Cuke Audio Podcast

June Crow began her study and practice of Buddhism in l968 when she met Shunryu Suzuki. She was known as June Omura back then. I, DC, remember her from Tassajara in the early seventies. She met Chogyam Trungpa of the Tibetan Kagyu and Nyingma lineage at Tassajara and became his student and a meditation instructor and teacher with his group. She’s still actively teaching with it today, living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Trungpa moved his Shambhala center long ago. Hear about this and more in this podcast conversation with June and me.

Bob Halpern began attending session at Sokoji with Shunryu Suzuki in 1965 while living in LA where he helped Taizan Maezumi get his zendo going. He and I were best friends and troublemakers at Tassajara and sometimes in the city. We went over all that thoroughly in a podcast years ago. In this podcast he tells about becoming a Chogyam Trungpa student in 1971 and being his first personal attendant. He brings us up to the present time where he finally calmed down and for twenty years has been running morning and early evening meditation for the Shambhala group in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Trungpa moved his center to in 1986.

This is a follow-up podcast with Robert Britton, Bob to me, in which he focuses, using his many decades of applying the Alexander technique to sitting. He was at the SF Zen Center for ten years. He became an Alexander teacher and still is. For 39 years he applied what he’d learned from the Alexander technique at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music helping musicians sit, hold and use their instruments so that they don’t create physical problems. He’s helped many people at Zen Center and beyond in how to sit, stand, walk in a healthy way. Learn about Bob Britton and sitting—and more—in this podcast with him.

Robert Britton, Bob to me, was at the SF Zen Center for ten years. He became an Alexander teacher and still is. For 39 years he applied what he’d learned from the Alexander method (if I can call it that) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music helping musicians sit, hold. and use their instruments so that they don’t create physical problems. He’s helped many people at Zen Center and beyond in how to sit, stand, walk in a healthy way. Learn about it in this podcast with him.

Mary Mocine had visited Tassajara a couple of times but her first practice experience was at a mindfulness retreat with Yvonne Rand at Green Gulch. She was at Zen Center for a number of years and in this podcast she also shares experiences with various teachers and temples in Japan. She had a sitting group in Vallejo for a couple of decades.

Rick McDaniel has written nine books on Zen, the last of which is to be published by Monkfish title Original Face. He’s done hundreds of interviews with Zen folks all over America and Canada where he lives. His website is titled Richard Bryan McDaniel - Zen Conversations and Profiles and is found at rbmcdaniel.ca. Listen to the podcast and learn how all this came to be.

John Liles is a long time student of the Atlanta Zen Center. In this podcast we hear about it and its founder Soyu Matsuoka and he tells about an inspiring time he had for a month at Tassajara this recent summer.

Every day for many years, we at Cuke Archives have posted daily lecture excerpts. They're all over the place in terms of representing Suzuki's teaching, how much context is missing, or how appealing they are. I comment on all this. - DC

Barrie Mottishaw is a landscape artist who spent years at the Jones Farm on Quadra Island, a Zen community that was started by students at the San Francisco Zen Center. Learn about that and more in this podcast with her.

Ted Howell came to the SFZC in the mid-seventies and stuck around a long time. In this podcast, part two of two, he talks about his time at the SF Zen Center and a good deal more..

Peter Ford started helping with Cuke Archives in 2012, maybe earlier. Not sure. Since the day he started he's been pretty much full time. For a number of years he's been the Managing Director of Cuke Archives. Thanks to Peter I can concentrate on special projects. In the podcast we talk about the work he's done and his way-seeking mind story. Nine bows to Peter for all he's done and continues doing. - dc

August 17, 2025, 80th anniversary of Indonesia 's Independence from the Netherlands. Ketut, Kadek, and I attend a sunrise concert of jazz great Indra Lesmana at the beach in front of Bali Beach Hotel and I DC reminisce about when Katrinka and I used to live in that area and free associate some.