Awakening the Archive
The Awakening the Archive series is a year-long project that celebrates the release of the new Suzuki Roshi audio archive, and helps open the pathways for the sangha to engage with this great resource.
Every two weeks, a significant or newly-discovered Suzuki Roshi talk is featured here with an in-depth article giving context, history, and connections. Many of these featured talks will be drawn from the more than two-dozen newly discovered recordings, and several of these you might recognize as the basis for chapters of the books Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and Not Always So.
These articles are written by Shundo David Haye, a staff audio engineer and core team member of Engage Wisdom for many years, who is also a Zen priest and teacher in Suzuki Roshi's lineage. Shundo has selected and sequenced the bi-weekly release of these specific talks to highlight the most interesting and significant moments in the collection of Suzuki Roshi's recorded voice.
Title |
Date![]() |
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Reflections on the Prajna Paramita Sutra===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #19, by Shundo David Haye ===== This is the talk that was chosen by the Wind Bell... |
Aug 24, 1967Tassajara |
Buddhism Is Not a Special Teaching; Enlightenment Is Not a Particular Stage===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #17, by Shundo David Haye ===== About half way through this sesshin talk, you can start to hear crickets in the background, getting louder over the remaining... |
Aug 23, 1967Tassajara |
To Polish A Tile Is Our Practice Actually===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #18, by Shundo David Haye ===== Further to the date confusion and missing talks discussed last time, it seems that even Suzuki Roshi lost track of time during... |
Aug 23, 1967Tassajara |
Genjo Koan no 2===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #16, by Shundo David Haye ===== This third talk from the historic inaugural sesshin at Tassajara in 1967, given the day after the first two, is divided into... |
Aug 21, 1967Tassajara |
Genjo Koan===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #14, by Shundo David Haye ===== The acquisition of Tassajara in 1967 was a huge leap for Zen Center. Suzuki Roshi had long been interested in finding a... |
Aug 20, 1967MorningTassajara |
When You Have A New Experience===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #15, by Shundo David Haye ===== This talk was given later on the same day of the first Tassajara sesshin as the last one discussed (... |
Aug 20, 1967EveningTassajara |
We Are Always Helping Others===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #13, by Shundo David Haye ===== This tape is, happily, the last of the messed-up recordings from the first half of 1966. It is the first of two talks from the... |
Jul 23, 1966BSokoji |
Real Calmness Is In A Noisy Place===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #12, by Shundo David Haye ===== This talk is another example of a track that was somehow overlooked for many years, while the two other talks on the same reel... |
Mar 26, 1966Sokoji |
Genjo Koan continued===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #11, by Shundo David Haye ===== In the spring of 1966, having previously spent a number of years primarily lecturing on the Blue Cliff Record, Suzuki Roshi... |
Mar 13, 1966Sokoji |
Tokusan and The Old Lady===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #8, by Shundo David Haye ===== At Zen Center, responsibilities get passed on from person to person regularly. One part of traditional Zen training is that a... |
Feb 19, 1966pmSokoji |
Tokusan and The Old Lady===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #10, by Shundo David Haye ===== This is another track from the same problematic reel as the previous two talks in this series. Initially, it seemed to be a... |
Feb 19, 19661:00pmSokoji |
Where There is Some Limitation, There is Universality===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #9, by Shundo David Haye ===== This talk is found on the same reel as the one previously discussed (... |
Feb 18, 1966Sokoji |
Beginner's Mind===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #1, by Shundo David Haye ===== When this particular, otherwise unremarkable, reel was photographed as part of Engage Wisdom’s archiving process, unlike... |
Nov 11, 1965Los Altos |
Study Yourself===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #4, by Shundo David Haye ===== "I always felt his best Zen talks were the ones he gave on Thursday mornings in my home. They were spontaneous, succinct... |
Sep 09, 1965Los Altos |
Calmness===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #3, by Shundo David Haye ===== In this talk, which became the Calmness chapter of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (p121), Suzuki Roshi starts with a Japanese... |
Aug 26, 1965Los Altos |
Pure Rules===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #6, by Shundo David Haye ===== The value of these sets of recordings during sesshins in the summer of 1965 at Sokoji is that not only were the formal dharma... |
Jul 28, 19659:00amSokoji |
Lunch Instruction===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #7, by Shundo David Haye ===== This is a second short instruction from the same day of sesshin as the Pure Rules talk (... |
Jul 28, 196512:00Sokoji |
Forgotten the Value of Religion===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #5, by Shundo David Haye ===== The oldest recordings of Suzuki Roshi made at Sokoji, the home of the San Francisco Zen Center at the time, come from a week-... |
Jul 27, 19651:00pmSokoji |
Wisdom Seeks For Wisdom===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #2, by Shundo David Haye ===== Among the tapes previously known to exist in the Zen Center archives, the earliest were from a sesshin held at the end of July... |
Jul 22, 1965Los Altos |