I was asked to do a workshop in Monterey last fall where I would tell stories about the Suzuki Roshi Eagle stories that I had heard or been there for. And I enjoyed preparing for that day and I enjoyed the day. So I've got to offer it again. And again, I enjoyed preparing for this time. I don't very often like to sit down and concentrate for an extended period of time on thinking about him.

[01:06]

So it's nice to be encouraged to do so. So how this weekend would go, But not everybody is. Particularly, certain things need to get done at Green Gulch, like dishes and so on, and meals happen at certain times. So those are kind of set, but within our meeting times, I'm flexible about how to spend the time. Before talking to you about it, my idea was to intersperse in discussion with you and practice sessions, practice sessions and study sessions.

[02:17]

So that's what I had in mind. So tonight I thought I would begin by talking some and giving you some instruction in practice that Suzuki Roshi tried to transmit here in America and have a session to conclude our evening with a session. That's sitting meditation. And then tomorrow morning, early, at 5 o'clock, there's walking meditation, and then there's sitting meditation, and then there's walking meditation, and sitting meditation, and then there's service, where we chant scriptures. And again, we'll be chanting... Only Suzuki Roshi favorites during service, during this week.

[03:26]

His favorites were the Heart Sutra and the Sando Kai and Hokyo Zanmai. And he liked Dogen Zenji very much too. So we'll be chanting those things during morning and morning service tomorrow. And then after morning service, there is going to be cleaning, temple, ritual cleaning time. And I hope maybe tonight I can say a little bit about that, about the activity of cleaning or, you know, physical labor as it relates to his teaching, his life. And then after that, There is a breakfast time, and you can have a formal breakfast or informal breakfast. Formal breakfast starts around 7.20, and it's silent except for a chant.

[04:38]

You can also have informal breakfast at 7.20 or or later if you wish to, I think up until probably, what time? Eight o'clock. Up until eight o'clock. So between 7.20 and 8 o'clock you can have informal breakfast. But if you'd like a formal breakfast to experience a little bit of what is different, a simple, not a complex formal breakfast, just a simple formal breakfast, that would be a seven. And then there's a break, over break. Some people will be washing dishes. People who don't live at Green Gulch who are here for the weekend, you can just have a break and spend it according to your own discretion. Then at 9, let's say at 9 o'clock, let's go and sit in the Zendo again. Tonight we'll sit here, and tomorrow morning those early periods are in the Zendo. Does everybody know where the Zendo is?

[05:42]

One person doesn't know? Are you staying here? Yes. Yeah? In the guest house? Yes. Would someone, any of us, Alston, are you staying in the guest house? Yeah. Would you take him to the Zendu if he wants to go? You don't have to. Take him to the Zendu. So, again, a nine... At nine, we'll go to the zendo and sit for a while. Then we'll have walking meditation back over to here. Then we'll have a session here. And then... Another period of... We'll just sit in here, have sitting meditation in here. And then another session, and then go over to the zendo again for chanting. This is a kurshi, not a kurshi favorite. And then lunch.

[06:45]

Informal lunch. And then break. And then come back to Zendo. Sitting again. And then walk over here. In meditation. And have another session. And tea. And can we have tea? About 3.20. And then another session. Discussion and so on. And then back to the zendo for another period of meditation and service. And then dinner. And then a short break and evening session concluding with meditation again. Does that seem like a reasonable flow to you? If it gets to be too much sitting or too much whatever, take a break. But keep track of the schedule so you can fit back in. If you get out of pace with the group. So that you can flow in and out of this.

[07:50]

If you keep track of what's happening. Then that's Saturday. And then Sunday morning. Again, there's early morning meditation. two periods, one sitting, then walking, then sitting, and then service, and then temple cleaning, and preparation for the lecture, and an informal breakfast, and break And then there's a class at 8 o'clock, studying Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. And I think there will also be some videotapes of Suzuki Roshi at Tassajara. And then meditation in the Zendo.

[08:51]

And then a talk in the Zendo. And at that time, a whole bunch of people will probably come and join, but it'll be about the same topic, I think. This is a gracious teaching in life. And then, question and answer, and then lunch, and then our final session. The final session will be, I probably, actually it could probably be here, couldn't it? And it could be the final session up here. And I'm sorry, I think the announcement said that workshop would end at noon. But we're offering it to go later. If anybody has to go, I understand. But I was thinking of it ending at 2. So it would be a session from 1 to 2, final session. So I hope, I don't exactly hope, but it's possible that what will happen will be that I'll offer you some of my senses of Suzuki Roshi's practice and what he taught, and then hopefully you can actually practice it during this week.

[10:11]

You can maybe enjoy hearing about his life and hearing about his teaching and then actually put some of it into practice if you'd like to So, any comments on that, or questions? Yes? Is there any possibility that the films could be shown during one of the sessions? I know the practice period, people, except for those who are already thinking about Sunday morning class, most of us won't be in that Sunday morning class. And it would be nice to see the film clips. I wonder if we could see them during the session tomorrow. You can see him some other time at Green Lodge. We can show him Thursday night during the singing or whatever, you know. I mean, we can have other showings of those. But I just thought that class is sort of set up to do that, so...

[11:16]

Excuse me, but is that class here that we will write? The class will be here, yeah, at 8 o'clock. It's usually in the library, but this time, because these people are joining, it'll be hard to fit people in the library. I think that's what's going to happen anyway. If not, it'll be here in the library, but I think it'll be in here. Any other comments or questions? So as far as I know, Suzuki Roshi was born in Japan. That's what he said. And, you know, he spoke Japanese and everything, so probably he was born in Japan.

