. Svaha! - an email from Jack Elias.

Michael has been having serious liver trouble for years. Clay and I visited him and Lani in March, staying in their Palm Desert condo, and we talked till late. I'd received word he was dying and had a phone conversation with him before leaving for India in which he said he was fine, maybe a week before he died. I should have known because it was hard to get through to him. Farewell Michael - I'll miss our long conversations and your Tarot readings. Must get some of his art up on cuke.

Read Michael Gilmore's cuke interview. It's quite interesting. - dc


2-15-11 - Patrick Woodworth sends his brief memories of Shunryu Suzuki.


2-14-11 -  Suzuki and Katagiri student Eric Storlie on dharma transmission in an article entitled Lineage Delusions in Sweeping Zen dot com. Eric Storlie link page


2-09-11 - Early Sokoji chant card

Got an email from John Eberly that, among other comments, stated :

In Crooked Cucumber, you wrote how Allen Ginsberg asked SS for permission to use his translation of the Heart Sutra. Can you point me to a link for this version online or somewhere?

The way I find things on my own site is often just to use Google. So I wrote "cuke.com heart sutra" in Google and come up with this link on top. Note that there are two versions of the old Sokoji chant card, the early four page or two sides of two pages and the later two sides of one page. Enjoy. - dc


1-21-11 - Lou Harman died yesterday.

Joan Amarol wrote on 1-20 - lou died at 3:42 this afternoon. blanche was right there with him. he was surrounded by his family, with sangha members sitting close by. at his request we immediately performed a precept renewal ceremony. his body will remain at zen hospice until sunday. sitting times are 9am-9pm. you can also check the zen center facebook page for updates.

at 7:30 tonight we'll hold a ceremony in the buddha hall at city center with sojun mel weitsman officiating. we'll recite the heart sutra and daihi shin dharani to help lou on his way. tomorrow morning's service will also be dedicated to lou.

cuke interview with Lou and Blanche


1-13-11 - Jerome Petersen's Funeral - Life Celebration: Saturday, February 5, 3 pm

Jerome's cuke page


 

 

 


1-12-11 - Darlene Cohen, Su Rei Ken Po, Great Spirit Manifesting Dharma, died at 1:15 AM this morning.


Go to Darlene's cuke link page.

 

 

 


For Suzuki related posts going further back in time, just look through the What Was New for that year.



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