This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good evening everyone. Welcome to our Zoom evening together. Nice to see you wherever you are. I hope you are well. Those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area are enjoying some more welcome rain. I want to thank Matt for hosting this Zoom experience. I suspected, as is the case, that this would be a small, intimate group tonight. Thank you for forgoing your holiday activities to be here. I know this is a busy time of the year. Without you, there would be no talk. I'm just going to Take a quick look at the gallery and see my friends.

[01:02]

For those of you who are new to Zen Center, I'm going to apologize a little bit about this lecture since I suspected this would be mostly Zen Center folks, which is what it is on Wednesday night. And it would be a small group. I thought I would talk a little bit about Suzuki Hiroshi, who is the founder of Zen Center. And this is partly prompted by the fact that I've been recently reading through a group of talks that were recovered and restored that had been lost for over 50 years. And it's wonderful to listen to Suzuki Roshi's voice. And some of these talks are absolutely wonderful. And in January, David Shundohei and I will be holding a four week class on four of these talks. So I've been listening to them and reminiscing about Suzuki Roshi and You know, he was my original teacher, and so he really shaped my practice. And also, it turned out that December 4th of this month, this month was the 50th anniversary of Sri Kershi's death.

[02:11]

So I think tonight I'll celebrate his life and teaching by talking a little bit about one of these four newly discovered talks. Actually, when I sat down to write this talk, I thought, well, I'll take the jewel from all four of them. After a while, I realize that would be too much for you and way too much for me. So I'll save the four talks for the classes that Shindo and I will leave in January and just talk a little bit about one of them, one of his famous talks called Beginner's Mind. And I'll share a sense of, hopefully through this process, a little of his style and approach to Zen. And I express my appreciation for him. So Suzuki Roshi arrived in San Francisco in 1959, but it wasn't until 1965 that any of his talks began being recorded. In 65, Suzuki Roshi was traveling to Marion Derby's home in Los Altos to sit with a group of students.

[03:16]

She began recording his talks, and these recordings became the content for Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. These four talks that I mentioned that were recently recovered were from her home in 1965. I'll just list the four talks. One is called Beginner's Mind, which was done on November 11, 1965, which became the prologue for Zen Mind Beginner's Mind and had been lost for 50 years. Wisdom Seeks for Wisdom was recorded on July 22, 1965, and is the earliest recorded talk we have of him lecturing. And Calmness, which was in August of 65, which is a chapter in the section Right Understanding of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, also recorded there. And Study Yourself, which is another chapter of Right Attitude in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, was in 1965. And I was listening to these talks, and I realized how much Dogen is in them. For those of you who don't know, Dogen is the 13th century founder of Soto Zen in Japan and is...

[04:23]

sort of the head person in our lineage. And I remembered that his first translation of Dogen into English was done in 1965 by Kaz Tanahashi and Robert Aiken in Hawaii. And it was a translation of the Genjo Koan, a foundation essay of Dogens, which was circulating around Zen Center, I think, in 66 and 67. And I kind of wondered if there was some connection between Kaz's translation of Dogen and And Dogen showing up in Suzuki Kershi's lectures. I hope some of you know Kaz. He's been associated with Zen Center since 1960. He's been working with Zen Center on translating Dogen's Treasury, The True Dharma Eye, his most influential work. And it was published in 2010. You'll have seen his ensos around Zen Center. Anyway, I came across an interview that David Chadwick had with Kaz about when he first... came to Zen Center in 1964 and met Suzuki Roshi.

[05:26]

And quoting from Kaz about Suzuki said, one time I said, what do you teach? What kind of text? And Suzuki Roshi said, the Blue Cliff Record. I said, why not Dogen? He said, Dogen is too difficult for American students. So I said, if you are teaching foreign students, you should present your best. And Dogen is the best. It doesn't matter if your students don't understand. That was Kaz's comment. And I look back at the earliest transcribed lectures we have as a Zizu Kiroshi. And we have them from 1961 through 1965. They weren't recorded. They were just transcribed by people listening to them. And they were all presentations of koans from the Blue Cliff Record. I'm not quite sure why Suzuki Roshi thought these were not difficult. I've been studying koans for decades, and I still find them challenging.