[12:31]

The way we think about things. And the story goes he was born in 1904. So if he was around now, he would be 92, almost. He's born on May 18th. Before, when I knew him, he said he was born on May 19th. But actually, it was May 19th in California. It was May 18th in Japan. No, no. It was May 19th.

[13:34]

That's the other way around. He was born on May 19th in Japan, but he was born on May 18th in California. Sorry. So, in California, people think he was born on May 18th. In Japan, May 19th. Later in my life, right after Suzuki Roshi died, I met another man who I made friends with and who was a teacher to me And I kind of adopted him as another father. And Gregory Bateson. And Gregory Bateson was also born in 1904. Earlier in May. He was much taller than Sousa Kourosh. But, you know, they were...

[14:35]

They were quite, they were similar in a lot of ways. They were both very, in certain ways, they were both very quiet, thoughtful people. And they were both very respectful of life. So he was born in Japan, and Japan actually, in that time, I think, was actually doing quite well as a country, quite powerful. I think they'd just come off... In 1905, they had a little tussle with Russia, didn't they? And they beat Russia. They beat big Russia. Of course, they weren't the strong part of Russia. But anyway, Japan was very powerful around the time he was born. But the Buddhist church, the Buddhist religion at that time was not... in a strong position because the government didn't like Buddhism at that time. They liked Shintoism because it was part of the nationalist nationalism's heyday.

[15:44]

So the Buddhist priests, the Buddhist church in general, was poor. So Siddhikarasi was actually, when he was young, he was poor. In a poor family, the temple was not in good condition physically. Not much money to keep it in repair. And in Japan, you've got to make a lot of effort to keep the buildings in repair, especially the wooden buildings, the traditional buildings, because it rains and moss grows on things, so things rot. So you have to keep rebuilding these old buildings all the time. So if you don't, they fall apart. So I have an impression that... Life was materially challenged around the Buddhist temples. However, I was going to bring a map tonight, but if anybody has a big map of Japan here at Green Gulch, I could use it, but my little map wouldn't be much help. Anyway, he was born in the state or the province of Shizuoka, which means quiet hills.

[16:53]

Shizuoka is a Sort of the California of Japan. It's on the Pacific Ocean side. And it's the southern part. So it's pretty warm there. And they grow a lot of tea, very good tea there. And lots of Mikan, Japanese oranges. And it's also a Zen country. Lots of history there. and lots of many, many famous Zen temples and many, many Zen masters live around there. And it just turns out that Suzuki Roshi's teachers were some of the most, I don't know, inspiring and authentic of the Zen tradition. So we have the good fortune now of having him come, but he had very good teachers. So although they were poor, they had very good teaching, very good practice. Do you want us to keep questions till the end?

[17:58]

Huh? Do you want us to keep questions till the end or we have a question? You can ask questions, yeah. What was he born into a temple, like Zen? He was born into a temple. His father was a Zen priest. And when we chant, when we chant the lineage, towards the end of the lineage it goes, bhutman-sogaku-dayo-sho, gyokujun-sogaku-dayo-sho, shogaku-shunryu-dayo-sho. shogaku shunryo daio shou is Suzuki Roshi. Gyoku-jun so-on daio shou is Gyoku-jun so-on Roshi, his teacher. Butsu-mon so-gaku daio shou is Suzuki Roshi's father. Suzuki Roshi's father sent his son away to study with his disciple. Isn't that interesting? It's like commanding yourself, being born into a temple Your father is a Zen master and he sends you away to his disciple to get trained.

[19:02]

So he's a successor of his father's disciple. So he's his father's blood son and he's his father's Dharma grandson. I don't know very much about Śrīla Śrīla Śrīla's relationship with his father. And we do have a picture of Suzuki Roshi's father. And he looks quite a bit like Suzuki Roshi. But so far, anyway, we don't know too much about him, but maybe we'll find out more later. We do know more about Suzuki Roshi's Dharma teacher. Of course, his father was his teacher when he was young. And I think he was sent away from his father and his mother when he was 13, That's when he went to study with his Dharma teacher, Gyokujun Son. Gyokujun Son I don't think was particularly big, but he was very strong, physically strong.

[20:07]

And I had the general impression that he wasn't much of a scholar, but he was an archer. And they say that no one could even string his bows but him. I went to visit Gokujin Son's temple one time when I was in Japan with Suzuki Roshi's son. And in the temple they still have all his bows sitting against the wall in the priest quarters. So his father sent him to his disciple who was very strong and very strict. And as I say, I just get the general impression that he wasn't a well-known scholar. I've never heard anybody talk about Siddhartha Bhagavad Gita and so on, except people in our lineage. So when he was 13, he

[21:14]

He went to study with this teacher, and as I say, this teacher was strong and strict. And one of the famous stories about him is the story of the one time Siddhartha Kurukshetra and his Dharma brothers in the temple. I get the impression that there was about six or seven of them, young monks. they were served for breakfast rotten daikon and they didn't want to eat it so one of the clever boys decided to bury the daikon instead of eating it and I guess they all were in cahoots So the daikon was buried.

[22:21]

And then Gyokujin Soen, for some reason or other, went digging around the temple grounds that day, not too long after that, and just happened to dig up these daikon. And he took the daikon and washed them and cooked them again and served them to the boys a second time. This time they ate them. And Suzuki Roshi said that he had some deeper insight into the nature of food at that time. What's a daikon? What is it? Daikon is a pickle. It's like a large white radish, like almost, it can be bigger than, bigger than carrots sometimes. Related to carrots and ginseng.

