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Top Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

Browse top 27 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by Shunryu Suzuki.

Favorite Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

1. "Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way. In an exact sense, the only thing we actually can study in our life is that on which we are working in each moment. We cannot even study Buddha's words."-"So we should be concentrated with our full mind and body on what we do; and we should be faithful, subjectively and objectively, to ourselves, and especially to our feelings. Even when you do not feel so well, it is better to express how you feel without any particular attachment or intention. So you may say, "Oh, I am sorry, I do not feel well." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
2. "Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
3. "enjoy your problems" ~ Shunryu Suzuki
4. "Even though you try to put people under control, it is impossible. You cannot do it. The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
5. "What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
6. "When something dies is the greatest teaching." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
7. "In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.In our scriptures (Samyuktagama Sutra, volume 33), it is said that there are four kinds of horses: excellent ones, good ones, poor ones, and bad ones. The best horse will run slow and fast, right and left, at the driver's will, before it sees the shadow of the whip; the second best will run as well as the first one does, just before the whip reaches its skin; the third one will run when it feels pain on its body; the fourth will run after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones. You can imagine how difficult it is for the fourth one to learn how to run!" ~ Shunryu Suzuki
8. "Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
9. "We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
10. "When you accept everything, everything is beyond dimensions. The earth is not great nor a grain of sand small. In the realm of Great Activity picking up a grain of sand is the same as taking up the whole universe. To save one sentient being is to save all sentient beings. Your efforts of this moment to save one person is the same as the eternal merit of Buddha." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
11. "Time goes from present to past." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
12. "To live is enough." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
13. "A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, "Why is there so much suffering?"Suzuki Roshi replied, "No reason." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
14. "To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
15. "Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
16. "Christopher McCandless:"I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
17. "While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life. The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas. In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
18. "In your big mind, everything has the same value...In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Here there is Buddhahood" ~ Shunryu Suzuki
19. "Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
20. "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
21. "Everything is perfect and there is always room for improvement." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
22. "If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
23. "The world is its own magic." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
24. "If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
25. "Discipline is creating the situation." ~ Shunryu Suzuki
26. "We must exist right here, right now!" ~ Shunryu Suzuki
27. "When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything." ~ Shunryu Suzuki

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Today's Quote

Don't use yesterday's state of mind, to make today's decision."
Author: C. Nzingha Smith

What Did Shunryu Suzuki Talk About?

Thin
Here
Per
Hen
Wit
Mind
Ear
Act
Thou
Con
Hey
Cannot
Each
Accept
Lit
Body
Ally
Perfect
True

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