[06:29]

But anyway, for Suzuki Roshi, he thought Dogen was much more challenging than the koans, so that's what he had been presenting for three or four years. That was back when we didn't have all these wonderful translations of the Blue Cliff Record with all the commentaries on them. And you'll be happy to know that Zen Center is editing all of these lectures of the Blue Cliff Record lectures he gave, and in addition to some other lectures on precepts, is going to come out with a new book. I don't know when it's actually coming out, but I've been looking at drafts of it. I think you'll all enjoy getting to see that. But anyway, maybe as a part of Kaz's suggestion, Suzuki Roshi started lecturing on Dogen. in 1965, and these four lectures represent that. And also in 1966, he did a whole series of lectures on the Genzo Koan.

[07:29]

And I've always sort of loved this comment from Kaz saying, when I read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, I could see it's Shobo Genzo in very plain, simple language based on a solid understanding. Richard Baker told me later that Kishizawa decided to train Suzuki at the last part of his life, and Kishizawa was the foremost scholar of Shogo Genso of his time. So I think it's really wonderful that this, and we, most of us all, have studied a lot of Dogen by now because we've had these wonderful translations of the Shogo Genso, but Suzuki Roshi was able to really pass on the depth and insight of Dogen in his 17-minute lectures to a group of absolute beginners, lay people, at Marian Derby's home in Los Altos in 1965.

[08:34]

And we have captured them in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a true treasure. And I was talking about this with my... my teacher, Lou Richmond, and good Dharma friend, about the fact that Suzuki Roshi was willing to really put forward this real deep teachings, even though we wouldn't get it, but he believed that we would catch it eventually. And to use a baseball metaphor, Suzuki Roshi would throw us a long ball with the confidence that maybe... five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years later, we would get it. I was talking with a student this morning who is like me, read then Beginner's Mind for 40 years. And he said he opened the book up and read a particular section. And finally, he really understood what Suzuki Hiroshi was talking about in that particular essay.

[09:37]

And I find that often the case when I read these. So I'm going to, you know, take a few excerpts from this one lecture called Beginner's Mind, which was the prologue for our book Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. But I'm going to be reading from the transcript of the actual talk he gave. So it's not going to flow like the edited version that you see in Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. We'll study maybe the difference between those two when we go through it in January. So here's the first quote. In the beginner's mind, we have many possibilities, but in expert mind, there is not so much possibility. So in our practice, it is important to resume our original mind, our inmost mind, which we ourselves, even we ourselves, do not know what it is. So I love that paragraph.

[10:38]

In the edited version, you know, the prologue to Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, that first sentence go, in the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind, there are few. And that has become basically probably one of the most well-known slogans in Zen. It's practically synonymous with Zen. You know, what's Zen? A Zen mind is a beginner's mind. It's easy to remember. to the extent that we know what a beginner's mind is, but still much easier than something very not understandable. I'm going to go to the next sentence, you know, later, but I also really loved it. Like he said, we ourselves, even we ourselves do not know what it is. So in our practice, it is important to resume our original mind. or our innermost mind, which we ourselves, even we ourselves do not know what it is. So beautiful. We're talking about a mind, a quality of mind, a mind that we have, but we don't know what it is.

[11:44]

We can't grasp it. We can't know it. And yet it is expression. He's talking about expressing something here. When Tsukiroshi goes on, he says, Beginner's mind, it means our experience should always be refreshed and renewed. It means always having the joy of discovering something, the same joy as children discovering something new. Well, that makes sense to us. When we think of a beginner's mind, we think of a mind that is refreshed and renewed. But I like that where he says, always have the joy of discovering something. No, it's a mind of curiosity. Like a child discovering something. If we can remember back when we were very young and the world was a great curiosity to us. So when we are curious and open, we can connect to whatever is happening in ourselves and in other people.