[23:23]

Has a bland taste and it makes very good pickles because it absorbs, it absorbs a pickling influence. One of the most famous type of pickles that are made from Daikon is called Takuan. named after a famous Zen master named Takuan. Whether he developed the pickle or not, we don't know, but he's credited with this certain type of pickle called Takuan. He was also, this Takuan, was the person who tamed the great warrior, Musashi Minamoto. Minamoto Musashi. If you've ever seen the Samurai Trilogy, starring Toshiro Mifune, is the life of Minamoto Musashi. And the first part of the film is where Takuan, the Zen master Takuan, tames this ferocious kid, this murderous kid.

[24:32]

tames him, and then trains him, and then he becomes, well, he was already a great warrior, but he becomes somewhat a compassionate great warrior. And Thakwan said, actually, he said, we Zen priests should have the fierceness of these warriors, and those warriors should have the compassion of a Zen priest. We should learn from each other. Anyway, let's sidetrack on the takuan pickle. So Suzuki Roshi and his dharma brothers ate these pickles, and Suzuki Roshi had some insight about food on that occasion. And then when he told that story, at least one of the times he told that story, then he said, something about his teacher was strict and all his Dharma brothers ran away at some point little by little they all ran away from the teacher because he was so strict I think he said that that's my memory and he said I'm pretty sure he said this he said and I would have run away too

[26:04]

but I didn't know I could. So, I think, you know, in my mind, this is my interpretation of Suzuki Rishik and his lineage, is that it's a combination of many things, but I just start by mentioning, for now, it's a combination of Strictness and stupidity. Stupidity in the good sense of good stupidity. In the sense of being really innocent. Like not even being able to think that you could run away from your teacher. Like, being too dumb to think that you could be something other than this.

[27:09]

You know? Like, well, here we are. You know, this is it, right? And, like, that's about all you could think of. Isn't that stupid? And it's an important part of this lineage. The smart people, the smart boys, they were smart. They knew how to run away. So they were gone. I don't know what happened to them. Maybe they did great things, but anyway, they're not this lineage. This lineage is the people who... in the face of the strictness of the practice, can't quite... I mean, it doesn't occur to them that they could get away from the strictness of the practice, the strictness of, you know, dealing with what's coming up in their lives, like rotten pickles or whatever, you know, strict teachers, stuff like that. So, there's more to the lineage than that, but those are two important ingredients. strictness and a radical simplicity and acceptance of what's happening and almost like not being able to imagine anything else.

[28:16]

Now, his teacher, Suzuki Roshi's teacher, Gyoku Junso, also told him one time, for some reason, he said that Suzuki Roshi was going to become very ugly. Now, you can guess many reasons why he might have told Suzuki Roshi that. Like, maybe he thought Suzuki Roshi thought he was good looking. And maybe he saw Suzuki Roshi kind of like, you know, polishing his head or Or maybe he saw Suzuki Roshi one time like looking kind of fondly, adoringly in a mirror or something. I don't know why he said it, but anyway he did say it and Suzuki Roshi again was too stupid to think he was just like sort of poking at his arrogance or his vanity. So he kept, so then Suzuki Roshi started looking very carefully in the mirror all the time to see when he was going to start getting angry. And Suzuki Roshi's teacher's nickname for him was Cricket Cucumber.

[29:45]

Isn't that interesting? Cricket Cucumber. At least that's what Suzuki Roshi said. Maybe he didn't really say that, but that's what he told us. He told us that his teacher... Nicknamed him Crooked Cucumber. Did you think he had started to get ugly ever? Pardon? Did he ever think he did start to get ugly? When you knew him, did you think he was ever? I think so. He kept looking in the mirror, you know, to see when ugliness was going to hit. He kept looking and kept looking. And... He didn't say exactly that. I think I got this straight. He was like, well, I think he was walking through the woods or something one day, walking down a hill someplace one day, thinking about and worrying about, you know, when the ugliness was going to strike.

[30:56]

And I think something was hanging down from a tree or something, or something was hanging down from something, like a hook or something, and caught him in the eye. And it didn't poke his eye out, but it caught him in the eye and did injure him, just misplaced, doing damage to his eye. But it caught him, and he realized that he got injured because he was worried about it, because he was worried and thinking about losing his looks. So I think that was when he kind of like snapped out of it and stopped being concerned about it. As to his opinion of his own looks, well, I think he thought he was pretty good looking. Because he was. He was a pretty good looking guy, I'd say. And when he was old, I think we realized that, you know, maybe somebody wouldn't have thought he was cute, but we sure did.

[31:57]

But I think when he was young, he was just plain old good looking young man. Anyway, the point is, I think his teacher was pointing to some vanity thing, and I think he agreed. His teacher also pointed to that he had a problem with getting angry. He didn't have much patience. So that was something that he worked on, patience, his whole life. Of course, all Buddhists work on patience, but he said that that was something that he worked on a lot. He had a problem with that. And I hope to talk in more detail about his patience with suffering later. His father, when he was a father, he was a strict father.

