Cuke Audio Podcast

Rinso Ed Sattizahn first came to the SF Zen Center in 1970, had a few memorable experiences with Shunryu Suzuki, and returned in 1972. He lived at Tassajara for years, was VP and president of the SFZC, went into the high tech world for over seventeen years, returned to the SF Bay area, got ordained, co-founded Vimala Sangha in Mill Valley with Lew Richmond, was a co-abbot then center abbot of the SFZC for nine years. In this podcast he talks about that and much more.

Kelly Chadwick talks about a week spent at Tassajara in April trimming and removing trees with a crew from his Spirit Pruners biz in Spokane, WA. He was a podcast guest last year after doing the same at Tassajara. He's got new insights to share about Tassajara where he spent a lot of time growing up. Full disclosure--he's my son. - DC

Ben Van Overmeire is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Duke Kunshan University. His research focuses on the study of Zen Buddhist texts. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include ethics and leadership, global China studies, religion and literature. Van Overmeire has a B.A. (cum laude) and M.A. He wrote American Koan: Imagining Zen and Self in Autobiographical Literature. In this podcast we talk about his book (which features my Thank You and OK!)  and how his path has taken him from his native Belgium through the US and to China. - dc

Furyu Nancy Schroeder came to the SF Zen Center in the seventies. She was the abbess of Green Gulch Farm from 2014 to 2023

and has been an active supporter of programs for children, people of color, the gay and lesbian community, and the interfaith community. In 2008 she was elected to the Marin Women's Hall of Fame, and in 2010 she was appointed to the Board of the Marin Community Foundation. In addition, she has previously co-led SF Zen Center's Contemplative Caregiver Course. She received Dharma Transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1999. That's from the SFZC bio on h...

Sokaku Kathie Fischer began practicing Zen in 1971 with Sojun Mel Weitsman at the Berkeley Zen Center. She was ordained a Zen priest at San Francisco Zen Center in 1980 by Zentatsu Richard Baker, and continued residential practice at Zen Center for 15 more years. She received Dharma transmission from Sojun Weitsman in 2011 while in the midst of her 28-year career as a school teacher in Mill Valley. Since retiring from teaching science to adolescents she has turned her attention to studying and teaching Dharma. Kathie and her husband Norman are parents of adult twin sons and grandparents of three children.. That's...

Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler is the abbot of Green Gulch Farm as a co-abbot of the SF Zen Center. In the podcast he talks about Becoming Yourself, an upcoming book of Shunryu Suzuki lectures that he worked on with Mel Weitsman. First he talks briefly about Nicole Baden and Richard Baker's recent stay at the City Center and Green Gulch and Baker's stroke of a week ago. He reads selections from Becoming Yourself: Teachings on the Zen Way of Life and we talk about that and more. Most enjoyable. 

Barbara Horn came to the SFZC in the mid seventies, practiced Insight Meditation with Jack Kornfield at Barr, Mass., studied cooking with Julia Childs, got a graduate degree in mediation and interfaith chaplaincy. She volunteered for the 911 rescue and recovery effort and founded Calling of the Names - callingofthenames.org. Listen to this podcast and learn more about this energetic and benevolent woman.

Tatsudo Nicole Baden is a Dharma Successor of Zentatsu Baker in the Dharma Sangha Soto Zen Lineage. Last September Richard Baker passed on the abbotship of Dharma Sangha in Germany and the US to Nicole. In this podcast she will be talking about the Launch of the Dharma Academy with a free and open event on the weekend of May 23-25--Engaging the Heart of Wisdom and Pathways for Meeting Uncertainty. Participating dharma teachers include Zentatsu Richard Baker, Joan Halifax, Jiryu Rutschuman-Byler, Valerie Brown, Ryuten Paul Rosenblum, Rahshaana Green, Sarabinh Levy-Brightman, Ravi Welch, Lien Shutt, and Tatsudo Nicole Baden...

Jean Ross began studying with Shunryu Suzuki very soon after he arrived in San Francisco. In this podcast, the second of two on her, I read more from her accounts in the Wind Bell publication of the SFZC about her experience studying Zen in Japan in the early sixties - and more. The podcast concludes with a piece I wrote about her for the Wind Bell in 1997.

Jean Ross began studying with Shunryu Suzuki very soon after he arrived in San Francisco. In this podcast, the first of two on her, I read from what's in Crooked Cucumber and what she wrote about her experience studying Zen in Japan in the early sixties - at Eiheiji, Sojiji, and more.

