December

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sharing David & Linda Silva's holiday card

Exposed: the seven great medical myths - thanks to Kelly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the ancient esoteric Japanese: Hudabuda yudabuda detsudabuda.

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

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

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

November

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

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

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

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

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

By Dainin Katagiri

Shambhala link

click thumbnail to enlarge     SFZC Bookstore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

both those from Taigen.

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

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

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

I say sure - do it. Send or link to something to read to Ananda. We've done it before, let's do it again. Send to dchad3[at]sonic[dot]net - DC

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

Later meditator - DC

October

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don't forget Burma.

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

And happy birthday Elin!

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

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

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

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

10-15-07 - In eleven days I'm giving a talk in St. Louis at Washington University on Zen and Mindfulness. What should I say? What can be said about... what are we talking about? oh yes - mindfulness. What do you think? I've misplaced my notes and am dizzy from just having banged my head on a low beam and aching from having tripped over my own feet which led to a nasty tumble. Mindfulness? Huh? Help. Write me now at <dchad3[at]sonic[dot]net>, share your thoughts and save me from the humiliation of staring at the eager assembly, mouth agape, occasionally mumbling "Duh." - DC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A poem for Niels by Steve Tipton

A poem for Niels by William Benz

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

Happy birthday to Kelroy Chadwick (1903-1956).

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

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

10-09-07 - Today Shambhala Publications releases

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

ZIRH home page   -   ZIRH and the Colbert Challenge

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

Praise for this book in its former incarnation.

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

Comments on Kristol's article from Mahablog

See the Burma Crisis info and action page.

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

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

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

ZIRH and the Colbert Challenge - reissued today.

ZIRH pub date is October 9th

ZIRH home page

click thumbnail to enlarge cover

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

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

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

Click on thumbnail to enlarge cover.

 ZIRH and the Colbert Challenge

Off to Scotland today.  This is where to.

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

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

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

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

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

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

September

9-30-07 - Happy 50th CBA!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interviews and more with Niels Holm

go to his Care Page

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back soon. - DC

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

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

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

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

Update on Niels Holm's condition

Happy birthday sister Susan! In Family

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

click thumbnail to enlarge

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

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

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

Adding it to the Iran Attack page.

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

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

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

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

hit thumbnail to enlarge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August

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

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

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

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

Email interview with Lynn Hennelly (Hesselbart).

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

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

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

And here's Dragon Mountain Temple's fall schedule

More from AM on Thomas Kelly and Maggie and his photos

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

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

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

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

GENE DESMIDT sends  A Picture and a Poem

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

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

This is one for the It IS Happening Here page.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dchad Misc - my schedule for the coming months.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CurrentEvents\EngagedBuddhism  - all is lost

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

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

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

Thursday, August 2, 2007 -

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

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

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

Some family photos of DC et al

July 

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

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

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

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

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

Books by Norman Fischer - updated a bit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

reviews, links

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

IMPEACH 'EM BOTH NOW           Try this

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

IMPEACH 'EM BOTH NOW

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 7th Buddhist service for Maggie Kress in Colorado

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

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

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

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

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

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

7-06-07 - check out
 

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




2006 photo by Jim Nichols

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

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

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

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

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


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

click on thumbnail to see ACLU decriminalization ad
 

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

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

Please help to make it as complete as can be.

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

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

photo by Don Deangelo

June

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

Paul's website
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

See cuke.com interview with Maggie Kress.

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

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

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

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

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

Loring Palmer's Memories of Jack Van Allen

Photos of Jack's recent ordination by Gempo Merzel

Report on Annapurna's Amitabha Puja.

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

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

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


click on thumbnail to enlarge

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

Thank You and OK! home page here on cuke
 

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

Digressions   -   A reminder about Julian Beever - so amazing.

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

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

Pearls says exactly how I feel - DC

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

Professionally transcribed by AlanKelly VerbatimIT

 

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

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

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

A Wonderful Blog for Annapurna - much more than here

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

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

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