[33:00]

And his son, whose name is also Suzuki Roshi, he lives in Japan and he has a pretty close relationship with Zen Center now. His son, whose name is Koitsu Suzuki, he was asked... I've heard this story from different angles. One of the angles I heard it from was somebody asked, him what his favorite thing was. This is Suzuki Roshi's son was asked, what was your favorite thing that you did when you were a kid? He said, well, my favorite thing was fishing. And the town that Suzuki Roshi and his family lived in was a fishing town. But this boy didn't go fishing. This young priest didn't go fishing in the ocean. He went fishing up in lakes and rivers up in the mountains behind the house. And one time he went with his little brother, who lives in San Francisco now, this little brother whose name is Otohiro Suzuki, and they caught some fish and they came back to the temple, the Zen temple, and they washed the fish, cleaned the fish, and fried the fish with some oil, soy sauce.

[34:27]

And then their father, Suzuki Roshi, came home and said, what's this? And they said, it's fish. And he took and he said, you boys live in a temple. This is a Buddhist temple. You can't catch fish and cook fish in this temple. You're children of a Buddha. You can't do that. You can't kill fish and you can't fry fish and eat fish. So he took the frying pan and the fish and threw it all into the woods. And said, no more fishing. And that was a sad thing for that boy. So there was a strict side to Suzuki Roshi sometimes that manifested that way. When Suzuki Roshi was still young, actually I'm stepping, that was ahead of schedule, but when he was still young, I don't know exactly how young, but pretty young.

[35:45]

Maybe he, he was 20 still, late 20s. His teacher died. Yokerji and so on. Was a very strong and strict teacher, but not a long-living teacher. So he died, and he... He suggested or asked the congregation of his temple to make his student, the one that was left, the head of that temple, which was called Rin Soin. Rin means forest and Soin means older brother. In means temple. But the congregation didn't like the idea to have such a young priest be the head of the temple.

[36:47]

And Suzuki Roshi said, well, if you don't like it, how about letting me just do it for one year? And then after one year, If you still want me to stop, I'll leave. So he was a priest for the temple for one year. And then after the year, he said, okay, do you want me to stop? And they said, no. So then he stayed. And he was then the head of the temple at a young age. And then After his teaching was finished around that time, he started to study with another teacher whose name was Kishizawa Iyan. Kishizawa Iyan was a person who was a very famous Zen teacher and a great scholar.

[37:52]

a scholar, and Suzuki Roshi studied with him from like his late 20s until that teacher died. So he studied from his late 20s until he was about 55. Suzuki Roshi from his late 20s to about 55, which would be from when this man was about 60 until this man was 90. So this guy lived a long time. And he was one of the most influential Zen teachers. In his generation, he was the most influential teacher, a Zen teacher, of our school, Sōtō school. And particularly the scholar in Shōbō Genzo, Dōgen Zenji's great work. So most of Suzuki Roshi's intellectual understanding of the teaching of Dōgen came from his second teacher, And in some sense, maybe his physical, basic dharma came from his father and his father's disciple.

[38:58]

So that's his lineage, his dharma lineage. But in terms of his intellectual understanding, Kishisau Iyan was very influential. And at some point in my life, I started to study Kishisau Iyan, translating him from Japanese to English. And I noticed as I studied Kishizawa Iyan that I could see Suzuki Roshi's, the way Suzuki Roshi talked about Zazen and Dogen Zenji was very much coming from Kishizawa Iyan. So you have a combination of Suzuki Roshi's teaching in America coming from this scholarly lineage and in a combination with this strict and kind of unswerving, no alternative kind of practice that he got from this teacher, those two together. Like, you eat what's served to you kind of practice in combination with this complex intellectual understanding of this huge teaching of Dogen Zenji.

[40:09]

Yes? What he was with Soda, actually, They so own. So own. Not so in. So own. So own, Rashi. And he used to be murdered when he was 12 years old. I think 13. 13. What did his education look like? What was his life like at the temple? Did he do Zazen all day? I think they did Zazen, but I think they also probably went begging. Ended up cleaning. He probably did cooking and probably did services, helped the teacher with services. That kind of thing. Probably did a lot of... I don't think they like fishing. I think the guy kept him busy. I think the teacher kept him busy. Later in his life, as he grew older, he would have been sent to high school and college, he was sent to high school and college, and this would be Buddhist high schools and Buddhist colleges where he would have gotten academic training in Buddhist studies that would not necessarily be given in a temple, and I think were not given in this temple.

[41:36]

Now, at Kishidao Iyan's temple, there would be, of course, it would be different. Kishidao Iyan was a scholar, so he was like, it was like being back in the university to be at his temple. But most temples aren't like that, so most sotras and priests, when they're young, get sent to colleges, Buddhist college. And the college they usually go to is Komazawa, which is in Tokyo. So he went to Komazawa, and he may have gone to some other... academic Buddhist training institutions too. But he did go, and we have pictures of him when he was in college with his college outfit that they all wear, the priests wear when they go to this Buddhist college. During this period that Zen went through a renaissance in Japan, was Suzuki's temple part of that renaissance or was that part of a different kind of renaissance? What are you referring to by the Zen renaissance?

[42:37]

Well, that they began to adopt more nationalistic views and to be more government supported and they became wealthier again. I wouldn't call that a renaissance. I would call that a degradation when they become nationalistic. But that's what I would say. I mean, I agree with you, but... Anyway, when did the temple start getting some support? Well, there was a change in Japan and then hierarchy attempted to align themselves more with the nationalistic governments. As I understand it, I wondered if his temple was part of that. Well, this is a very complex thing, but I would just say this, that part of what happened was that when the government, when the Meiji Restoration happened in 1868, there was kind of like almost a persecution of the Buddhist Church, and certainly no government support. So that hurt them.