[12:51]

But actually, we're not so curious about parts of ourselves. Oh, I don't really like that too much. I think I'll ignore that. And we're not so curious about other people. I don't think I like that so much. I don't think I'm going to pay. But Suzuki Roshi had this tremendous curiosity about life. And he says, and that brought great joy of discovering something. It's an inquiring mind, a ready mind. But in addition, he says it's an inmost mind. an original mind, as if this beginner's mind is something we already have, something already in us. It's like our natural state is this beginner's mind. I mean, in many other lectures, he uses the term big mind instead of small mind, you know, our small mind where we all of a sudden are captured in our thoughts and the whole world narrows around us.

[13:57]

This is a a bigger mind in which the whole world is boundless. Siguroshi was, you know, a living example of that mind. To be with him was to feel his immediacy. You know, as I was saying, since I was thinking about this being his 50th anniversary of his memorial, I looked up... what Trungpa had said in his memorial, because I always liked a couple of statements he meant. He said, Roshi's style shines through as part of the living lineage of Dogen Zenji. It is the direct experience of living Zen. When I first met Suzuki, I thought, wow, this is Zen. His life is what Zen is. I want that. I want to learn what that's about. And Trungpa went on and said, all his gestures... and communications were naked and to the point as though you were dealing with the burning tip of an incense stick.

[15:02]

Isn't that great? As if you were dealing with a burning tip of an insect stick. I remember the first time I was sitting in the zendo at Tasara and, you know, I just arrived there that day and gotten zazen instruction. And I was sitting in the Zendo and Tsukiroshi got up. I didn't know what he was doing. He said, I'd been instructed, if somebody comes by to hit you, put your hands in a certain place. And he came by and he hit everybody with the stick. And it was like so crisp, so connected to you, sort of just so woke you up. Anyway, Trungpa goes on. At the same time, this was by no means irritating, for whatever happened around the situation was quite accommodating. So even though he had this sort of, one would call it intensity, it was very comfortable because he was so appropriate to the situation, so in touch with, somehow so in tune with what was happening around the situation.

[16:19]

Trump, I'll use a situation, but when you were with him, if you were able... fortunate enough to be with him alone. He was so in touch with you. You felt, oh, this person is touching me, connecting to me like no one ever else has. I'm sort of carrying on a little bit just as a way of memorializing him. And another way to talk about Suzuki Roshi, which is... you know, basically shows Trudy Dixon's tremendous love for him. In her introduction to Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, she put it this way. His whole being testifies to what it means to live in the reality of the moment. His whole being testifies to what it means to live in the reality of the moment. The result of this and the terms of the quality of his life are extraordinary. Buoyancy, vigor, straightforwardness, simplicity, humility, serenity. joyousness, uncanny perspicacity, and unfathomable compassion.

[17:26]

I always like that part, uncanny perspicacity. He kind of got it. Trungpa sort of finished with two comments about Suzuki was my accidental father, presented a surprise from America, the land of confusion. It was amazing that such a compassionate person existed in the midst of so much aggression and passion. It was a crazy time in America in the 1960s and early 70s. He goes on, his positive vision of American Buddhism is one of the most powerful and creative messages that the American spiritual scene has heard. So a little sort of about Suzuki Roshi on his 50th anniversary. So to return to the more practical, how do we manifest this beginner's mind?

[18:36]

It's through Zazen, the gift that Suzuki Roshi brought us and taught us. he created Tassara and City Center as a place to practice Zazen. The reason he created Tassara was so we could hold 90-day practice periods, a chance to intensify our practice and find our beginner's mind. And anyone who is fortunate enough to arrange their life to live there for a practice period, I would recommend doing it. It's difficult to do, but I would recommend doing it. And for those who have, And certainly appreciate the fact that Suzuki Roshi founded really the first practice place outside of Asia that could carry on a 90-day practice period. On the other hand, for most of us living busy lives, how do we build practice into it? And I have my kind of daily formula for recommendation.

