Shoes Outside the Door notes

Shoes Outside the Door, by Michael Downing.

A history of the San Francisco Zen Center, founded by Shunryo Suzuki and its rise and near fall at the hands of his successor Richard Baker.

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism:
1. The truth of Suffering, which the truth of existence.
2. The truth of Desire, which is the cause of suffering.
3. The truth of the End of Suffering, which requires the elimination of desire, which is caused by the illusion of permanence.
4. The truth of the Eightfold Path, which is the means by which the elimination of suffering can be accomplished.

• "Suzuki-roshi once said, 'Three things cause problems. One thing - you're always trying to do something. Another thing - you're afraid to do anything because you know it won't work. Third thing - you rely on something.' "
• Grahame was twelve when the minister told the students in his religion class that they couldn't just accept spiritual teachings as they were presented but should find God themselves.
• "It was during that period that I recognized that I had not exactly answered my nagging question, but the questions had quietly gone away."
• "Trying to help often creates more problems than it solves. Sitting in zazen is the easiest, safest way to help yourself and others." - Suzuki-roshi.
• The trick of Buddhism is to get you to sit still long enough to become aware of the causes and effects.
• Long body and the Buddhist assumption of the connectedness, a non-local consciousness.
• "There are a thousand handy phone calls and television stations in this room right now; we just don't have the sensory apparatus to tap into them. Zen assumes that there is a lot going on here that we don't have the apparatus for." - R. Baker.
• "Most of the energy is going into issues of how to live together and not issues of how to transcend the dualistic framework in which we find ourselves in ordinary society. And that is what I understand practice is about -- nondualistic experience and liberation from the normal limitations of social programming." - Steve Allen.
• "Bill had a drinking problem. So we finally go Bill to agree to go to detox, and a woman agreed to drive him there. On the way, they fell in love; they became lovers. The love affair didn't last too long, but it cured Bill of his drinking problem." - Mel Weitzman.
• If you pick up a speck of dust, you pick up all the suffering in the world.
• "I knew then, as I found out later, that truth does not have to do with propositions. It has to do with authenticity of actions." - Willem.
• "people sometimes go mad from doing zazen." - 15th century zen master Muso Soseki.
• "Therefore to make the acquisition and retention of goods or status one's sole aim in life is productive of grief." - Soseki.
  

Books mentioned that I wish to read:

Zen and the Art of Archery
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
Crooked Cucumber, David Chadwick
Three Pillars of Zen, Kapleau
Street Zen, David Scneider's portrait of Issan.
Small is Beautiful, E.F. Schumacher.
Meditation in Action, Trungpa
"Dream Monologues," Chistopher Cleary's translation of Muso Soseki.