[43:40]

But also, just generally speaking, there was the government looked down upon Buddhism, so it hurt Buddhism even beyond the lack of government support. But then gradually, the congregation started to recover and people started to find some other ways to support the temple than what they'd been used to. So there was a gradual recovery. And I think Shizukureishi's temple was part of that because Shizukureishi's temple was supported by lay people. And as they found new ways to support the temple, the temple did, you know, materially recover from its poverty. And just I might mention parenthetically that when I first went to Japan in 1974 to visit Shizukureishi's temple, it seemed kind of poor to me then Of course, after the war, of course, all the temples, everybody in Japan was poor, right? And that was when Suzuki Roshi was in his late 40s, early 50s, after the war. So everybody in Japan had a hard time then.

[44:42]

And gradually the Buddhist temples recovered, along with the rest of Japan. But I watched myself the affluence of Buddhist temples, just generally from 1974 to the last 20 years, I've seen all the Buddhist temples get much richer, but there was an earlier material improvement too. Maybe it's more the Rinzai school, but I think the question was the Soto school, and as involved with the... I think the Soto school was definitely involved with the government. As a matter of fact, it's a little off the track, but as a matter of fact, the Japanese army modeled its training on the training of the main temple of Soto Zen. But generally speaking, I think in terms of the whole Buddhist establishment in Japan, I've heard, and I'm repeating something I do not know about, but I've heard from Buddhist scholars in Japan that the Japanese Buddhist establishment, Zen and otherwise, basically they went along with the government when the government went to war in China and Manchuria, Korea.

[45:54]

Basically the Buddhist establishment, not all the priests, the leaders of the organizations, basically a lot of them supported the government. The material, you know, what do you call it, the corporate recovery thing, pretty much Buddhism went along with that. So there's some controversy or some questioning of the whole Buddhist movement in Japan as to how it went along with the imperialist fascism, imperialism. the emperor, the imperial imperialism, how it went along with that, and now how it goes along with the business movement in Japan. There is some question about that. It's just really how it must have been quite exciting at that time as it was growing, in which it would have been an art. Yeah. You know, I... Yeah, I... And I don't know that much about how he felt about that or what he did in response to all that.

[47:00]

Yes? During the period when the book was established and was out of favor, was there actual persecution or was it just more or less ignored? Well, I mean, there wasn't, like, heavy persecution, like burning temples or physically harming priests to any extent. It wasn't that bad. It was mostly just speaking probably in such a way as to not encourage people to practice Buddhism and giving no more government support. Before that, there was government support. The leaders of the Japanese government, the military leadership of the government, the government was led by warriors up until the Meiji Restoration. And the warrior class were Zen. And they supported, they built Zen temples and built Zen monasteries and were usually Zen students.

[48:05]

So the government, the warrior class gave a lot of support to Zen Buddhism until that time. And one interesting story is, I forgot what the, I'll just tell you, maybe I'll look it up. There was an interesting story about Kishizawa Iyan's teacher in relationship to the Meiji Restoration. I'll look it up when I get home. If you remind me, I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Okay, so I thought maybe now might be a good time to... Well, maybe just one more kind of like story kind of thing. And that is to say, and I want to say again, this is just my view of him, you know, from what I've been able to put together. This is just my perspective, okay?

[49:07]

This is not reality. These are just stories. But I think you might say that Suzuki Roshi wasn't a party animal. He wasn't like fun at parties. I went to Japan last fall and his wife, who is quite healthy now and living in Japan, told me that when he first came to America particularly, People would invite him to do memorial services and funerals. And then one of the ways in Japan that they do, and I guess in America too, one of the ways they reward the priest for doing a memorial service is they give him food and sake or some other kind of alcoholic beverages as a reward and money.

[50:21]

And they also often reward him with their company. But she said that Suzuki Rishi went and did the services and then would just kind of like, you know, not yuck it up much and not drink. And also often would leave without even taking the money that they offered him. to leave the donation too, forget about it. Now, some people think that's because he was forgetful, but anyway. Then, when his wife, the respectful word for wife is Oksan, when Oksan, Suzuki Oksan, came over from Japan, because he came over ahead of her from Japan, and she came over a few years later. When he came over, then they met her, you know, and... But she is kind of a party animal. She really does like to chat with people and drink and also collect the donations.

[51:29]

Whenever he did a memorial service after that, the people always said, well, bring your wife. She told me this story. Because she's a lot of fun. But he wasn't, you know, he wasn't, he's not that much fun at parties. He wasn't that much fun at parties. Sometimes people would force drinks on him, and when they weren't looking, he would pour them someplace. I'm not saying he never drank, because he sometimes did drink, but he wasn't that kind of guy most of the time. And also people would come over to the temple in Japan town where he first came, where we first had our Zen center. And Older people would come over particularly and try to get him to talk and drink with them. It wasn't that game for that stuff. It wasn't that game for it. And they didn't like it. It was not popular and lots of fun in that way. However, I would say, on the other hand, that from the point of view of the Americans and students, it was a lot of fun.

[52:30]

A lot of fun. A lot of fun to sit with. I mean, it was, like, lots of fun to sit with him. It was fun. It was, like, fun. It was, like... It was, like, you know, really neat to sit and meditate with him. It was, like, really fun to, like, work with him. Like, to clean and to move rocks, stuff like that. It was fun. And it was fun to, like, eat lunch with him. In the Zen, not each lunch, you know, like... in a bar, you know, with lots of drinking, but eat lunch in the kind of like Zen way. It was fun. It was fun. And it was fun to like listen to him. It was fun to listen to him teach. It was fun. It was like a lot of fun. That's my impression. I felt that way. Because one of the most fun things I ever did was do those things with him. But I actually went to some parties with him.