[19:45]

Practice daily zazen. Because we are locating ourselves on the fact of being alive when we're sitting, which is so much more important than the other things that are going on, you step out of the person that you are into life flow. When we sit zazen, we're able to experience just being. Even though the very many different roles we play run through our heads, we don't grab onto them or believe them. As Dogen would say, drop body and mind. Just sitting some every day locates us in the most important aspect of ourselves. That we exist versus the different ways in which we exist. So to resume our boundless original mind, that's the understanding of Zazen. Not to meditate or understand something, but to resume the boundless original mind.

[20:46]

Just to sit and give ourselves to our practice is to resume our boundless original mind. So that's step one. Even if you're living a busy daily life, if you can sit just a little bit every day and get in touch with that. My other recommendation is that you meet weekly with a sangha for some encouragement. Find some place where you can share your practice with a sangha so that it's easy to forget your practice and having a sangha that you can relate to maybe once a week can encourage that. I recommend the other thing that you should bring, if you can, practice into your daily life. And that's through a practice of, we say, practice of zazen during the day, but mindfulness is the term people are using now. And there's a simple acronym to remember what that is, which is RAIN, R-A-I-N.

[21:50]

R for recognize your state of mind. Name it. Know it. Know this is anger. Don't be embarrassed. Allow it to be there. Don't push it away or deny it. Okay, I'm angry. So that's recognizing it. And the next thing is that you accept it or allow it. Let it be there. Let it be part of who you are. And the I of rain is investigate. What does anger look like? What are the feelings associated with it? What does it feel like in the body? And then the last part is not to identify. It doesn't define me. It's important, but it's not all of me. So bringing mindfulness into our everyday life, instead of fighting our state of mind or moping about it, we can get interested in it. We can become curious about it.

[22:53]

Life is short. We should be present with whatever is happening, even if it isn't anything we planned on. So getting back to this essay on beginner's mind, there's a place where he says the beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When your mind is compassionate, it is boundless. Isn't that wonderful? He's sort of saying this beginner's mind, if we can figure out what it is, if we can get in touch with this innermost original mind, it is the mind of compassion. It's the mind that is actually connected with everything. It's the mind that brings compassion. compassion into your life. You know, Trudy had mentioned how moved she was by Suzuki Roshi's compassionate way, and certainly I was, and everybody mostly that I knew at Kassara was.

[23:57]

It was amazing that Suzuki Roshi could care for that many people. It's hard enough, I think, for any of us to care that deeply for one person. I was going to tell a story. I've told it before, but I probably will tell it again just because it was so memorable to me. And obviously, some of you people haven't heard this story. So I was at Tassar, and this was early on when I was just a guest student there. And apparently, Zuckersh had been very strict with the staff in a staff meeting he'd had with them. And And so at the lecture that evening, he said, I'm just going to get, he just gave a short lecture and said, I'm going to open it up to you because I think some of you probably have some questions.

[25:02]

Because apparently he had been kind of angry with them or strict with them, maybe would be the better way to put it. And I think it was the director put up his hand and said, Tsukiroshi, I just, you know, find it so difficult, you know. Apparently what had happened is the staff was, you know, complaining about this, probably complaining about the guest students, complaining about the guests, complaining about, you know, all kinds of things. And the student said, I just, you know, I've been practicing for five years and I just find it hard for me to be, you know, kind with people. And Sigurushi sort of, I think almost in a very strong way said, you know, Five years is nothing. You don't know how hard it is to love some people. And the way it came across in that room that night when I was sitting there and realizing that, you know, he loved me. As far as I knew, he had somehow managed to reach out and love everyone else in that room.

