Cuke Audio Podcast

Ryuten Paul Rosenblum was a student of Shunryu Suzuki and is the vice abbot of Johanneshof, Richard Baker's retreat in the Black Forest. He lives half time in Germany and half time in Northern California. His website is ryutenpaulrosenblum.com. This is an encore presentation of a podcast from July 2020.

Tatsudo Nicole Baden is a Dharma Successor of Zentatsu Baker in the Dharma Sangha Soto Zen Lineage. She has been practicing Zen since 2001 and received Dharma Transmission in 2017. She graduated as a psychologist from the University of Oldenburg in 2008. She also trained at the ‘School for Body Mind Centering’ for four years. Since 2009 she has been living and practicing either at the Crestone Mou...

Kelly Bernard Chadwick grew up in and around Tassajara, the SFZC City Center, and Green Gulch Farm. He is my older son. His mother is my first wife, Daya Goldschlag, called Dianne back in 1973 when Kelly was born at Green Gulch Farm. Dianne has a Zen group now in Spokane Washington and Kelly is an arborist in Spokane and has a business there called Spirit Pruners - <spiritpruners.com>. In th...

Jane and Peter Schneider are the founding teachers of the Beginner's Mind Zen Center in Northridge, a part of greater Los Angeles. <beginnersmindzencenter.org>They were students of Shunryu Suzuki. This is the third podcast with both of them and the third with Peter. In this podcast we focus on Jane's way-seeking mind story and then branch out to other reminiscences.

Stephan Bodian runs an annual school for awakening. In this podcast he talks about his spiritual path, his teachers including Shunryu Suzuki, Kobun Chino, Taizan Maezumi, Sogyal, and Jean Klein. He's a marriage and family therapist but mainly a teacher of awakening. His website is stephanbodian.org.

Frank Kilmer first meditated with Chogyam Trungpa then Dainin Katagiri then Richard Baker. He studied with other Zen and Tibetan teachers. He lives in Santa Fe where he managed Upaya's plant for some years. He's a a great plumber too. He has a lot of juicy tidbits to share from all these years of Buddhist study and practice. Check him out in this podcast.

Frazer Bradshaw was a student at Tassajara in the summers for years, starting off when he was still a student at the SF Art Inst. He'd made some experimental films and at Tassajara he made his first documentary, Tassajara: a Meditative Portrait at Tassajara in the late nineties. It's in his Vimeo section with 209 others <vimeo.com/frazerbradshaw> and there's a link to it in the film/video se...

Suzanne Suarez Hurley heard Shunryu Suzuki give lectures in 1969 then joined Steve Gaskin as a founding member of the Farm in Tennessee. In 1975 she practiced with Dainin Katagiri in Minneapolis then headed back to SF to practice at the SF Zen Center with Richard Baker. With Baker's blessing she started a sitting group in Florida where she practiced law defending midwives. Through the years she ha...

David Weinstein is the founding teacher of the Rockridge Meditation Community in Oakland, California. (See their Facebook page) He's a teacher in the Pacific Zen Institute and a therapist (check Psychology Today website "Find a therapist.") His spiritual journey started in a bar in Germany. His path led to Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, India, Korea, Japan, Hawaii, and the Bay Area.  Listen to his podc...

Teresa Rivera started reading books about Eastern religion while living in France. She liked them but they didn't tell her what to do, how to practice. She found what she wss looking for when she started sitting with Taisen Deshimaru's group in France. In 1973 she arrived at the San Francisco Zen Center. Before long she was living at Tassajara She practiced for years at Green Gulch and worked for...

Myphon Hunt arrived at the San Francisco Zen Center in the early seventies after five years living at The Farm in Tennessee founded by Steve Gaskin. She's now living at the Enso Village retirement community in Healdsburg north of San Francisco along with other senior Zennies, Vipassana Buddhists, and Quakers. Along the way she spent some time in Dharamsala and Tibet, studying with Joshu Sasaki's g...

Tim Ream came to the SF Zen Center in the nineties. He has continued his Zen practice, alternating between practice periods and periods of environmental activism. He recently published a book Fallen Water: a Novel of Zen and Earth which has an alternate reality Tassajara and the surrounding wilderness as a setting. In this podcast he will talk about the book, his spiritual path and environmental a...