[53:32]

I didn't think it was that much fun either. That wasn't his thing, you know. I'm not saying that all Zen masters are not fun at parties, because some are. I've heard about some of them that are a lot of fun at parties. He wasn't one of that type. This is just one type of Zen master. They don't have to all be that way, but this is the kind he was. He was not that much fun. And being his disciple, I'm not either. So nobody invites me to parties, and I don't take it personally. I mean, I do take it personally. I know why you don't. I'm just not that much fun. And I'm not saying I am fun to sit with, but I do have fun sitting myself. So, you know, maybe you think it's fun when you're with me too. But anyway, that's the one thing I would like to say about him, that he was not that much fun. Also, when Oksan came, when his wife came over from Japan, Another thing he did was the Japanese congregation had been giving him, paying him for being their priest.

[54:38]

They gave him a check every month. But he never cashed them. So one of the first things they had the treasurer of the group ask him to do is to find the checks and cash them. So she searched through all his drawers and stuff and she found all these checks and cashed them. So, she's got things straightened up pretty fast. I wouldn't say exactly that Sukhārishī wasn't worldly or something, because he did... It's not that he was worldly, it's not that he was unworldly, but he did like things of the world, like ordinary, like very ordinary things of the world. Like he liked, you know, he liked rocks. He liked the work, he liked the clean. He liked to work with bodies, you know. He liked to speak. But not those other kinds of things so much, those party things. He wasn't interested in, you know, the fanciest, ritziest things.

[55:42]

And that may be because he was, you know, grew up kind of poor. So another thing about him, which, again, is kind of nice for me because I grew up kind of poor too, is that poor people, some poor people are not too wasteful. Some maybe are, but anyway, he would never would waste food. And whenever I went out to dinner with him and his wife, especially both of them, I would never order anything because he usually couldn't finish. He was a little guy. He usually couldn't finish his meal and neither could she usually. so that I would eat theirs, because they wouldn't want to waste anything, so I would be the garbage disposal. Which is fine for me. But I learned not to order something myself, because I'd have to eat three meals. Not to mention, if there were more people at the table, if they didn't finish theirs, I'd have to finish theirs too. So frugality was a little part of his... Again, it was part of his style.

[56:53]

It's generally part of traditional Zen styles, frugality, but it wouldn't have to be. I don't think you have to make Zen for sure that way, but it was his way to be frugal, not to be wasteful, to use, you know, to not use too much and to not waste. So... Now I'd like to give some kind of meditation instruction, basic meditation instruction of his style. So, to try to make it very simple, I guess I would say that Suzuki Roshi's central teaching, primary fundamental teaching and practice was Zazen. I mean, that was it. I mean, just straightforwardly, that was his practice, that was what he mainly taught.

[57:56]

And then, the other aspect, sort of the naturally part of that, or a natural outgrowth of that, was that he also taught and emphasized extending the extending Zazen into daily life. Those two things, the fundamental, traditional, formal, mind-body practice of Zazen, and what you know Zazen means sitting Zen, sitting meditation. That fundamental practice, that fundamental teaching, and then right along with it all the time, how to extend that into daily life. And in some ways, it's hard to say which he would emphasize most, because in some sense you emphasize zazen, but then you have to also make sure you don't go too long before you remember you have to extend it, it has to go into daily life.

[59:04]

This practice of sitting of just sitting and extending it into daily life, this was his way, this was his understanding of Buddha's way to be free of confusion and suffering. And not only for yourself, but with everyone you meet throughout your life, in formal situations and in all informal situations. That's basically, and that's why I say it's basically his teaching practice in life. In some ways, most of the conversion of people, most of the people who were touched by Suzuki Roshi, in a sense, were touched by the way he extended Zazen practice into daily life, because when he was sitting in the Zendo, just the people in the zendo there who were also interested in sitting they were the only ones who were touched directly at that time and there were quite a few like that but that was a limited group but then when he would just move out you know onto the street and into the variety of situations of the world that's when he touched people who wouldn't be interested in zazen at all but his understanding was he was extending zazen to these people

[60:37]

bringing Zazen into all the... Wherever he went, he was extending Zazen. He was extending... And what is Zazen? Well... In some ways... So Zazen means sitting Zen, you know, but we also sometimes say in Soto Zen, the Zazen of our school, or our Zazen, There's many kinds of zazen. In other words, there's many kinds of sitting in meditation or sitting zen, not just of our lineage. In our lineage, we call the emphasis in the sitting meditation, which doesn't mean just sitting meditation, but the emphasis in the meditation is expressed by the words, the Japanese words, shikantaza, which means just sitting meditation. So, there's many schools of Buddhism that practice so-called Zazen, sitting Zen or sitting in meditation.

[61:52]

But the special emphasis of his lineage, of the Sotra lineage, is that Zazen is just sitting. And just sitting means just to be yourself. He says that over and over and over. Our zazen practice is just to be ourselves. And that means just to be yourself, means just to be yourself and just to be yourself, period. Not even explanation mark, just period. Not even period, before you do the period. Just to be yourself. Just to be yourself. That means not period, not explanation mark, not question mark, just be yourself. That means without expecting anything. That means without expecting anything more. You just be yourself. This is the fundamental character of his teaching and practice.

