The Fireplace Records, Chapter 22
Suzuki Walks in the Fog
Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971) lived in San Francisco for many years. He was the Zen Master who was the founder of the Zen Centers in San Francisco and Carmel Valley. Many of his students in California became influential Zen Buddhist teachers and authors.
San Francisco often has heavy fog cover in the summer, and the Willamette Valley in Oregon has very heavy fog cover in the winter. The Central Valleys of California can have very heavy Tule ground fog cover in the winter. Normally, clouds and rainfall come in the winter on the West Coast of the USA, and the summer's are dry and clear - a Mediterranean Climate.
Suzuki was a skillful teacher, working with a variety of students: monks and householders. His Zen Centers also developed programs for end of life hospice care, AIDS help, food programs, retreats, Temple services, drug rehabilitation, monk training, etc.
A key to his success, besides in enlightened teaching and kindness, was his ability to be patient, stay the course, work day by day, be dedicated, and encourage others to persist in their spiritual practices. Progress is patience, work, and letting go of attachments to "success" in your spiritual endeavors.
"After you have practiced for awhile, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you may try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If you mind has ideas of progress, you may say, "Oh, this pace is terrible!" But actually, it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress."
- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, p. 41
A Student’s Considerations:
Learning to play a musical instrument, cook, garden, or whatever, requires
patience, practice, and steady slow progress.
Don't Rush so often. Slow down. Lower your pace.
Tortoise and Hare: Slow/Fast, Jogging/Sprinting.
Be careful of your commitments in terms of available time.
Take a walk, safely, in the dense fog - in a world erased.
Be committed and soak up the wisdom of the Masters!
Just Do It! Don't worry about progress.
Persist, struggle forward, persevere like the sturdy Carp swimming upstream
through a waterfall, passing through the Dragon's Gate, and then becoming
a Royal Dragon. We have watched salmon migrating upstream to their
Original Home, and facing their Great Death that gives life to others.
Related Links, Resources, References
Pulling Onions Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo
Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans
Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood
Brief Spiritual Lessons Database Project: Subject Indexes
Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans
(This is an ongoing project in the Spring of 2023)
Sparks: Brief Spiritual Lessons and Stories
Matches to Start a Kindling of Insight
May the Light from Your Inner Fireplace Help All Beings
Taoist, Chan Buddhist, Zen Buddhist, Philosophers
Catching Phrases, Inspiring Verses, Koans, Meditations
Indexing, Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo
The Fireplace Records
By Michael P. Garofalo
