10 Buddhist books everyone should read, as selected by the editors of Lion's Roar. After the Ecstasy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield (Bantam, 2000) According to Jack Kornfield, enlightenment does exist and is even pretty common. The rub is that after achieving it, day-to-day tasks and troubles still await you. This is a guide to translating our spiritual [...]
Wherever You Are, Enlightenment Is There
"Even in our imperfect practice enlightenment is there," says Suzuki Roshi,"We just don’t know it." In our practice the most important thing is to realize that we have buddhanature. Intellectually we may know this, but it is rather difficult to accept. Our everyday life is in the realm of good and bad, the realm of duality, while buddhanature is found in the realm of the [...]
Remembering Shunryu Suzuki
The great teacher who founded the San Francisco Zen Center and played a historic role in the establishment of Buddhist practice in the West was born on this day in 1904. Lewis Richmond remembers him. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi has had an enormous influence on the growth of buddhadharma in the West. Yet when he came to San Francisco in 1959, he had no plans, no grand strategy—only a [...]
Mind Waves
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind is the seminal work by San Francisco Zen Center founder Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. In this chapter alone he explains: how to practice zazen, the difference between small and big mind, and the true nature of thoughts. When you are practicing Zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, [...]
This Life, Which is Wonderful and Evanescent
"One of the Buddha's most significant teachings is impermanence. But actually that is just how things are—anything, anytime, anywhere. To live in harmony with this truth brings great happiness." A teaching by the late Zen pioneer Zenkei Blanche Hartman, who died in May 2016. If you think about it, it's awesomely, amazingly wonderful just to be alive! It's a wonderful [...]
Recipes for an Autumn Dinner
Edward Espe Brown, Zen teacher and author of the famed Tassajara cookbooks, offers four recipes for colorful, nourishing, seasonal meals: All Orange Winter Squash Soup With Dried Apricots, Mushroom Crepes With Mushroom Sauce, Watercress with Apple and Raisins, and Pear Crisp with Cardamom. One of the best ways people connect with each other is by eating together. "May I offer [...]
Suzuki-roshi at Tassajara
Buddhism in The West changed forever the day in 1959 when an obscure Zen priest named Shunryu Suzuki landed in California. As word spread in the vibrant world of San Francisco bohemia of a true Zen master in their midst, students who wanted more than just the words of Zen gathered around the small Soto monk to learn the practice of meditation. Through the outstanding students [...]
Zen pioneer Zenkei Blanche Hartman Roshi dies
Zenkei Blanche Hartman, Senior Dharma Teacher of San Francisco Zen Center, has died. [Note: this post has now been updated to include an official statement from SFZC about Hartman's life and how the community will mark her passing.] On the morning of Friday, May 13, David Zimmerman, Head of Practice at SFZC's City Center, confirmed for LionsRoar.com Hartman's passing: Our [...]
The Place Where Your Heart is Kept
Mitsu Suzuki died on January 9th, at age 101. Norman Fischer tells the story of how a Japanese schoolteacher born in 1914, made a home for herself in American Zen. In the summer of 2010, I went with a group of close students and friends on pilgrimage to Japan. We spent a week at Rinso-in, the original temple of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, founder of San Francisco Zen [...]
What is “beginner’s mind”?
Illustration by Nolan Pelletier. As Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi famously said, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” When we start to learn anything for the first time, we are fresh, curious, and open to all possibilities. Our mind is not yet solid with concepts, opinions, and certainties. This beginner’s mind is awakened mind [...]