[62:58]

Now, that connects with, which is the same thing, that connects with that when you sit down, when you are being yourself, when you are sitting where you are right now, that includes everything. Or put it the other way, when you sit, you have a feeling of including everything in your sitting. And that means everything, that means everybody. and you turn it the other way, then whatever you meet, any individual thing you meet, since your practice of just being yourself includes everything, then whenever you meet one thing, one person, one animal, one plant, one anything, one rock, that thing also includes everything.

[64:17]

And you bring that feeling of including everything to each thing. You bring, you give yourself completely to each thing. You bring all the warmth of your life to everything. But also everything means each of the individual things that make up everything. And that's how you extend the practice of just being yourself to all things. So you just be yourself including everything and then extending that whatever you meet you give yourself entirely to. You give all your life warmth to each thing. There's nothing that you don't give your complete devotion to because everything is your practice. Your practice includes everything therefore each thing is your practice. There's nobody and no thing that's not your life, that's not your practice.

[65:21]

This is called just being yourself. So that includes both totally being present and also this is how that presence gets extended into every aspect of your daily life. Every single solitary situation deserves your complete... giving, warmth, devotion, and attention. So this kind of giving is not just ordinary warmth and ordinary giving. It is a giving which expects nothing and is not just for this person and this person, but for every situation. So you don't then get warm with this person, but not with that person, or warm with this thing and not with that thing. Everything is your practice. This is like the heart, the core of this teaching, which applies to all situations.

[66:32]

And it not only applies to all situations, but it's how to apply the core to all situations, and how to have all situations be the core. And ultimately, this core, you see, this core of the practice, or this fundamental practice is really kind of like an attitude. It's an attitudinal thing. It's not really a thing you do. So this zazen is not something you can do. You can't do this. You can't do that you include everything. You can't do that you include everything. You can't do, I can't do, that everything in the universe is my life. I can't do that. But that is zazen. Zazen is that every one of you is my practice. And that my practice includes every one of you.

[67:39]

That's my practice. That's zazen. But I can't do that. That's not something I arranged. And that's not something I can stop. or start. So in that sense too, zazen is not something that you can do. So it's an attitude towards life. Zazen is, the basic meditation practice, is an attitude towards life that's not another kind of karma. It's not something you can do. And Suzuki Roshi would say, I don't know how many times he said it, but he said it a number of times to individuals who said, I do this, I do Zazen, I do Zazen. He would say sometimes, you do not do Zazen. You cannot do Zazen. He would say that. But it doesn't mean that you can't practice Zazen. You just practice Zazen not as another thing you do. In other words, practicing zazen is somehow to have the attitude, this kind of attitude of, I'm just being myself, that's all I can do, and that includes everything, but not because I'm any better than anybody else.

[68:54]

Everybody includes everything. And this kind of appreciation of our interdependence, that attitude towards life, is how you practice zazen. But you can't do that. You just appreciate that. and you don't do the appreciation. It's just you open your eyes to what's happened, and that's all. So his teaching about zazen and his practice of zazen was mostly about what attitude you have towards zazen, or what attitude you have towards meditation, what attitude you have towards practice, what attitude you have towards life. In other words, right attitude. What's the right attitude? That was his... And what's the right intention? And what's the right concentration? In other words, the Eightfold Path applies to everything you do. So we do things all day long, but Zazen is not another one of those things we do.

[69:59]

As I'm talking to you right now, Zazen is the fact that all of you are included in my speaking. And that my speaking is just for each one of you, and also that my life is each one of you. That attitude, while I'm speaking, not just makes my speaking into zazen, but my zazen is realized on the occasion of me speaking and thinking and moving my arms and hands in the air. Zazen is here if that attitude is here. However, in order to appreciate how this is all happening, And in that way, in order to realize zazen, it's good if I pay attention to the fact that I'm talking when I'm talking.

[71:08]

In other words, that I'm somewhere, that my awareness is somewhere around the area where I'm talking. Like in this room. and in this body, and listening to the sound of my voice. And also that I notice what I'm doing with my hands. The fingers are spread, you know, into this open-handed way of my palms towards my own face now, and now they're towards yours. That I'm present in my body. That I'm aware of my posture. So, it isn't exactly that zazen is to, like, be aware of your posture. But, in fact... Suzuki Roshi also taught, and many Zen people do teach, to be mindful of your body, and your breath, which is part of your body, and your voice, but usually in meditation we're not talking, and your thoughts and feelings, that you're mindful of all this. But this is also the case of whatever you're doing throughout the day, whether you're formally sitting in the meditation hall, or formally sitting in this room here,

[72:12]

Whatever you're doing, wherever you are, that you're mindful of your body, speech and mind. You're mindful of your body posture and your breathing. Only because they're happening. If somehow your body and mind were eliminated and something else was happening, then that's what you would be aware of. But it turns out that that doesn't usually happen, so we take care of this. But it's kind of like... And in that realm... of where there's body, speech, and mind, there is action. There is the dualistic world of thinking, I am a self, you're other, and I speak, and I talk. So in the dualistic realm, where I commit actions, in that realm, I do that. And I admit that. And I use that realm as an arena or a field or a realm to be mindful and present with body, breath, and thoughts and feelings.

[73:28]

And based on being present in that world which is going on anyway, it's not like in Zen we tell you, no, be a person who thinks in terms of karma. No. We come that way, we just admit that, Be mindful of that. And based on that, Zazen practice in a non-dualistic sense can be realized. This pure attitude of practice is based on the world where we think in terms of self and other and where we think in terms of what we can do So Suzuki Roshi did give instructions like postural instructions and instructions about being aware of breath and how to work with your thoughts while you're sitting or in daily life.