Wendy Pirsig was for thirty years an archivist and writer featuring extensive web-based history for small Old Berwick Historical Society's Counting House Museum in Maine. She's a student of Myozen Joan Amaral at the Zen Center North Shore in Beverly, Massachusetts. She's done extensive work for Cuke Archives working on verbatim and minimum edit Shunryu Suzuki lectures and carefully scrutinizing DC writings and making sage suggestions. A few years ago she compiled and edited a posthumously published a book of her late husband Robert Pirsig's works: On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings. See more at cu...

Ryuko Laura Burges is a lay entrusted Dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, teaches classes and lectures and leads retreats in Northern California. - that's from her SFZC bio. In this, her 3rd podcast, Laura tells a story from her latest book: Wisdom Stories of Tibet: Tales of Magic, Adventure, and Bravery. She also tells a Tassajara story and talks about her book on Recovery.

Andy Karr began his formal Buddhist practice in 1971 at the SF Zen Center with Shunryu Suzuki after having devoured Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind many times. In early 1972 he began studying with Chogyam Trungpa. He has written three books, the latest one being Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey Through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality. He has been teaching Tibetan Buddhism for years focusing on clearly understanding Mahamudra, Yogachara, Madhyamaka, and so forth. Learn more about him and his teaching at andykarrauthor.com 

Neil Needs a Nudge - Tyson on Religion Stuck in the Literal - The title says it all. I rap on that some more and urge him to talk with me about this topic - not that there wouldn't be a zillion others more qualitied - but I'm asking and could suggest a  broader approach so that his audience isn't misled.

Sarah Wormald was a diver who wrote Diving in Indonesia: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Best Dive Spots: Bali, Komodo, Sulawesi, Papua, and more. This podcast is a replay of two podcasts that Sarah did with me. Farewell Sarah. Sorry you died so young--at 44. We will miss you. Love, DC

Was it a bunch of hippies who helped Suzuki found Tassajara and who filled the zendo in the city. I look at this briefly. There's a lot more I could say but I decided to think about how to approach the topic better. Then I talk about unusual experience. It ends with a riff on current events.

Are We Part of It or the whole or what? Reading two Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts and commenting then talking about what I'm going to do when this podcast is loaded.

Kokyo (AKA Luminous Owl) Henkel is a Soto Zen priest who came to the SF Zen Center in 1990 and is currently leading a practice period at Green Gulch Farm. He and his wife Shoho Kuebast founded the Bright Window Hermitage on Tassajara Road. Check it out at brightwindowhermitage.weebly.com. In his college years Kokyo was a dedicated Deadhead. Listen to this podcast with him and learn more.

Marta Dabis is the founding priest of Jissoji Zen Ann Arbor with a lot of experience in Buddhist chaplaincy. She practiced at the SF Zen Center for some years starting in 2007. She has had teachers in the Suzuki and Katagiri lineages. Hear all about it in this podcast with her.

This is the second podcast reading examples of Shunryu Suzuki's use of the phrase "most important." He often used the phrase "most important.," usually in "the most important point" or "the most important thing." Reading from a page on cuke.com that includes every instance of  these words in Suzuki  lectures as found in the 2010 transcript collection. There have been additions to the Suzuki lecture archive since then, so this collection should be updated.  You can find it at cuke.com/Cucumber%20Project/lectures/most-important.htm

Bob Watkins and his wife Sandy arrived at Tassajara not long after we bought it and were there for nine months. We hated to see them go. Bob was the work leader in the first practice period and until he departed. Later he was ordained by Kobun Chino and with Kobun co-founded Hokkyoji in Arroyo Seco above Taos, NM. In this podcast I read a piece I wrote on Bob after he died in 2016. It includes many of his memories of Shunryu Suzuki and Kobun Chino.

I first met Jesse Wiens Chu at Tassajara about twenty years ago. Now he and his wife Catherine live around the corner. They both have extensive training in Buddhist practice and are NVC teachers - and more. Learn about them and their practice at babatree.org and check out their book Ongo and ongobook.com. Learn about all that and more in this podcast with Jesse. - dc

Getting irritated by the simplistic approach toward "religion" from famous atheists like Neil deGrasse Tyson, I turn to Chat GPT.  Not incidentally, I love listening to Tyson when he knows what he's talking about. The first time this podcast went up it got corrupted. This is a rectified version.

Getting irritated by the simplistic approach toward "religion" from famous atheists like Neil deGrasse Tyson, I turn to ChatGPT.  Not incidentally, I love listening to Tyson when he knows what he's talking about.

Shunryu Suzuki often used the phrase "most important.," usually in "the most important point" or "the most important thing." In this podcsat DC reads from a page that includes every instance of  these words in Suzuki  lectures as found in the 2010 transcript collection. There have been additions to the Suzuki lecture archive since then, so this collection should be updated.  You can find it at cuke.com/Cucumber%20Project/lectures/most-important.htm

Eiheiji monks chant the Heart Sutra. Shunryu Suzuki's basic meaning of the  kanji from the Sokoji chant care. I play it for a bed-ridden Japanese man raised Soto-shu  in a retirement home.

