Shunryu Suzuki Quotes - Page 3

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• So for a period of time each day, try to sit, without moving, without expecting anything, as if you were in your last moment. Moment after moment you feel your last instant. In each inhalation and each exhalation there are countless instants of time. Your intention is to live in each instant.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Time, Moving, Trying

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• Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Spring, Flower, Past

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• The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Buddhism, Purpose, Study

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.63, Shambhala Publications

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• After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Progress, Trying, Littles

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.31, Shambhala Publications

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• Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Focus, Mind, Trying

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• You must be true to your own way until at last you actually come to the point where you see it is necessary to forget all about yourself.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Way, Lasts, Forget

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.27, Shambhala Publications

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• Don't move. Just die over and over. Don't anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment. Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully. Don't move.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Spiritual, Moving, Enlightenment

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• Take care of things, and they will take care of you.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Care, Take Care

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• What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Moving, Doors, Exhaling

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.11, Shambhala Publications

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• A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, "Why is there so much suffering?" Suzuki Roshi replied, "No reason.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Suffering, Students, Emotion

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• To renounce things is not to give them up. It is to acknowledge that all things go away.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Giving, Going Away, Renounce

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• The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: "What is the First Principle?" Bodhidharma said, "I don't know." "I don't know" is the First Principle.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Chinese, Principles, Scripture

  "Lotus Sutra No. 6". Lecture at the Zen Mountain Center, www.cuke.com. February 1968.

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• When you are just you, without thinking or trying to say something special, just saying what is on your mind and how you feel, then there is naturally self-respect.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Respect, Thinking, Self

  Shunryu Suzuki (1999). “Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai”, p.32, Univ of California Press

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• The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Compassion, Mind, Beginners

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.2, Shambhala Publications

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• When you are fooled by something else, the damage will not be so big. But when you are fooled by yourself, it is fatal. No more medicine.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Medicine, Damage, Bigs

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• So the secret is just to say 'Yes!' and jump off from here. Then there is no problem. It means to be yourself, always yourself, without sticking to an old self.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Being Yourself, Mean, Secret

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• So the most difficult thing is always to keep your beginner's mind. There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say, "I know what Zen is," or "I have attained enlightenment." This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner. Be very very careful about this point. If you start to practice zazen, you will begin to appreciate your beginner's mind. It is the secret of Zen practice.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Art, Real, Practice

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• Time goes from present to past.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Past

  Shunryu Suzuki (2018). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice”, p.16, House of Majied Publications via PublishDrive

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• The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thirsty.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Drinking, Practice, Water

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• The mind we have when we practice zazen is the great mind: we don't try to see anything; we stop conceptual thinking; we stop emotional activity; we just sit. Whatever happens to us, we are not bothered. We just sit. It is like something happening in the great sky. Whatever kind of bird flies through it, the sky doesn't care. That is the mind transmitted from Buddha to us.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Emotional, Thinking, Practice

  Shunryu Suzuki, Mel Weitsman, Michael Wenger (1999). “Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai”, p.30, Univ of California Press

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• The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. The innocence of the first inquiry—what am I?—is needed throughout Zen practice. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Nature, Practice, Doubt

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.14, Shambhala Publications

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• If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Rain, Walks, Ifs

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• Happiness is sorrow; sorrow is happiness. There is happiness in difficulty; difficulty in happiness. Even though the ways we feel are different, they are not really different, in essence they are the same. This is the true understanding transmitted from Buddha to us.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Buddhist, Understanding, Sorrow

  "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice".

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• To find perfect composure in the midst of change is to find nirvana.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Spiritual, Perfect, Midst

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• There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Yesterday, Connections, Moments

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.94, Shambhala Publications

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