[26:07]

And yeah, you don't know how hard it is to do that. Five years of Zen practice is nothing if that's what you want to do, if you want to actually try to be compassionate and love everyone you meet. So a little story about the beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. So moving on to another part of this lecture. He goes on to say. This is the most important thing for us. The founder of our school emphasized this point. We must remain always with beginner's mind. This is the secret of Zen and the secret of various practices. The practice of flower arrangement, the practice of Japanese singing and various arts. If we keep our beginner's mind, we keep our precepts. What? All of a sudden we went from a beginner's mind, the mind of compassion, to keeping our precepts?

[27:12]

That's an interesting twist or kind of transition in this lecture. And he goes on, when your mind becomes demanding, when you long for something, you will end up violating your own precepts, not to kill, not to tell lies, not to steal, not to be immoral, and so forth. So if you keep your original mind, the precepts will keep themselves. You know, it's kind of... counterintuitive, normally we think of precepts as, you know, these 10 prohibitions, you know, we've got to, we all got to keep track of ourselves to make sure we don't do this or we don't do that and don't, you know, hurt people or lie or steal. Or if we look at it on the other side, we should, there, the precepts are, the opposite side is acts of, you know, being, instead of lying, you tell the truth. And instead of killing, you make life You promote life, you know, but even the compassion side sort of sounds like some kind of effort and work.

[28:15]

And but what he's saying is if you can get in touch with your beginner's mind, if you can become. Find that as part of your daily moment by moment living, then the precepts will you'll automatically live an ethical life. Which I think is, you know, kind of. makes life simple. Let's all just have beginner's mind, be compassionate and live an ethical life. So I want to end this lecture a little early so we get a chance to have a little bit of conversation. So the last paragraph of this transcription was, Sikharishi said, I was very impressed by your practice this morning. Although your posture was not perfect, but the feeling you have here is wonderful.

[29:17]

There is no comparison to it. At the same time, we should make our effort to keep this feeling forever in our practice. I just thought this is so wonderfully encouraging. He's so impressed by your practice. He's a bunch of crazy Americans. Although your posture was not perfect. I mean, he knew what perfect posture was. He was trained at a Heiji, a training temple established by Dogen in the 13th century. I've been there. Their posture is good. When they do service, you've seen service being done. I mean, but for Suzuki Roshi, he... He could feel our effort and the feeling of our, we believe zazen would work, would help us. And that feeling, he said, was wonderful. So such a wonderful comment for him to make.

[30:20]

Thank you. And, you know, just to transition back again to my thinking about his memorial, I read the transcript of the last meeting Suzuki had with his disciples on October 9th, 1971, and they recorded it. It's actually very short, but this paragraph I pulled out. He said, I have been doing what I wanted to do, so you shouldn't feel to do, you know, exactly what I did, you know. You shouldn't try to do, you know, exactly what I did, you know. So you may be free to do, to develop your own way, you know, exactly what people want you to do. That is bodhisattva idea. If they want you to be a beggar, you should beg. He laughs. That is the spirit, I mean. I want you to... That is the main point.

[31:22]

If you do not lose that point, the bodhisattva... feeling all the bodhisattvas will be with you. So I kind of think the lure of Zen Center has always been that Suzuki Roshi carried attention within him. He was faithful to the Soto tradition. He wore his robes. He transmitted the rituals very carefully. He was conservative in that sense. But at the same time, he wanted Zen Center to be independent of Japanese Soto establishment. He wanted Zen Center to find its own way. And he was attentive to our needs and to the spirit of the Western students. And so this tension between the traditional and the modern, the East and the West, has been there from the beginning of Zen Center. It's very conservative and yet open and not conservative at the same time. This feeling is still with Zen Center, and I feel it is our challenge, and I feel Tsukurushi freed us to work with that tension between holding this marvelous tradition that he brought to us beautifully and his capacity to be open and adjusted.

[32:42]

Oh, men and women want to practice together in a training monastery? Let's do it. That kind of willingness to experiment and respond to the requests, of the students he had. And I think that same request is kind of coming anew to us now in America. And I look forward to practicing with all of you and finding our particular solution to holding the beautiful tradition that we've inherited and adapting it to the times as they are now. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[33:45]

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