Cindy Beavon came to the SFZC in 2007 going straight to Tassajara. She practiced at Zen Center until 2011 when she had an upsetting experience that made her feel unwelcome. She went back this year for the work interim and once again loved being there. She's a hospice nurse and a professional rock climber which became a deep and fulfilling practice for her. Hear all about it in this podcast with he...

Marc Lesser came to the SFZC in 1974. After ten years with the ZC and being the director of Tassajara, he got an MBA, continued his Zen practice while working with and founding some noble businesses. He founded ZBA Associates to help companies, notably Google, with mindfulness and emotional intelligence training and consultation. He is co-chair of the SFZC Elders Council, is teacher at Mill Valley...

Jon Bernie came to the SF Zen Center in 1973 and practiced there for years. In this podcast he talks about his relationships with Richard Baker, Brother David Steindl Rast, Papaji (Punjaji), Adyashanti, Robert Adams, Mike Murphey of Esalen Inst., psychic Anne Armstrong, and others. He was an Alexander Technique therapist for years and now teaches Inspired Aliveness. His website is inspiredalivenes...

Amber Hoadley was the first baby at Tassajara in the Zen era. In this podcast she talks about growing up at Zen Center, mainly Green Gulch, and her parents, Kathy and Silas Hoadley who were a significant presence in Zen Center in those formative days. Amber also talks about her practice path and more. She will be hosting a memorial for Silas on Father's Day, June 16th from 3-7pm, at the Mostly Nat...

Dan Kaplan came to the SF Zen Center in the mid seventies and plugged away there for ten years. He still lives in the neighborhood and has been a student of David Weinstein in the Yamada/Aitkin lineage for years. He's a LMFT, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. In this podcast he talks about his spiritual and therapist life, Harry Roberts, Lama Govinda, and Vina Yoga too. His website is daniel...

Denis Myo Lahey is the abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco and has been since 2002. He first came to the SF Zen Center in 1970. Listen to this podcast on the path his life has taken.

Tom White is a friend of mine from Texas who visited me at Tassajara with his wife before the first practice period on their way to the Philippines to spend a couple of years there in the Peace Corps. While living on Whidbey Island in the NW US, he got involved with the One Drop Zendo founded by Shodo Harada from Sogenji in Japan. Here about all this and more in this podcast.

This is the third Cuke podcast with Ed Brown is the author of several books, including The Tassajara Bread Book, Tassajara Cooking, No Recipe: Cooking as Spiritual Practice, and he also edited the book of Suzuki Roshi lectures, Not Always So. He was ordained as a Zen priest by Suzuki Roshi in 1971, he received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman in 1996. Ed is the founder and teacher of the Peac...

Zesho Susan O'Connell was ordained and given transmission by Reb Anderson. She was VP and president of the SF Zen Center for ten years. She came up with the idea of the Enso Village retirement community and made it a reality. She had a 25 year career in the film biz before coming to ZC and produced ten ZC related films. She's been instrumental in promoting the ZC digitizing and archiving thousands...

Gil Fronsdal is the senior guiding co-teacher at the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) in Redwood City, California and the Insight Retreat Center in Santa Cruz, California. He started Buddhist practice in 1975 at the San Francisco Zen Center, and has been teaching for IMC since 1990. Gil is an authorized teacher in two traditions: the Insight Meditation lineage of Theravada Buddhism of Southeast Asi...

Tai Sheridan showed up at the SFZC in the late sixties. He practiced at Tassajara in 1971 and later at Green Gulch Farm. He was close to Mel Weitsman and the Berkeley Zendo for years. while He's written many books including Buddha in Blue Jeans that are available  for free as ebooks. Recently he created a distillation of his writings into five books available from cuke.com for free download. He en...

Ned Hoke was on Esalen Inst. staff when Shunryu Suzuki led a two day workshop there in 1968. After that, Ned came to Tassajara in the summers as a student. He's been an acupuncturist for forty years. In this podcast he talks about that, we talk about Bolinas, he tells about bringing Suzuki's headstone up to the hogback.

Steve Silberman came to the SF Zen Center in 1979 and worked with me, DC, at Greens Restaurant.. He's a writer for Wired Magazine. He talks about his bestselling Neurotribes: the Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. He also wrote Skeleton Key A Dictionary for Deadheads. He talks about all this and more in this podcast. He has done his homework.