Dor Ben-Amotz is a science professor who, in this podcast, talks about his experience teaching a course in Buddhism and Meditation at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont. He also speaks about how he got into Buddhism and meditation, his time at Green Gulch Farm, and more. Here's a link to the syllabus on the course he taught: https://cuke.com/pdf-2015/Fun_Buddhism_Slides.pdf

Peter Schneider began sitting at Sokoji in 1963. He was ordained as a priest by Shunryu Suzuki in 1970 and received transmission from Mel Weitsman. He was at Tassajara for the first years as office manager, then director for a few years, Suzuki's attendant. He and his wife Jane got together there. They lived in Japan many years and on their return to America, founded the Beginner's Mind Zen Center in Northridge, CA, part of LA. Peter, born in 1937, died on January 4, 2025. Go to their cuke page for more and for links to the cuke podcasts with them. cuke.com/people...

Pseudo Dionysius was a 5th century Syrian monk who wrote in Greek The Mystical Theology, his most famous work. It's like the Heart Sutra of Christianity, the via negativa, the neti neti (not this not that) of Advaita Vedanta. An appropriate reading for the holiday season.

Michael Stusser founded the Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary in Freestone CA with it's hot cedar enzyme baths. In this podcast he talks about being an apprentice with master gardener Alan Chadwick and with the head gardener of Myoshinji in Kyoto, meeting Shunryu Suzuki, studying with Kobun Chino and Chogyam Trungpa, gardening for years at the Farallones Institute in Occidental CA and more.

This is an encore presentation of a podcast done in January of 2022 with Dennis Marshall who died this November of 2024 just two days before his 93rd birthday. Listen to yesterday's podcast for DC reading his obit from the Crestone Mt Zen Center and his cuke interview. Dennis Marshall was born in Yorkshire, England 93 years ago. About forty years later he went to a lecture at the City Center of the SFZC and was right away sold on Suzuki and the general communal feeling there. About thirty-three years ago he moved to Crestone, Colorado, and since then had been involved...

Dennis Marshall first showed up at the SF Zen Center in 1970. He died in November two days short of 93. In this brief podcast I read the Crestone Mt. ZC news obituary for him and then emails between us that became his Cuke Interview.  His January 2022 Cuke Podcast will  be presented next, hopefully tomorrow. - dc

Betty Warren started practicing with Shunryu Suzuki shortly after he arrived from Japan and continued her practice till she died at 89 in 2006. She was a science teacher, anti-war activist, and vision quester. In this podcast I read an interview I did with her thirty years ago - and more. - dc

Della Goertz began her practice with Shunryu Suzuki soon after he arrived in America in 1959. Herein we read from a notebook she kept with brief quotes and paraphrases from his talks and her encounters with him. There's a great deal on her at cuke.com/people/goertz.htm.

 DC Rap on Refuge - like not taking refuge in our hopes and dreams

On keeping in touch with those who are ill or isolated. Visiting my monk friend. Visiting a Japanese neighbor now in a convalescent clinic, a touching experience. Visiting Katrinka on the way home and sharing her birthday cake. Chatting with ChaptGPT.

Gene DeSmidt was a dear friend of mine and the SF Zen Center who died on October 30th. Gene was a creative builder who left behind a number of sound structures at Tassajara and Green Gulch. He was also a musician who helped me muchly in that realm. He was a great character and a humorous, generous, good-hearted person. Learn more at cuke.com/others/GDS.html and  gofundme.com/f/gene-desmidt-needs-your-help.  - dc

DC riffs on not worrying excessively about undocumented immigrants and the ongoing election.

Susan Ross is an illustrator and artist who worked on Be Here Now. In this podcast she takes us from her native Ohio to Smith College to Woodstock to New Mexico, to Shunryu Suzuki's funeral with Gary Snyder and David Padwa, to Colorado studying with Trungpa Rinpoche. She's in Mexico now still being an artist, practicing Tibetan Buddhism, and working on turtle rescue. Here website is

susanrosscreative.com.

This podcast is a talk I gave and meeting with the All Beings Zen Sangha in Washington DC. On October 19th. Inryu Ponce-Barger is the teacher of this group and their website is allbeingszen.org. The focus of the group right now and therefore of the talk is the Sandokai, an ancient Chinese Zen poem that is chanted at the SF Zen Center. I talk about being at Tassajara when Shunryu Suzuki lectured on it and studying it with him. There's a page on cuke.com for the Sandokai: cuke.com/Cucumber%20Project/lectures/sandokai.htm  - DC