[74:40]

He did give instructions about that. But not too much. And as soon as he had some students who could do it for him, he stopped. He didn't like to give that instruction very often, partly because it was hard for him to keep track of, you know, right and left in English. So as soon as his disciples could do the Zazen instruction in terms of Zazen as doing something, then he had them do it. He gave them the karma of talking about Zazen in terms of karma So he could be pure and not have to talk about it anymore. So I'm going to talk a little bit about zazen, not zazen exactly, but the field of working with body, breath and mind a little bit as a basis for zazen, which is the beginner's instruction. and I'll try to restrain myself while I'm doing that from launching off into the big picture.

[75:53]

But I tell you beforehand that a lot of people give meditation instructions where you practice mindfulness of body, breath, and thought, which is fine. Because that kind of mindfulness is the foundation for what we call Suzuki Roshi's teaching on meditation. It is the foundation for it. But not everybody that gives instruction about mindfulness and concentration on posture and breathing, not everybody teaches this other kind of meditation practice. So, the unique, the unique aspect of Suzuki Roshi's teaching is what he taught based on those teachings. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? He wouldn't have had to teach traditional postures and so on.

[77:14]

He could have taught something else. It could have been motorcycle maintenance, right? It could have been cooking. It could have been standing on his head, or something like that. But it wasn't. It was these things. But it didn't have to be these things. But this is as good as any other for starters. Some of you are sitting in chairs, and some of you are sitting on the floor, some of you are sitting on couches, so the leg posture is going to be not going to be uniform, but basically try to sit now in such a way that you can, such that your hips

[78:44]

are higher than your knees. So if you wind up during this workshop or any time sitting in chairs, it's nice if you can sit in such a way in a chair that somehow your hips are a little higher than your knees, so that your thighs slant down. The main reason that this is recommended is it helps you settle your torso into your... into the base, the foundation of your pelvis and thighs, if your knees are lower than your... If your thighs slant down, your knees are lower than your pelvis.

[80:05]

And when you situate yourself on the ground like this, I think it's helpful to sit with a sense that you're sitting here, that you're getting ready for a long sit. Tonight's sit probably won't be very long, but... You're sitting as though you'd be ready if it was, ready for a long sit. One of the influences that Zen has had upon Japanese culture is that when Japanese people are about to do something, if they're aware that they're about to do something important, that they will first settle themselves beforehand, to be settled before the action.

[81:46]

But the literal expression there is to settle the lower back. So first of all, you settle your legs, your feet, your pelvis. It's the foundation. Next, you settle your lower back. And we say settle the lower back, but the way to settle the lower back is actually to settle your lower front. In other words, to feel present in your abdomen. And in particular, feel present in your abdomen below your navel. Try to feel some presence there. Some fullness and roundness in the area below your navel. and see if you can set up some kind of like dialogue between this feeling of fullness in the front under your navel and throughout your abdomen and your lower back being settled, like feel your lower back settle into that space

[83:12]

feel your lower back settle into the center of your pelvic area. And then And then the spine, the rest of the spine naturally rises up out of this very full presence there down low. Your lower back and lower abdomen. You're very present there. Now the spine just naturally rises up out of there. All the way up through your back, neck, up into your head. And your head is on top of this very well-balanced spine. Feel it all the way to the top of the crown of your head.

[84:19]

Again, I prefer to feel this and be this way without a sense of doing this. But anyway, to some extent, this is the This is a good ground or field in which to be. If you've got a body, this is a good way to be with it. This is not something that I'm forcing myself into. This is a way actually for me to be comfortable with the fact that I've got a body. To be comfortable and yet... To be comfortable and to be fully with myself.

[85:24]

I feel really like I'm here. And I'm comfortable with that. And I'm willing to be this body. And I don't make any particular effort in my shoulders, but I also try to have them just be in a position which is generally in line with my ears. But again, the emphasis is not so much to put him there, like to be someplace, but to have him there as a likely place to feel present in my shoulders and to let my shoulders just relax and almost like drop off.

[86:28]

Drop off backwards. almost like letting the shoulders waterfall down your back. And we have the eyes open, either, you know, generally speaking, comfortably, at a comfortable angle, looking down about 45 degrees. They can be open wider than that. It's all right if you want to. or a little less than that, if you want to. But generally speaking, open like you see in Buddha statues. I think maybe if you ever looked at a Buddha statue, you almost never find them with the eyes shut.

[87:31]

And they're almost never really wide open either. So basically, the feeling is not exactly copying Buddha, but that you're sitting with the presence of a greatly enlightened being. You're making a body like a Buddha. The back of your neck is lengthened with vertically. Make it long vertically and wide horizontally. See, you can find the balance between the long back of the neck and the wide back of the neck. What's the balance between those two? The widest neck and the longest neck.

[88:39]

Eyes open. And breathing through the nose. Breathing quietly through the nose. And the hand mudra. Just for starters, suggesting that you place your right hand with the palm up against your abdomen, below the navel, kind of in the center of that round, full presence that you have down there. And place your right hand on top of your left. Bring the thumbs together to make a beautiful oval, a beautiful ellipse. arms are held a little bit away from the body so that you could fit a chicken egg under your armpit.

[89:55]

So there's plenty of room for your side ribs to expand as you breathe. So now you have this deep presence in your lower abdomen and lower back. Very settled there. Nice round space. The spine coming up out of there. And the whole torso is like big round cylinders. And then the breathing. Again, we don't tell you to breathe.

[91:02]

This is just something that you're doing. Again, it's a helpful foundation for the practice of being yourself, is to be aware

[91:35]

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